Don't Let the Fear of Your Idea Being Stolen Hold You Back

Don't Let the Fear of Your Idea Being Stolen Hold You Back

Stephen Key

I am truly amazed by how afraid some inventors are. They fear that someone is going to steal their million-dollar idea. They assume that every company is eagerly lying in wait, ready to rip them off.

This ugly point of view rears its head everywhere I look, from conversations on LinkedIn groups to YouTube comments. These entrepreneurs are quick to declare that companies will steal your idea. Why would they pay us for our ideas, they ask.

This thinking is not only annoying and counterproductive, but also simply untrue. I have been licensing my ideas for over 30 years. I’ve submitted hundreds of my ideas to companies without any trouble. For the past 13 years, I’ve been teaching inventors how to license their own ideas. Not one of my students has ever had their idea stolen.

Knowing how the game is played is a lot more beneficial than trembling with unfounded anxiety. Being concerned and careful is smart. After all, it’s perfectly legal for a company to try to work around your idea. You must account for that!

Many companies have embraced open innovation. These companies are actively seeking out product ideas from inventors. The reason why is simple. At the same time that a company is able to lower its internal R&D costs, it magnifies its chances of finding its next great idea. Reviewing inventors’ ideas costs next to nothing.

Do you know what does cost companies, though? Ripping off an inventor. The bottom line is that it’s not in a company’s best interest to steal ideas. For one, what company wants that kind of negative press? There’s also the potential of a lawsuit. Finally, stealing an inventor’s idea effectively closes the door on open innovation.

However, let me be clear. It’s our job to protect our ideas effectively with intellectual property. I’m not naïve. There are companies out there that will definitely try to work around your idea if you give them an opportunity to. These companies haven’t truly embraced open innovation, which is their loss. You can protect yourself from these kinds of companies by filing intellectual property that stops workarounds.

Stop giving in to your fear and follow the steps below to protect yourself instead.

1. Do a thorough prior art search.
You can hire an outside firm to do this, but you should also search for prior art yourself, because it’s you who must become an expert. Familiarize yourself with all of the relevant intellectual property that has come before you. Find your innovation’s uniqueness.

2. Learn about manufacturing processes.
There are many ways of doing this, including watching YouTube videos and visiting manufacturing facilities. How will your product be made? What are all of the ways it can be made? You need to know. Designing a product that cannot be manufactured is a grave mistake. You may need to hire an engineer to work with you. Make sure to have anyone you discuss your invention with sign a non-disclosure agreement and a work-for-hire agreement.

3. Study up.
Read your industry’s trade magazines. What new materials are being used? Where is the industry headed? Consider attending a tradeshow and/or a seminar. You need to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening.

4. Be selective about what companies you choose to work with.
Is the company inventor-friendly? Has it licensed an idea before? Are there any lawsuits or complaints that come up when you Google the company? Do your homework.

5. Maintain a paper trail.
Put everything in writing.

6. Don’t give anyone a reason to try to work around you.
If you ask for too much up front, the company will be less inclined to work with you. Be reasonable.

7. Think ahead.
When I write my own provisional patent applications, I try to steal my idea from myself. I think, if a company were to steal this from me, how would it? I think about manufacturing processes and materials.

Don’t let fear control your actions. Take responsibility. We’re entrepreneurs, after all. Risk is inherent.

20 Inspiring Quotes on How to Build a Successful Startup

20 Inspiring Quotes on How to Build a Successful Startup

THOMAS OPPONG

Startups have always been hard. Even when you think you are putting in your best, it may not be enough to pull it off. Truthfully, most people fail. But don't give up on your dream just yet. If you really believe that you have something amazing to share with the world (and there is a market for it), go for it. Don't be discouraged by the number of times you have tried and failed, but be inspired by the number of people who have failed and bounced back as successful entrepreneurs.

Here are some of the most important insights from amazing founders on building a great startup.

1."User experience is everything. It always has been, but it's still undervalued and under-invested in. If you don't know user-centered design, study it. Hire people who know it. Obsess over it. Live and breathe it. Get your whole company on board."
–Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter

2. “No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long-term if you don’t have a sufficiently good product.”
–Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator and co-founder of Loopt

3. “The product that wins is the one that bridges customers to the future, not the one that requires a giant leap.”
–Aaron Levie, co-founder of Box

4. “The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%.”
–Rob Kalin, co-founder of Etsy

5. “Mistakes will not end your business. If you are nimble and willing to listen to constructive criticism you can excel by learning and evolving.”
–Meridith Valiando Rojas, co-founder and CEO of DigiTour Media

6. “Make your team feel respected, empowered and genuinely excited about the company’s mission.”
–Tim Westergren, co-founder of Pandora

7. “Make something people want” includes making a company that people want to work for.” –Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gumroad.

8. “As an entrepreneur, you have to be OK with failure. If you’re not failing, you’re likely not pushing yourself hard enough."
–Alexa von Tobel, founder of LearnVest

9. “Unless you are a fortune-teller, long-term business planning is a fantasy.”
–Jason Fried, founder of 37signals

Related: 10 Quotes From Entrepreneurial Icons That Will Inspire You to Crush 2015

10. “The strategy is to first know what you don’t know, the tactic is to grind, and the value is to remember: there are plenty of places to innovate.”
–David Friedberg, founder of Weatherbill

11. “Even if you don’t have the perfect idea to begin with, you can likely adapt.” 
–Victoria Ransom, co-founder of Wildfire Interactive

12. “Micromanage the process, not the people.”
–Joe Apfelbaum, co-founder of Ajax Union

13. “The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.”
–Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce

14. “Bad shit is coming. It always is in a startup. The odds of getting from launch to liquidity without some kind of disaster happening are one in a thousand. So don’t get demoralized.”
–Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator

15. “Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.”
–Anthony Volodkin, founder, Hype Maching

16. “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
–Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors

17. “I think not focusing on money makes you sane, because in the long run it can probably drive you crazy."
–Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram

18. “We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.”
–Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup

19. “Don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession.”
–Mark Cuban, serial entrepreneur and investor

20. “Sustaining a successful business is a hell of a lot of work, and staying hungry is half the battle.”
–Wendy Tan White, co-founder and CEO of MoonFruit

Failure hurts, but it's your response to it that matters.

7 Startup Habits Worth Keeping No Matter How Big Your Business Grows

7 Startup Habits Worth Keeping No Matter How Big Your Business Grows

ALICE DEFAULT

Your startup is not meant to be a startup forever. Eventually, it’s meant to become a larger company with a more sustainable plan of action. And as you move further along that road, you will undergo a lot of changes.

Most of these changes will be for the better. No more working from coffee shops or living rooms, no more late nights fixing bugs, larger teams and more resources, less financial insecurity, more customers and the ability to plan the future better.

But there are also things that helped your business move forward that you shouldn’t try to change. These things defined your culture and strengthened your team when you began. They will still work for you, even when everything else is growing.

Here are the seven startup habits that you should never lose.

1. Experiment and take risks
Since startups don’t really know what will work for them, they are constantly experimenting, trying out new things, tracking and iterating on the things that work. As a larger company, there is a big chance that you will already have figured out things that work for you and things that just don’t. That is no reason to stop innovating or experimenting on new things as the market around you evolves.

Coca-Cola, for example, splits its advertising budget in three. They use 70 percent of it to do things they know work well, 20 percent to try things that are a bit more risky or iterate on past successful experimentations, and the last 10 percent to go for crazy experiments on that could fail completely. This enables them to stay on top of advertising innovation as the largest beverage company in the world while ensuring they’re not risking everything.

2. Keep mixing and matching jobs
Remember when there was only three or four people on your team? Everybody had to wear several hats. Multitasking in your company remains a great way to boost innovation and enhance team collaboration as you grow. Someone who understands what their colleague’s job is really like, and what he or she does on a daily basis, can work better with them.

