10 Arrogance Traps For Entrepreneurs (Forbes)

An excellent article by Peter Zwilling (Forbes): a no-holds-barred list of how entrepreneurs delude themselves, by avoiding the realities of life.

1. "Business plans are for dummies. Think business plans are just for investors? Wrong. Those plans are primarily for you."

2. "This is so cool! Just because you think your new mousetrap is extraordinary doesn't mean the whole world will agree." (picture: Segway)

3. "If we build it, they will come. The hot term these days is 'viral marketing'. Reality: Viral marketing only takes off after you prime the pump with real marketing."

"...We all know that the solution that will get us further is straightforward: you have to do stuff, which takes effort over time. The process is quite clear.

...People who are highly imaginative, emotionally driven, and highly discerning are less likely to be satisfied with an off-the-shelf process because they run a mental simulation of the outcome before they even lift a finger. Let me break this down further:

Research that shows creativity and innovation is most effective in startup entrepreneurial companies:

Similar approach, ideas to the previous article on the nature of success.

Wow. So to make several billion dollars, this the formula:

1. Love what you do (was a given based on the audience he was talking to).
2. Work hard.
3. Don’t listen to other people’s opinion of you.
4. Keep working hard even when you don’t want to.
5. Love and care for your people.
6. Never, never, never ever give up.

That’s it. And I am not kidding, that is it. Simple isn’t it?

10 Arrogance Traps For Entrepreneurs (Forbes)

An excellent article by Peter Zwilling (Forbes): a no-holds-barred list of how entrepreneurs delude themselves, by avoiding the realities of life.

1. "Business plans are for dummies. Think business plans are just for investors? Wrong. Those plans are primarily for you."

2. "This is so cool! Just because you think your new mousetrap is extraordinary doesn't mean the whole world will agree." (picture: Segway)

3. "If we build it, they will come. The hot term these days is 'viral marketing'. Reality: Viral marketing only takes off after you prime the pump with real marketing."

An article by Mitch Ditkoff acknowledging the value of doubt, uncertainty, confusion.

"Breakthrough results are not always the result of a revolutionary Eureka moment. Quite the opposite.

They are often the result of doubt, confusion, ambiguity, and experiments that go awry."

An interesting, and arguably, a surprising article that cites research showing Britain has a higher level of self-made billionaires than America.

Also of note is that both France and Germany have one of the lowest, with a greater percentage of billionaires having inherited their wealth.

Recommended reading: An interesting article that confirms age-old truths about being creative -- focus, and let go (or in this case, "drop out").

Thiel says the huge cost of higher education, and the resulting burden of debt, makes students less willing to take risks. "And we think you're going to have to take a lot of risks to build the next generation of companies."

and

Article by Linda Hill, Harvard Business Review (HBR), on how the increasing desire for meaning, purpose and value in our careers will require leaders to lead from behind.

"Leading from behind" enables free-thinking employees to be out in front, leading the way, themselves, within the overall guidelines and objectives of the organisation - provided by the CEO from behind, in support.

Others have said similar, particularly Jan Carlzon in his "Moments of Truth" (Amazon - Carlzon's "strategies focus on the customer, encouraging risk-taking, delegating more authority to front-line employees, and eliminating vertical levels of hierarchy for a more horizontal organization bear the hallmarks of entrepreneurial management and the pursuit of excellence.").

Excerpts from Linda Hill's article:

Maya Mathias's experience and insights revealing the fluid-artistic nature of the creative process,

"Months into my improv studies, it struck me that this mimicked much of my career in the marketing and communications industry....

Real life in advertising/branding/marketing is anything but predictable...

Blog by Braden Kelley, (of socialmediatoday):

"make sure that the social media tools in your organization are fulfilling their role in a positive way and leveraging existing knowledge management and collaboration toolsets:

Research that shows creativity and innovation is most effective in startup entrepreneurial companies:

Article by author Michael Shrage (Serious Play), covers the loss of nimble, gray market initiatives, and the resulting stifling of innovation.

The ability of individuals and small groups to steal time and "bootleg" a project has become notably more difficult. Not unlike Mad Men's three martini lunches, under-the-radar gray market innovation has become a virtual anachronism.

... it becomes more difficult for line managers with gifted subordinates to get away with squirreling a few extra dollars for let's-give-it-a-shot new product development. The out-of-sight, off-in-a-corner alpha test is not just a dying breed — it's being euthanized. Is that bad? Yes.