Have your customer service people sit in on product meetings, mix marketing and sales, invite your engineers to do customer support. Companies like Amazon or Freshbooks have all their employees, whatever their job title or spot in the organization, do customer support on a regular basis. It keeps them focused on the things that really matter.

Related: The Case for Making Sales Reps Frontline Marketers

3. Have lunch and coffee together
This isn't trivial. Finding moments to talk with your team outside of meetings is crucial to your business. Going through an agenda can be long, annoying and a limit on the exchanges that spark creativity.

Lunch or coffee breaks are the perfect opportunity to brainstorm on new projects or challenges while catching up on what everyone is working on. You will create a better understanding inside of your company of each person’s job and role. With better understanding also comes better cooperation and better company culture.

At Evernote, the entire top management team takes turns at the office coffee shop making drinks for everyone. The weekly schedule is shared so that everyone can have a chance to catch up with any top management over a drink.

4. Stay close to your users
As a startup, your first users are always really dear to your heart. You cherish them and follow all of their ups and downs on your product. But as you grow, the risk is that you stop caring about them so much. Your first customer will always mean something to you, but do you feel the same about your 1,000th customer, your 10,000th, your 100,000th?

Make sure you never lose focus that your customers are the reason why your business is growing. When it launched  in 2009, inDinero started to take a few hours every week to call every single customer who churned the previous week. Five years later, they still do it to make sure they always stay connected with their users and understand what’s working or not for them.

Related: How to Attract (and Keep) Your First 100 Customers

5. Stay transparent
Information usually flows easily inside of a startup. Because there are not many of you, it’s easy for the CEO as well as for the employees to regularly catch up with everyone and stay on top of everything that’s happening. This gets harder and harder as a company grows.

To face this, companies like Stripe and Buffer have chosen to go for full transparency with shared email addresses and displayed dashboards, letting everyone have access to all the information they need at all times. Buffer’s metrics, salaries, and revenues are actually public for everyone to see. No secrets are kept and everyone can be fully involved in the mission of the company.

Regular team meetings are a great way to share information in both directions, from employees to CEO and CEO to employees. Google and Zappos have weekly or monthly team meetings where the entire company is invited to join the CEO for AMA sessions. All questions are permitted.

6. Keep things simple
As your company grows, you will have access to more resources, hire more employees and have more customers asking you more and more things. In this case, the temptation is high to keep adding on to your product with new features and additional use cases. However, the simplest products are usually those who will win over customers. Before adding this new “never-seen-before” plug-in, remember when you were keeping it simple. Ask yourself if it’s really necessary.

The team at Box, for example, is always sure to simplify their product as much as possible, from customer signup to in-app experience. They believe that staying clutter-free is what customers are looking for. This doesn’t mean that their product does less, it just means that complexity is hidden as much as possible from the end-user.

7. Stop planning, start doing
Startups often need to make do with what they have, which usually is not a lot. This pushes them to do instead of think. This lets them adapt quickly to any new situation, allowing them to move faster than larger companies.

Of course, as companies grow, more thorough planning becomes necessary for everything to run smoothly. You’ll have more people to manage, more projects to run and more people to report to. But this shouldn’t take you away from actual “doing”, “making”, “building”.

To avoid over-thinking things, the growth team at Hubspot put in place a very effective growth process to track all their actions. Now that it’s up and running, they only allow themselves one meeting on Mondays to plan the week ahead. All the other days are exclusively focused on doing.

In the end, it’s all about finding and keeping the habits that work for you. That starts by never forgetting the things that worked for you when you were small and got you where you are today.

You Have the P.O.W.E.R. to Start a Business While Working Your Day Job

You Have the P.O.W.E.R. to Start a Business While Working Your Day Job

ISRAEL IDONIJE
Founder and CEO of ATHLiTACOMiCS

I believe anyone can accomplish great things. Regardless of who you are or where you’re from, if you have an idea, you can make it happen. This approach to life has helped me to achieve goals and accomplishments far beyond the NFL, including starting my own business while still playing football. I used my power approach, not the same power I might have used on the field, but a simple five-step mantra to help anyone start a business.

1. Plan.
I knew it was important to transition to self-employment before my career in the NFL ended. I started my venture as an entrepreneur while playing for the Chicago Bears. The number one key to that transition is having a strong, flexible plan. Launching a new endeavor while still employed full time allows you to take your time and test the waters to gauge its potential for success. And most importantly adjust for the next play.

2. Originate.
Being original and innovative is a key aspect of anything I do. I combined in a unique way two worlds that I enjoy immensely, sports and comics. Athlitacomics’ mission is to inspire, unite and entertain the world with dazzling art and stories. When figuring out where to start, the first place to look is at your passions and what problems might need solving in that platform. Be willing to reverse assumptions, study your industry’s history or look outside what you know.

3. Willingness.
Turning ideas into reality takes serious work! My spare time was spent working on bringing my business plan to life and persisting even when I was turned down. There was a lot of sacrifices involved to get to where I am today. An abundance of great ideas are out there, but it’s the action that is often lacking. You need to be willing to put in the work and face criticism.

4. Evolve.
At one point with my Sports Heroes property, I had to shift gears to get to the real opportunity. Be prepared to change course, tweak or transform as needed to position your idea for the best possible launch. Keep in mind that many of the most successful companies exist in a form that is completely different from how they were first imagined.

5. Resources.
Put together the best possible team and/or gather the needed essentials before you start operating. Create a list of what you’ll need and its associated cost. Some requirements on my list included branding, an online presence and communications. No matter the size of your business, you’ll need a few essentials to get up and running and to demonstrate professionalism to your target audience.

You don’t need to quit your day job right now to start your own business. You just need the right plan, some original thinking, the willingness to do it, the ability to evolve and the right resources. That is the power behind my business.

Source : The Entrepreneur

The Man I Married: by Asibor Hilary Osoria.

The Man I Married; by Asibor Hilary Osoria.

My name is Shaw, I am 54 years old. This is my True Life Story.

I met this guy sometime in May 2007 through my late husband. This man happened to be my husband’s closest friend and confidant who became part of my family as a result of the closeness. We were very close and I got to know him as a very humble man. During my mourning period he was very supportive and was always available for my family. Even when my husband’s family tried to rubbish me and keep me in the dark, not wanting me to know the next plan of action, he, my late husband’s friend was always by me.

After the mourning period, as expected, I was frustrated and confused. I prayed and cried. My husband with all the plans he had for us his family, died so prematurely though he was ill for long. A lot of people suggested that Joe, my husband’s closest friend should marry me, even though my husband’s family strongly kicked against the idea on the ground that their late brother kept a lot of wealth for us and they are in the best position to decide who marries me and consequently controls our family business.

The battle was tough but eventually the elders of both families (my husband’s and mine) sat down and decided that I should be given the opportunity to make a choice. They also suggested to me as a way of recommendation that Joe is the best for me, being that he has worked with my husband diligently and understood my husband’s plan for my family.

I decided to hear from him, to see if he could really convince me beyond reasonable doubt that he will be a great husband. We met several times and I got to know a lot about him. He happens to come from a humble background. He is a caring person and fun to be with.

Eventually we got married in May 2010.

He had earlier on played the role of a father to my kids while my husband was very ill and I was impressed.

Along the line, I started seeing some personal traits that was not obvious in the beginning. For instance, he does not respond to family issues on time. When I have issues with neighbours, even when they beat our kids outside, he will never bulge. I complained of this attitude severally but he always ignored me. Many times, my kids were sent away from school because of school fees and other times because of very poor performance in exams.

Now it has been four years since we got married. I have checked our general condition as a family and I came to realise that we have not made much progress after all. Our family wealth has been distributed amongst those who stood by my present husband during the death of my late husband. They have virtually left nothing for my children and me. My kids fall sick regularly and never have access to good medical care. My first son failed WAEC and my findings showed that it was because we could not afford good lesson teacher for him, unlike our neighbour’s son who had 7As and 3Bs in same exams.

With all these in my mind, I have become very cold towards him. He has refused to change but he never fails to say sorry for not doing the right things even when everything is under is command. I am sick and tired of complaining without any changes.

Lest I forget, there is this man who has always asked for my hand in marriage, even before I met my late husband. But I have remained sceptical about him. Something tells me that he will be a bully and will turn our relationship to that of a good master and servant. I feel this way about him because he was my late sister’s husband. Though, my sister and her family were always protected by him from neighbours and intruders. He never failed to flog any child that misbehaved even when his wife begged for mercy on the child’s behalf.

He always paid his children’s school fees and he always made sure that everybody had access to medical care. Nobody complained of lack but you will be thought a lesson if you wasted a grain of rice.

My sister’s problem with him was that he never allowed her to buy expensive jewelleries. She was not allowed to spend her holidays in expensive cities around the world even when they could afford it, and was always interested in how she spends the family money. My sister never liked it.

But I noticed that my sister was always happy and had a very high self-esteem. She never complained of neglect, not even for once. She never complained that her husband was seeing someone else. She said her husband always let her know before spending money from their family purse. At a point we felt her husband was over working himself for his family.

In 2009 while my late husband was still alive, some miscreants came threatening my family and requesting that we should start living our life in a certain way. They were so serious with the threat to the extent that one of my late husband’s security men was killed. This did not go down well with my late husband so he ordered for the arrest of the gang leader. But during his arrest, he was killed by friends and colleagues of my husband’s security man who was earlier killed by the gang. The death of this gang leader brought a sudden stop to the threat and misbehaviour of those miscreants.

Disaster struck!

Few years down the line, after the death of my late husband, the group came back with an unprecedented force with the aim of putting my family on bended knees. They killed many of my present husband’s security men. They destroyed our properties and caused great fear in my family. At this point, we were unable to go on with our daily activities without fear. Our finance started to nose-dive.

Now, instead of my husband to seat down and plan on how to tackle these guys, he will rather start trading blames. He blames his problem on anybody that criticises his miscalculated decisions.

Today, most of our business partners have stopped doing business with us. Some say our environment is no longer secure, while others accuse my husband of corruption and lack of management skill.

Moment of decision,

In our culture, a woman is expected to review her marriage every four years and decide whether to continue or marry someone else. This happens to be the year and I am deeply worried, not knowing what to do. Should I give my husband another four years or marry my late sister’s husband?

Please advise.

This Writer is a Nigerian based in Nigeria, he can be reached via chlimited247gmail. chlimited247@gmail.com 

THE MAN YOU MUST NEVER MEET!

THE MAN YOU MUST NEVER MEET!

I heard this story from a preacher several years ago and the lesson it teaches is as relevant today as it was then.

There was once an accomplished, globally renowned organist. His skills on the various forms of pipe and electric organs were unrivalled. He was a much sought-after performer at government and inter-governmental functions all over the world. And as his fame and accolade grew, so did his bank account.

But in a very quiet recess of his heart there was something that was yearning for more. For more diligence in reaching deeper to become even better at what he did. And for more effort in discovering why he had been so extraordinarily blessed by the gift he had. But his busy schedule and growing demand for his services did not give him too much time to reflect on the quiet yearning of his heart. Just around this period, he was declared the ‘Man of the Year’ by the global TIME magazine – he had reached the zenith of accomplishment.

He died shortly afterwards and found himself in an unending tunnel of light. As he walked along, he heard a melodious music coming from somewhere down the tunnel. He quickened his pace toward the source of the music, for he was enthralled by the quality of the music he was hearing. “Yeah, that’s the level of music I would have loved to play on earth; that was what my mind kept nudging me towards.” He said to himself as he got to a bend and saw the man playing the music in the distance.

Half running now, he got to the man, stood behind him and listened intently to the music he would have loved to play on earth. Summoning up courage, he tapped the shoulder of the man playing the organ, and got the shock of his life! For as the man looked up, our friend saw that the man that had been playing the organ is himself! As the two men stared at each other, an angel appeared and cleared up the confusion.

He turned to the man that had just arrived and said, “The man you saw playing the organ is the prototype of who God created you to be. And the music you heard him playing is the music that God created you to play. God wanted to be worshipped on earth with that level of quality of music, and He created you specifically to fill that purpose. But you got to the world, and allowed the adulation and reward of men to distract you from becoming who you were created to be. Here is the man you should have been, but you fell short of the standard and purpose for your creation.”

LESSON: The man you must NEVER meet - is the man you were created to be. Who were you created to be? What exactly did God have in mind when he formed you? Are you fulfilling that purpose today? Do you even know the purpose? Have you been distracted by the adulation of man? Have you allowed the pursuit of wealth to take you off course? Are you constantly going back to God to get your bearing that you are on course? If you died tonight (God forbid) would you be the man you were meant to be, or would you meet the man you were meant to be? Please reflect deeply while you still have the opportunity to do so.

“So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Matthew 25:28-29)

Friends, this is indeed how to get ready for the second coming of Jesus Christ. God bless.

Anonymous

Why Smart People Make Bad Entrepreneurs

One of the most counterintuitive traits that can hurt entrepreneurs is smarts.

Yes, the more successful you are and the more talents you have, the harder it is to run a business.

While you may think that being smart, motivated, and talented would logically make someone the best possible candidate for entrepreneurship, unfortunately, this is often not the case.

The "I'm better than everyone at every task" challenge

The smart-people problem starts back in school when the dreaded "group projects" are first assigned. Knowing the 80/20 rule for work (80% of all work is done by 20% of the people), what do you think happens in every group project? The smartest and most talented people in each group decide that they are going to do the lion's share of the work.

They don't want to risk their grade in the class by dividing the work equally and hoping that Timmy (the guy who is absent from class two days a week on average and sleeps through class on the other three days) does his part well, if he remembers to do it at all. In school, there isn't any benefit in trying to get Timmy up to speed quickly. Forget that — the smart people just take over and do the whole project themselves.

And thus begins the smart-people work cycle. The smartest people do just about everything better than most everyone else. They write better, plan better, and reason better. They are better, until it comes to running a business. Then, they are not better; they are screwed.

There are only 24 hours in each day and a person does need to sleep, eat, shower, and do certain other things. So, each day, this smart person tries to do everything himself, because he can't stand someone else doing a job badly. Then, he is stuck with the one-man band "job-business" and ends up not being able to grow.

Why slackers can reign supreme as entrepreneurs

It is interesting, but actually, some of the slackers are better suited for entrepreneurship than the "smart" people. Why? They figured out early on to surround themselves with smart people who would do the work. They know how to delegate and, sometimes, how to manipulate other people into doing things that they don't want to do.

You're only as smart as you can automate

Ideally, smart people would just be able to convey their talents to others. But since the smart people are so used to doing everything themselves, they don't learn the key skills for making their business successful, including automating and delegating as many tasks as possible. As a smart person, you need to use your smarts and talents to boil down their essence in an easy-to-follow format that anyone can replicate.

Too smart for your own good

Smart and talented people also often have a flair for the unusual, complicated, or different. They don't like to follow the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid), which is required to make a business succeed.

If you think of the assembly line in a fantastic manufacturing plant or the global presence of McDonald's, they both seem complex, but in reality, they are a series of incredibly simple functions. Every single task is broken down into easy-to-follow steps. The assembly line worker repeatedly performs a few tasks that are specifically defined. So does the McDonald's cook, cashier, and drive-thru order taker. There is little input from these individuals, as everything has been standardized for them.