By Rajan Varadarajan (March 3, 2007)

"When it comes to innovation, the conventional wisdom often tells companies to aim for home runs. But frequent singles can be just as important.

Strategy tips from Harvard Business Review (condensed from Stand By for the Same Old Strategy Mistakes, by Walter Kiechel):

An interesting article by Catherine Fox "Being head-hunted is often too good to be true" (AFR Tuesday 22^nd, June 2010), reporting on research by Boris Groysberg of Harvard Business School.

The research reveals the extent to which high-flyers, or stars within companies are able to repeat or better their performance when shifting employers.

Article by Linda Hill, Harvard Business Review (HBR), on how the increasing desire for meaning, purpose and value in our careers will require leaders to lead from behind.

"Leading from behind" enables free-thinking employees to be out in front, leading the way, themselves, within the overall guidelines and objectives of the organisation - provided by the CEO from behind, in support.

Others have said similar, particularly Jan Carlzon in his "Moments of Truth" (Amazon - Carlzon's "strategies focus on the customer, encouraging risk-taking, delegating more authority to front-line employees, and eliminating vertical levels of hierarchy for a more horizontal organization bear the hallmarks of entrepreneurial management and the pursuit of excellence.").

Excerpts from Linda Hill's article:

Newsweek article citing research that reveals a decline in creativity amongst American school children.

The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed. A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future. Yet it’s not just about sustaining our nation’s economic growth. All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care.

I have heard it said, "no one is as smart as all of us", and variants thereof.

It's a helpful aphorism, particularly for small business owners who often feel they must find all their own solutions due to limited resources (lack of specialists, experts within the company; insufficient cash flow to use consultants).

Similar approach, ideas to the previous article on the nature of success.

Wow. So to make several billion dollars, this the formula:

1. Love what you do (was a given based on the audience he was talking to).
2. Work hard.
3. Don’t listen to other people’s opinion of you.
4. Keep working hard even when you don’t want to.
5. Love and care for your people.
6. Never, never, never ever give up.

That’s it. And I am not kidding, that is it. Simple isn’t it?

Sally Hogshead's "Do you think like a goldfish", about how people's attention span is diminishing as a result of increased stimulus, data, information (e.g. from the Internet, via Twitter, etc.)

Sally Hogshead's "Do you think like a goldfish", about how people's
attention span is diminishing as a result of increased stimulus, data,
information (e.g. from the Internet, via Twitter, etc.)

Extract from 'Be and Become' revealing how the great inventors and scientists go about being creative.

Francis Crick "It’s well documented that the best way to have ideas is first of all to immerse yourself in a subject for longish periods—like months or more—in which you study intensely, and then step away and do something else—go for a holiday, go out dancing, or something like that. Very often ideas come in this sort of incubation period"

...

Victor Frankl, well known psychotherapist and survivor of Nazi concentration camps observed:

An interesting article by a doctor who doesn't believe the brain is the seat of consciousness (which is correct).

There is no conceivable neural account of many aspects of human consciousness. A record of neural impulses cannot explain the simultaneous unity and multiplicity of the moment.

...

Nor can neural activity explain memory, as the material of the brain has no way of representing the tenses of time; indeed as Einstein emphasised, for physicists, the past, present and future are stubborn illusions.

From Science Daily, scientists have found that biological system utilise quantum potentials to derive beneficial plant growth.

This and other recent discoveries have captured the attention of researchers for several reasons," says Scholes. "First, it means that quantum mechanical probability laws can prevail over the classical laws of kinetics in this complex biological system, even at normal temperatures. The energy can thereby flow efficiently by -- counter intuitively -- traversing several alternative paths through the antenna proteins simultaneously.

Paul Romer's ideas on how best to develop a sustainable, creative and fulfilling future (for all)

“Groups of people always find it difficult to change the rules, even when other rules would clearly be better. Charter cities—dozens of them, perhaps even hundreds—could be the skunkworks that bring systemic change to entire nations. Ultimately, they could give the billions of people who will soon move to cities the chance to experiment with, and opt into, rules that let them achieve their full potential.” —Paul Romer (Harvard Business Review)"

and

According to this E-Myth article, the top 5 mistakes of business owners when systemising their businesses.

• Having No Strategic Plan
• Looking for “One Size Fits All” Systems
• Not Documenting Your Systems
• Lack of Implementation
• Leaving Out Quantification

[Additional mistake: not tapping the creativity of the team when planning and implementing]