Some of the largest, most successful businesses in the world aren't staffed in their majority by the smartest people. They are actually staffed in large part by regular, average (and sometimes stupid) people. These successful entities have just a few people who are smart enough to standardize, automate, and delegate the majority of the tasks in a way that can't be screwed up by their average employees.

So, being smart or talented isn't going to help you unless you can use those smarts to figure out a way to simplify those tasks that will make a business successful. This isn't easy, because it goes against everything that you have ever done and is counter to how you were taught to think. However, it is necessary for a business to succeed and why smarts and talent alone don't predict entrepreneurial success.

Too much to lose

Another issue with the smart people starting businesses is that they often have the most to lose. The smarter you are — unless you have the social graces of a wild ape — the more options you have available to you. You will be able to make a lot of money in a variety of fields and have room in your career to become promoted and make even more money.

This means that when you start a business, you have a lot more to risk than someone who makes less money and has fewer career options. This is often referred to as the "golden handcuffs" dilemma. Because you have more to risk, this means that you need to have a business opportunity that is going to provide an even bigger reward for it to be worth it to you.

If you make $250,000 a year (or have an opportunity to do so), your business is going to have to be five times more successful than the business of someone making $50,000 a year to get the same return. Additionally, it is a lot harder to found a business that will double your yearly profit when you make $250,000 a year than it would be if you make $50,000 a year.

So, with the most to lose, a wide range of other options available, and the penchant for more intricate, complex endeavors, don't be surprised when the person "Most Likely to Succeed" from high school ends up in corporate America and one of the more average students finds success in his or her own business.

Source: The Entrepreneur

Being Business Minded (Part 5). ..

Being Business Minded (Part 5). .. "Witty inventions".

Proverbs 8:12
I wisdom dwell with prudence,
and find out knowledge of witty inventions.

Chido is one of my Facebook fans, she reads every post, and follows up with my "After thoughts", taking copious notes, and extracting principles.
One day she decided to visit her grandmother, who lived in a village about 400km from the capital city of her country, She would have to travel there by bus, or "catch a lift", from someone going to the area. The challenge for her was that the bus could be very intermittent, and never really followed a particular schedule, and as for the "guys with lifts", she was afraid, she might get someone who could harm her.
Anyway she would have to brave it, because that is the way it had always been. Only this time, as she sat in a rickety rural bus, she was thinking about something I had said in one of my posts:
She was thinking about Uber. In her own research she had discovered that the guy who set up Uber, set it up because he could not get a taxi, when he needed it:
"Why can't we "Uber-ize" rural transport?" she asked herself?:
"Imagine, if I could get an SMS 30 minutes before the bus was getting close to my village, instead of waiting all day?"
She had also read on the Internet, about the "Uber car pool system", and she thought to herself, "if the guys who offer others a lift, were on an "Uber-like" system, I would have a better chance of vetting who gives me a lift, and when they are available."
"Why doesn't some African entrepreneur come up with a system, similar to Uber to solve our own transport problems? ... Surely, it must be possible to adapt the software they use for our challenges, here in Africa?"
Returning from the visiting her grandmother, Chido had to wait almost the whole day, by the side of the road, trying to get a lift back to town. As usual it was a harrowing experience for the young woman. Finally, she managed to squeeze herself into the back of a truck driven by a drunkard, who almost killed them.
The following day she called a young friend, whom she often met at the Internet cafe, and she asked him a question:
"James, you know how to write in code, don't you?"
"I have Internet friends all over Africa, and even as far as India, who could help us develop something like this. Its actually not that difficult." James declared, confidently.
The two of them reached out to some Internet friends, using Social Media, and began to develop their idea. Very soon they had a company, with partners in Nigeria, Kenya, India and America.
....when their company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a few years later, they were richer than Aliko Dangote!

Principle:
Chido and James do not have to be imaginary characters. There are young people across the entire world who have skills to solve this kind of problem, and many others like them. They do not need to buy buses to get into business, but they will end up making more money than any bus operator in history. They will be able to get into business with far less capital, than I needed.

Be "business conscious"; "be business minded"..... This is your dispensation!

To be continued…

Strive Masiyiwa

Being Business Minded (Part 4):

Being Business Minded (Part 4): Uber....EcoCash or M-PESA, are just the same!

One of my young daughters, intrigued by what I said in my first post on being business-minded asked me, "so how does a Mobile Money service, like EcoCash or M-PESA, actually work?"
"It works just like Uber?" I replied.
"How?", she asked surprised.
"Like Uber, they use a very sophisticated software platform, to link up key partners in the transaction process.
.... Uber relies on independent drivers, who own the cars, and actually carry the people. Our mobile money service, Ecocash relies on thousands of independent small businesses, who handle the actual transactions.
If you think about it, the principles used in these two systems, are exactly the same:
Uber works, as a unique partnership, with the drivers...
Mobile Money transfer systems, works as a unique partnership with thousands of small businesses."
She stopped and reflected for a moment, then asked:
"Do you think there are other partnerships, out there, that can use, this "Uber/Ecocash" type principle?"
"The opportunities, are actually limitless.... You just have to be business-minded, to find them. Why don't you think of other services which could be developed using the same principle?"

Being business-minded, is not just about creating new products or services, but sometimes, it is about bringing "disruptive" new ideas, to existing products and services.

......And if you come up with a great idea, be smart: don't go telling the whole world on Facebook, just do it!"

In my next post, I will tell you a remarkable story about a smart young lady, called Chido.. Who listened to me!

To be continued…

Strive Masiyiwa

Being Business Minded (Part 3)

Being Business Minded (Part 3)... Change is coming to your Business!

In the last post, I made a comment, about what I called a "changing dispensation", and many of you were quite intrigued by this, and asked me to explain:
Whenever I share a little story, my key objective is to help you extract one or two principles that you can apply, when you find yourself in such a situation:
For instance, I gave the story of Blackberry:
Until they came along, our business model, as a Mobile Network Operator, was to buy phones in bulk, as cheaply as possible, and sell them to our customers. Our business was not to sell phones, but to get people to use them; our business was "airtime". Now here was a new manufacturer (Blackberry) who did not want to just sell us phones, but wanted a share of the airtime revenue...actually they wanted the majority of the airtime revenue!

I realised very quickly that they were not selling a phone, but a service. Blackberry is not a phone, it is a phone used to access the Internet. It was the first real "smartphone":
The game had changed!!....new dispensation!
Companies like Nokia, and Motorola, who had dominated the game, until then were in big, big trouble, if they did not see this "change in dispensation":
Nokia, failed to see this change, and were taken to the cleaners. Giant companies like Ericsson's of Sweden , Siemens of Germany, shut down their cell phone manufacturing businesses, and fled at the coming of the "smartphone", boys like Samsung and Apple! Others just became small time players in an industry they had once dominated.

"Changing dispensation."

I also realised at that point that we would have to change quickly and turn our attention to things like Mobile Money services. Now we would have to hire bankers, and insurance people, even doctors (yes we have medical doctors developing products).
This was at a time when there was no Google, Twitter, Skype, Facebook, Alibaba, or WhatsApp. We would have to reach out to these new players, and find ways to work with them, or get rolled over!

Extract a principle now:
It does not matter what industry you are in, or how well established it looks. Somewhere, somewhere, there is someone working on something, that will completely turn it upside down!
Uber is changing the public transport industry of taxis. Amazon took on the distribution of books. Netflix and similar services, will smash the traditional TV broadcasters, and Pay TV companies...

Being business minded, is accepting this reality. It is something that should actually "excite" you. I get goose pimples...I love it!

Another principle:
In 1900, if a young man or woman, went to the most successful person around and said, "what business should I be in, to really be successful?", the answer would not be the same, when asked in 2000. And it would not be the same, if asked in 2050. These are different dispensations:
You should not be dreaming of being a rural bus operator! ... It is not a business of your dispensation.

There are new industries, being developed every day, at an ever increasing pace.

To be continued…

Strive Masiyiwa

7 Ways to Keep Your Dream Alive When the Going Gets Tough

7 Ways to Keep Your Dream Alive When the Going Gets Tough

SEAN KIM
Founder of thegrowthlist.com
JANUARY 08, 2015

One of the hardest decisions you’ll make in your life is the decision to focus 100 percent on making your dream a reality.

Maybe you recently quit your job to start your own business, or you’re a recent graduate who’s pursuing your passion.

Now the real journey begins.

You’ll need to overcome the obstacles that inevitably come your way externally and internally. Sooner or later, you’ll have hesitations about your ability to succeed, or you’ll have people tell you that your idea is no good. You will doubt yourself in your journey. And that’s okay.

Every iconic leader, from Thomas Edison to Michael Jordan to Tony Robbins, has felt this uncertainty in one form or another through their career.  The difference between those who persevere and those who quit is being mentally prepared for what it takes to cross the success line.

In other words, they embrace the worst that will inevitably come their way and have the resiliency to continue, believing that the best is yet to come.

Anyone can make the decision to start. The winners are the ones bold enough to make the decision to continue.
Here are seven important rules you must remember keep your dream alive:

1. You’ll always have more opportunities.
Whether you’re 20, 30 or 40 years old, you have a lifetime to succeed. Arianna Huffington started Huffington Post when she was 55 years old, and today it’s one of the most successful websites in the world. Anything is possible.

2. Be patient.
Achieving long-term success takes time. It’s as simple as that. Don’t fall into the hype of the Facebooks and Snapchats of the world.

Related: The World's No. 1 Poker Player on Winning, Losing and Staying Sane in High-Stress Situations

3. Stop selling yourself short.
When the going gets tough, it’s natural to begin losing confidence in yourself. Know that we’re a lot stronger,  mentally and physically, than we give ourselves credit for. What our brains are predisposed to make us believe versus the pain we can actually endure are two very different things.

4. Experiment, experiment, experiment.
Look at failure as finding another way to succeed, not a dead-end. There’s an endless number of ways to find the solution to your struggles, your mission is to experiment these hypotheses in the shortest amount of time possible.

5. Play a bigger game than yourself.
People often use the phrase “fake it until you make it” and it can be misleading to many. I personally embrace this as being who we could become one day, than the limited barriers we put on ourselves today.

Related: Fake It Until You Make It: How to Believe in Yourself When You Don't Feel Worthy

6. Only compare yourself to yourself.
The only person you should become better than everyday is yourself. No one else.

7. Embrace the lowest moments.
Know that when things are at its worst, there will always be light at the end of that tunnel. The greatest inventions and success stories go through “a dip” before they achieve prosperity. The night is darkest just before the dawn

How Successful People Stay Calm

How Successful People Stay Calm.

Dr. Travis Bradberry, published this post originally

The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90 percent of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.

If you follow our newsletter, you’ve read some startling research summaries that explore the havoc stress can wreak on one’s physical and mental health (such as the Yale study, which found that prolonged stress causes degeneration in the area of the brain responsible for self-control). The tricky thing about stress (and the anxiety that comes with it) is that it’s an absolutely necessary emotion. Our brains are wired such that it’s difficult to take action until we feel at least some level of this emotional state. In fact, performance peaks under the heightened activation that comes with moderate levels of stress. As long as the stress isn’t prolonged, it’s harmless.

Research from the University of California, Berkeley, reveals an upside to experiencing moderate levels of stress. But it also reinforces how important it is to keep stress under control. The study, led by post-doctoral fellow Elizabeth Kirby, found that the onset of stress entices the brain into growing new cells responsible for improved memory. However, this effect is only seen when stress is intermittent. As soon as the stress continues beyond a few moments into a prolonged state, it suppresses the brain’s ability to develop new cells.

“I think intermittent stressful events are probably what keeps the brain more alert, and you perform better when you are alert,” Kirby says. For animals, intermittent stress is the bulk of what they experience, in the form of physical threats in their immediate environment. Long ago, this was also the case for humans. As the human brain evolved and increased in complexity, we’ve developed the ability to worry and perseverate on events, which creates frequent experiences of prolonged stress.

Besides increasing your risk of heart disease, depression, and obesity, stress decreases your cognitive performance. Fortunately, though, unless a lion is chasing you, the bulk of your stress is subjective and under your control. Top performers have well-honed coping strategies that they employ under stressful circumstances. This lowers their stress levels regardless of what’s happening in their environment, ensuring that the stress they experience is intermittent and not prolonged.

While I’ve run across numerous effective strategies that successful people employ when faced with stress, what follows are ten of the best. Some of these strategies may seem obvious, but the real challenge lies in recognizing when you need to use them and having the wherewithal to actually do so in spite of your stress.

They Appreciate What They Have
Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the “right” thing to do. It also improves your mood, because it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23%. Research conducted at the University of California, Davis found that people who worked daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced improved mood, energy, and physical well-being. It’s likely that lower levels of cortisol played a major role in this.

They Avoid Asking “What If?”
“What if?” statements throw fuel on the fire of stress and worry. Things can go in a million different directions, and the more time you spend worrying about the possibilities, the less time you’ll spend focusing on taking action that will calm you down and keep your stress under control. Calm people know that asking “what if? will only take them to a place they don’t want—or need—to go.

They Stay Positive
Positive thoughts help make stress intermittent by focusing your brain’s attention onto something that is completely stress-free. You have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about. Any positive thought will do to refocus your attention. When things are going well, and your mood is good, this is relatively easy. When things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, this can be a challenge. In these moments, think about your day and identify one positive thing that happened, no matter how small. If you can't think of something from the current day, reflect on the previous day or even the previous week. Or perhaps you’re looking forward to an exciting event that you can focus your attention on. The point here is that you must have something positive that you're ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative.

They Disconnect
Given the importance of keeping stress intermittent, it’s easy to see how taking regular time off the grid can help keep your stress under control. When you make yourself available to your work 24/7, you expose yourself to a constant barrage of stressors. Forcing yourself offline and even—gulp!—turning off your phone gives your body a break from a constant source of stress. Studies have shown that something as simple as an email break can lower stress levels.

Technology enables constant communication and the expectation that you should be available 24/7. It is extremely difficult to enjoy a stress-free moment outside of work when an email that will change your train of thought and get you thinking (read: stressing) about work can drop onto your phone at any moment. If detaching yourself from work-related communication on weekday evenings is too big a challenge, then how about the weekend? Choose blocks of time where you cut the cord and go offline. You’ll be amazed at how refreshing these breaks are and how they reduce stress by putting a mental recharge into your weekly schedule. If you’re worried about the negative repercussions of taking this step, first try doing it at times when you’re unlikely to be contacted—maybe Sunday morning. As you grow more comfortable with it, and as your coworkers begin to accept the time you spend offline, gradually expand the amount of time you spend away from technology.

They Limit Their Caffeine Intake
Drinking caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline. Adrenaline is the source of the “fight-or-flight” response, a survival mechanism that forces you to stand up and fight or run for the hills when faced with a threat. The fight-or-flight mechanism sidesteps rational thinking in favor of a faster response. This is great when a bear is chasing you, but not so great when you’re responding to a curt email. When caffeine puts your brain and body into this hyperaroused state of stress, your emotions overrun your behavior. The stress that caffeine creates is far from intermittent, as its long half-life ensures that it takes its sweet time working its way out of your body.

They Sleep
I’ve beaten this one to death over the years and can’t say enough about the importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and managing your stress levels. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams), so that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough—or the right kind—of sleep. Sleep deprivation raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present. Stressful projects often make you feel as if you have no time to sleep, but taking the time to get a decent night’s sleep is often the one thing keeping you from getting things under control.

They Squash Negative Self-Talk
A big step in managing stress involves stopping negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that—thoughts, not facts. When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it's time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what you're doing and write down what you're thinking. Once you've taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.

You can bet that your statements aren’t true any time you use words like “never,” “worst,” “ever,” etc. If your statements still look like facts once they’re on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you trust and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out. When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain’s natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. Identifying and labeling your thoughts as thoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.

They Reframe Their Perspective
Stress and worry are fueled by our own skewed perception of events. It’s easy to think that unrealistic deadlines, unforgiving bosses, and out-of-control traffic are the reasons we’re so stressed all the time. You can’t control your circumstances, but you can control how you respond to them. So before you spend too much time dwelling on something, take a minute to put the situation in perspective. If you aren’t sure when you need to do this, try looking for clues that your anxiety may not be proportional to the stressor. If you’re thinking in broad, sweeping statements such as “Everything is going wrong” or “Nothing will work out,” then you need to reframe the situation. A great way to correct this unproductive thought pattern is to list the specific things that actually are going wrong or not working out. Most likely you will come up with just some things—not everything—and the scope of these stressors will look much more limited than it initially appeared.

They Breathe
The easiest way to make stress intermittent lies in something that you have to do everyday anyway: breathing. The practice of being in the moment with your breathing will begin to train your brain to focus solely on the task at hand and get the stress monkey off your back. When you’re feeling stressed, take a couple of minutes to focus on your breathing. Close the door, put away all other distractions, and just sit in a chair and breathe. The goal is to spend the entire time focused only on your breathing, which will prevent your mind from wandering. Think about how it feels to breathe in and out. This sounds simple, but it’s hard to do for more than a minute or two. It’s all right if you get sidetracked by another thought; this is sure to happen at the beginning, and you just need to bring your focus back to your breathing. If staying focused on your breathing proves to be a real struggle, try counting each breath in and out until you get to 20, and then start again from 1. Don’t worry if you lose count; you can always just start over.

This task may seem too easy or even a little silly, but you’ll be surprised by how calm you feel afterward and how much easier it is to let go of distracting thoughts that otherwise seem to have lodged permanently inside your brain.

They Use Their Support System
It’s tempting, yet entirely ineffective, to attempt tackling everything by yourself. To be calm and productive, you need to recognize your weaknesses and ask for help when you need it. This means tapping into your support system when a situation is challenging enough for you to feel overwhelmed. Everyone has someone at work and/or outside work who is on their team, rooting for them, and ready to help them get the best from a difficult situation. Identify these individuals in your life and make an effort to seek their insight and assistance when you need it. Something as simple as talking about your worries will provide an outlet for your anxiety and stress and supply you with a new perspective on the situation. Most of the time, other people can see a solution that you can’t because they are not as emotionally invested in the situation. Asking for help will mitigate your stress and strengthen your relationships with those you rely upon.

15 Signs You're An Entrepreneur

15 Signs You're An Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
MARCIA LAYTON TURNER, ENTREPRENEUR

Pressed to describe the stereotypical entrepreneur, which words would you use? Passionate? Dedicated? Optimistic? Sure, those apply. But insecure and troublemaker are more accurate, according to 'treps who know a success when they see one. Do the following traits, characteristics and quirks describe you? Well then, you might be an entrepreneur (at heart, if not yet in practice).

1. You take action.
Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group, co-star of TV's Shark Tank and author of Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business, says people who have a concept but not necessarily a detailed strategy are more likely to have that entrepreneurial je ne sais quoi. "I hate entrepreneurs with beautiful business plans," she says.

Corcoran's recommendation? "Invent as [you] go," rather than spending time writing a plan at your desk. In fact, she believes that people with life experience have an active problem-solving ability and think-on-your-feet resourcefulness that can be more valuable than book smarts alone. Those who study business may be prone to overanalyzing situations rather than taking action.

2. You're insecure.
"Many entrepreneurs judged as ambitious are really insecure underneath," Corcoran says. When evaluating potential investments, she adds, "I want someone who is scared to death." Those who are nervous about failing can become hyperfocused and willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. If you feel insecure, use that emotion to drive you to achieve your business goals.

3. You're crafty.
"One of my favorite TV shows growing up was MacGyver," confides Tony Hsieh, CEO of Las Vegas-based Zappos, "because he never had exactly the resources he needed but would somehow figure out how to make everything work out."

A lifelong entrepreneur, Hsieh has done everything from starting a worm farm to making buttons and selling pizzas, so he admires MacGyver's "combination of creativity, optimism and street smarts. Ultimately, I think that's what being an entrepreneur is all about--playing MacGyver, but for business." It's not about having enough resources, he explains, but being resourceful with what you do have.

4. You're obsessed with cash flow.
Before founding Brainshark, a Waltham, Mass.-based developer of technology for business presentations, Joe Gustafson bootstrapped a venture called Relational Courseware. "All I ever thought about was cash flow and liquidity," he says, admitting, "there were seven times in [the company's] eight-year history when I was days or hours away from payroll and didn't have enough cash to make it."

How did he respond? "In the early days, you could step up and put expenses on your personal credit card, but that can only go so far," he says. "You need cash--even if you have the best company and the best receivables in the world--to fight the battle one more day." Other strategies he recommends include working with a partner who can provide cash advances on projects and maintaining close communication with suppliers.

5. You get into hot water.
Stephane Bourque, founder and CEO of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Incognito Software, says true entrepreneurial types are more likely to ask for forgiveness than permission, forging ahead to address the opportunities or issues they recognize, even without approval from higher-ups.

"Entrepreneurs are never satisfied with the status quo," says Bourque, who discovered he was not destined for the corporate world when he kept coming up with new and better ways of doing things--ideas that were not necessarily appreciated by his bosses and often were interpreted as unwanted criticism. Now, he says, "I wish my employees would get into more trouble," because it shows they are on the lookout for opportunities to improve themselves or company operations.

6. You're fearless.
Where most avoid risk, entrepreneurs see potential, says Robert Irvine, chef and host of Food Network's Restaurant: Impossible. True 'treps are not afraid to leverage their houses and run up their credit card balances in order to amass the funds they need to create a new venture. In some ways, he says, they are the ultimate optimists, because they operate under the belief that their investments of time and money will eventually pay off.

7. You can't sit still.
Entrepreneurs have unbridled energy that fuels them long past the time when their employees have gone home. They are eager, excited and energized about business in a way that makes them stand out. Irvine would know: He owns a restaurant in South Carolina, is opening another in the Pentagon and has a line of food and clothing products, on top of hosting his TV show.

8. You're malleable.
"If you have only one acceptable outcome in mind, your chances of making it are slim," cautions Rosemary Camposano, president and CEO of Silicon Valley chain Halo Blow Dry Bars. If you are willing to listen, your clients will show you which of your products or services provide the most value.

Her original vision for Halo was part blow-dry bar, part gift shop, "to help busy women multitask," she explains. But she quickly learned that the gift shop was causing confusion about the nature of her business, so she took it out, replaced it with an extra blow-dry chair, and things took off. Smart entrepreneurs constantly evolve, tweaking their business concepts in response to market feedback.

9. You enjoy navel gazing.
Without direct supervisors, entrepreneurs need to be comfortable with the process of evaluating their own performance, says Laura Novak Meyer, owner of Pennsylvania's Little Nest Portraits. That requires "a willingness to solicit feedback from those around you to self-improve," she says, as well as paying close attention to feedback you may not have asked for, such as customer complaints or being outpaced by competitors. Little Nest surveys every client to ask for opportunities for improvement, and Meyer has worked closely with a business coach for the past five years to identify personal areas where she needs to improve.

10. You're motivated by challenges.
When confronted by problems, many employees try to pass the buck or otherwise wash their hands of the situation. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, rise to the occasion. "Challenges motivate them to work harder," says Jeff Platt, CEO of the Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Park franchise. "An entrepreneur doesn't think anything is insurmountable … He looks adversity in the eye and keeps going."

Candace Nelson, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, agrees. Despite naysayers who questioned her idea for a bakery in the midst of the carb-fearing early-2000s, she persevered and now has locations in eight states. In fact, she was one of the first entrepreneurs in a business that became an ongoing craze, sparking numerous copycats.

11. You consider yourself an outsider.
Entrepreneurs aren't always accepted, says Vincent Petryk, founder of J.P. Licks, a Boston chain of ice-cream shops. They may be seen as opinionated, quirky and demanding--but that is not necessarily a bad thing. "They are often rejected for being different in some way, and that just makes them work harder," Petryk says. When his former boss didn't approve of his off-duty research into ice-cream quality, he went out on his own to develop a made-from-scratch dessert in bold flavors. Rather than copying what most other ice-cream shops were doing, including buying from the same well-known suppliers, Petryk forged his own path. His early competitors? All but one are no longer in business.

12 . You recover quickly.
It's a popular notion that successful entrepreneurs fail fast and fail often. For Corcoran, the trick is in the speed of recovery: If you fail, resist the urge to mope or feel sorry for yourself. Don't wallow; move on to the next big thing immediately.

13. You fulfill needs.
Many people recognize marketplace holes, but it is the true entrepreneur who takes them from cocktail napkin to reality, says Jennifer Dawn, partner in New York City-based Savor the Success, a business network for women. "Entrepreneurs think of a way to fix it and take steps to fix it. They are innovators." So when Savor's network of women began asking for advice and input from co-founder Angela Jia Kim, she and Dawn created a new product: Savor Circles. These mastermind groups connect four members who give each other tailored input and expertise; even better, they provide Savor the Success with a new revenue stream.

14. You surround yourself with advisors.
Actress Jessica Alba, co-founder and president of Santa Monica, Calif.-based The Honest Company, which sells baby, home and personal-care products, notes that "it's important to surround yourself with people smarter than you and to listen to ideas that aren't yours. I'm open to ideas that aren't mine and people that know what I don't, because I think success takes communication, collaboration and, sometimes, failure."

In other words: True 'treps don't hire yes men; they talk to those with experience and conduct thorough research, gathering as much information as they can to make informed decisions rather than taking a shot in the dark.

15. You work and play hard.
"Entrepreneurs fall down and pick themselves up until they get it right," says Micha Kaufman, who snowboards and sails in addition to running Fiverr, the fast-growth online freelance marketplace he co-founded.

Like in sports, the key to success in business is staying super-focused, the CEO notes. During Fiverr's launch, instead of trying to deal with "an endless number of potential challenges," Kaufma team focused on "the single biggest challenge every marketplace has: building liquidity.

Without liquidity, there is no marketplace. It's like worrying about the skills needed for frontside-360 jumps before getting on a snowboard and learning the basics."

17 Things Successful People Never Say

17 Things Successful People Never Say
JACQUELYN SMITH

You'll never catch a successful person saying, "It's not fair."

Over 2,500 years ago, philosopher and poet Lao Tzu taught that our words become actions, which eventually become our destiny.

In first century Greece, historian and essayist Plutarch declared that a speaker's state of mind, character, and disposition are exposed through their words. And Napoleon Hill, the twentieth century father of personal success literature, asserts that words plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

"Across the planet, sages insist that words are potent and should be chosen and spoken with care, for they are 'the most powerful drug used by mankind,' as
 Rudyard Kipling warns," says Darlene Price, president of Well Said, Inc., and author of "Well Said! Presentations and Conversations That Get Results." "If they're right, it stands to reason that what we say to ourselves and others plays a critical role in helping us achieve success."

Regardless of how you may define success, words will help manifest that vision into reality.

"There are also words and phrases that can damage your self-image, mar your reputation, and jeopardize your success," Price says. "To optimize your success, eliminate this language from your vocabulary and never speak it to yourself or another person."

Here are 17 phrases successful people never say:

"I have no choice," or, "I had no choice."

"Successful people always see the options, regardless of the circumstances," Price says. "To say we have no choice in the matter implies that we perceive ourselves as a victim; that we are less powerful than our environment." These weak words relieve the speaker of all responsibility.

Successful people say: "I have a choice," "Here are our options," or, "Let's imagine all the possibilities." They know that claiming and exercising the power to choose is the first step toward achieving their goals, she says.

"I should have," or, "I could have."

The words "should," "could," and "ought" imply regret, blame, finger-pointing, and fault, whether you say them to yourself or another person. "Successful people don't wallow in the past, and they rarely regret a decision or action," says Price. "Even if it's deemed a failure by others, they accept it as a learning experience that gets them one step closer to their goal."

Similarly, they avoid: "You should have," and, "You could have." "There's no quicker way to upset a boss, colleague, or customer than to suggest they're guilty of something (even if they are)." Instead, take a collaborative approach. Say, "Please help me understand why…" or,  "Next time may we adopt an alternative approach…"

"I can't do that," or, "That's impossible," or, "That can't be done."

Not only are these words self-limiting, others perceive them as pessimistic, unconstructive, even defeatist, Price explains. "Achievers know there are countless roadblocks on the road to success — barriers that may stall or stump, but never stop them." They either remove the barrier, or figure out a way to go over, under, or around it.

The words "can't" or "impossible" rarely enter the minds of successful people. "Instead of throwing in the towel," Price says, "they speak in terms of alternative ways to get the work accomplished: 'What I can do is...' 'I'm sure there's a way to...' 'Instead of ___, let's try___.'"

As the great industrialist Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't — you're right."

"That's not my job," or, "I don't get paid enough for this," or, "That's not my problem."

Successful people help others succeed.

As billionaire Warren Buffett says, "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."

"Think of 'planting trees' as your job," Price says. "If you're asked to do something by your boss, coworker, or a customer, it's because it's important to them. Therefore, as a team player, goal No. 1 is to figure out how to help them get it accomplished."

Even if it's not in your job description, by saying so displays a career-limiting bad attitude. Even if your boss lays an unreasonable request on your desk, reply positively by saying, "Sure, I'll be glad to help you accomplish that. Given my current tasks of A, B, and C, which one of these would you like to place on back-burner while I work on this new assignment?"

"This response clearly communicates a prioritized workload, alongside a willing attitude to help," she says.

"But we've always done it that way," or, "That's not the way we do it here."

Successful people are passionate about innovation, finding a better way of doing something. In fact, Steve Jobs said, "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." For this reason, effective managers value employees who demonstrate creative thinking, flexibility, and problem-solving skill, Price explains.

"These phrases, in one fell swoop, reveal you are the opposite: stuck in the past, inflexible, and closed-minded," she says. "Even if you disagree with someone's idea, say instead, 'Wow, that's an interesting idea. How would that work?' Or, 'That's a different approach. Let's discuss the pros and cons.'"

"It's not fair."

She got a raise, you didn't. He was recognized, you weren't. That department is receiving funding, yours isn't. "Injustices happen on the job and in the world every day," she says. "Successful people are proactive about issues versus reactive. Instead of complaining or whining, take action: document the facts, build a case, and present an intelligent argument to the person or group that can help you."

"He's a jerk," or, "She's lazy," or, "My job stinks," or, "I hate this company."

Successful people avoid words of judgment, insult, and negativity, says Price.

"Regardless of your feelings or the circumstances, avoid making unconstructive or judgmental statements that convey a negative attitude toward people or your job." If a genuine complaint or issue needs to be brought to someone's attention, do so with well-documented facts, tact, consideration, and neutrality.

"Nothing tanks a career faster than name-calling or mudslinging," she says. "Not only does it reveal juvenile immaturity, it's language that may be libel and fire-able." Successful people choose words carefully to state observable facts and avoid disparaging language.

Being Business Minded (Part 2)

Being Business Minded (Part 2).

I will never forget the first time we had to deal with Blackberry, when they produced their phone for the first time.
"Our business model is quite simple", the sales executive said, to us:
"We charge you, $20/customer, per month. And you can charge on top, whatever you want."
My Chief Marketing Officer, who was dealing with them, was livid:
"That is ridiculous! We have invested billions of dollars to build the network, and to get customers. Now you waltz in here, and tell us, that you will get the lions share of the revenue on each customer? How can anyone accept such an arrangement?"
The Blackberry guy, smiled, and said quietly, "its a take it or leave it."
The matter, was escalated up to me, as Chairman. I listened quietly to our senior executives, express their frustrations,and indignation:

"That means, we will only get about $5, whilst they take $20; is that fair?!"
"Why, why can't they just sell us phones, like everyone else. Why do they want a revenue share, as though they are the operator?!"

"Do it, and do it now." I said quietly.
Then I explained:
"They have the upper hand. They know that they have an iconic product, which our top customers will want. If we do not sign, they can do serious damage to our business by handing this opportunity to a competitor. This game is no longer about building networks, its the guys who can use our networks, for their own businesses, that will be king from now on. We better learn to do the same, or at least work with them."
The position of Blackberry, would remain unchallenged until someone came along with a better product, and that was Apple. They were even more aggressive, about what they wanted. There was no debate, we all understood, by then.
Today, Apple is worth more than $600bn, making it the most valuable company in history; yes more valuable than any oil company, or mining conglomerate or cell phone company.

Being "business minded", requires you to understand, what I call "changing dispensations", when they occur. If you do not understand why Alibaba, an "online flea market", is worth more than any cell phone company, or any mining company, you will not be able to play the business game.
Now, think about Uber, and learn, to be business minded.

To be continued…
Strive Masiyiwa

2015: Economists predict weaker naira, double-digit inflation

JANUARY 5, 2015 BY OYETUNJI ABIOYE

Okonjo-Iweala, Emefiele and Rewane

As the global oil prices continue to decline, economic analysts advise Nigerians to brace themselves for double-digit inflation and weaker naira, OYETUNJI ABIOYE writes.

Mr. Shola Aboluwade, an employee of a Lagos-based logistics firm, earns N120,000 as salary. He is expected to lose about N35,000, representing over 25 per cent of his total income, to double-digit inflation and weaker naira as the nation battles falling oil prices this year.

The same goes to Mrs. Chinyere Abbah, who earns N150,000 as salary from an Abuja-based manufacturing company. Over N40,000 from this amount will be eroded by the looming harsh economic conditions, according to economic and financial analysts.

The experts say when this amount is deducted from the disposable income of the average Nigerian, the resultant effect is a lower standard of living for many citizens in 2015.

They say the situation may be made worse if companies commence job and salary cuts in the second quarter of the year.

Already, stakeholders and trade association have hinted of plans by companies to downsize in 2015 if the naira continues to weaken.

Economic experts, who paint a grim picture of the economy in 2015, say the Central Bank of Nigeria may be forced to devalue the naira again in the second quarter of the year.

This, according to them, will lead to high inflation because Nigeria is an import-dependent country.

Analysts at Afrinvest, a research and investment advisory firm, say as the cost of living rises this year, the standard of living of most Nigerians will fall. As a result, they advise citizens to brace themselves for personal adjustment in living style and condition.

The analysts says, “The persistent decline in oil prices will further expose the weak structure (mono economy) of the Nigerian economy in 2015.

“As a result, we anticipate further devaluation of the naira in the second quarter of 2015 (post-election) to curb the depletion of the external reserves and indirectly increase dollar revenue.

“Inflation is expected to break the CBN upper band of nine per cent in 2014 due to the expected increase in core inflation (bolstered by the devaluation of the naira) and food inflation (poor harvest as a result of protracted insecurity in the northern part of the country).

“This will lead to reduction in individual’s purchasing power; real income may only buy few things.”

The Afrinvest analysts believe that three of the issues that will determine the micro and macro-economic direction in 2015 are the upcoming 2015 election, global oil price and the insecurity level in the country.

According to analysts at BGL Plc, the unfolding oil price scenario and the consequent exchange rate depreciation, official and unofficial by about 20 per cent on the average, may translate to a higher inflation scenario in 2015.

They say, “Major areas of impact include the imported price inflation which constitutes 13 per cent of consumer basket in Nigeria. Non-food import content of Nigerians could also be higher than 30 per cent and would be immediately affected by the exchange rate pass through effect of the depreciation.

“The combined austerity measure of the government and tighter monetary policy will put additional pressure on consumer prices. Therefore, we expect inflation rate to cross the double-digit level in the first half of 2015. We forecast inflation between 9.5 per cent and 11 per cent in 2015.”

Renowned economist and Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, a research and advisory firm, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, says the company’s findings have shown that the nation’s macroeconomic environment will continue to be vulnerable to exogenous shocks in 2015.

This, he says, is mainly because oil prices and international capital flows will continue to be dominant features in the macro- economic equation.

Rewane notes that the headline inflation is expected to range between 10 per cent and 12 per cent in 2015, adding that in a highly import-dependent economy, some of the price effects of the devaluation will be passed to the consumer.

This, according to him, is based on the persistent decline in global food, energy and other imported goods and services prices.

He adds, “Although the devaluation of the naira is expected to increase inflation as a result of the pass-through effects on import costs, this impact is likely to be muted due to the lower global commodity prices and anticipated increase in local production of staple food crops.

“However, there is a marginal probability that inflation will temporarily spike above nine per cent due to the increase in electricity tariff, speculative trading around the elections and other policy developments.”

Another issue that will worsen the economic situation and may result in job losses and cut is the possibility of further devaluation of the naira.

Afrinvest analysts, BGL experts, Rewane and other experts predict the naira will fall below N200 against the dollar, at least at the parallel market.

“The parallel market rate of the naira is expected to cross 200 against the dollar as the demand for the greenback persists,” Rewane notes.

He, however, says that the N200 is only a 15 per cent adjustment against the 45 per cent devaluation by the CBN in 2009. Although, projecting the value of the naira is currently clouded by several domestic and exogenous factors, the fair value of the currency is expected to be between N180/$ and N195/$ at the interbank market.

On July 18, 2014, Goldman Sachs forecast that the naira would trade at N165/$ in three months, N175/$ in six months and N195/$ in 12 months.

Commenting on the value of the naira, Afrinvest analysts say, “We anticipate that the dollar may cross the N200.00 psychological line in 2015 at the interbank and parallel forex markets if oil prices remain below $60.00/b.”

The Afrinvest Analysts, who say that the development will affect the financial system, expect the year-on-year growth in net earnings of banks to either remain flat or decline as the banks continue to suffer from the effects of the various CBN policies.

The entire scenario will lead to challenging times for the real sector.

“The cost of lending to the SMEs may increase further in 2014 in line with the risk inherent as the cost of doing business escalates in 2015, hence increasing the potential for debt delinquency,” the analysts say.

Rewane also says, “Single-digit interest rates to the real sector and the cost of borrowing will remain in double digit. The contractionary monetary policy environment is expected to remain in 2015 but with limited appetite to tighten further.”

For BGL analysts, the reality in the economy suggests that monetary policy will be non-accommodating in 2015.

This, they say, will be dictated by the eventual trend of the oil price and the consequence effect on the government primary balances, foreign exchange rate volatility and the foreign reserves.

Copyright PUNCH.