What Did I Do?
“If you are faced with a problem and you do not ask yourself what your role was in arriving to the problem, you are fundamentally doing yourself a disservice…”
Our Role…
Be Forgetful!
As I get, “wiser”, I realize that life really is a journey. For some, the journey is amazing and beyond what most imagine possible. Did Bill Gates ever think he was going to be the richest man in the world? Did Ernest Duchesne (and subsequently, Alexander Fleming) realize that when they discovered (and re-discovered) penicillin that it would change the lives of billions of people?
Unfortunately, for the other 99%, this journey is in a state of constant flux – not necessarily because of our environment, but rather, our thoughts and choices. Many of us wake up and habitually fall into our personal “rat race” and in that race, we dwell on the past, we wonder what our life would have been had we made different choices, and we unintentionally live a life not of significance.
We can, thankfully, change our lives immediately!
Great lessons by Zig Ziglar
Zig Ziglar was one of the greatest sales people that ever lived! What made him great wasn’t his ability to close a deal but rather his ability connect with those that he was making a deal with. After a successful career in Sales, he went on to becoming a widely recognized author and motivational speaker. Unfortunately, he passed away last week but his lessons will leave an indelible mark in history.
Do Angel Investors Make Money?
Do Angel investors make money? An interesting question for sure! Well, I can tell you from first hand experience that being an angel investor is sexier than it sounds! It’s not easy, requires a lot of study, and most importantly – time. So, if you are looking to make a “quick” buck, Angel investing isn’t it – you may have better odds winning the lottery! What’s even more interesting is that most angels aren’t really qualified to be angels – sure, they have money but they don’t have the knowledge to define what constitutes an investment worth making. Now, add the ever changing dynamics of the entrepreneurial tech industry and you’ve got variables that can be challenging even for an experienced VC.
The venture capital industry, of which angel investing lives as part of the ecosystem, is very interesting and there is a lot more to it than most people understand. (To read my posts on becoming a VC, click here.) Remember, for every Google or Apple, there are 100 companies out there that don’t provide any real returns and that is all factored as part of the “bet” angels (and VCs) have to make.
Back to Basics…
Back to basics has to be one of my all time favorite expressions in today’s business, and even, political jargon.
It’s beautiful! Things aren’t going the way you’d hoped and along comes a knight in shining armor who proclaims with utmost certainty – “We will get through this time! We will go back to basics and restore ourselves to greatness!” Tell me that image doesn’t conjure up Camelot and everything that’s right in this word?
Great Expectations…?
Words – in today’s vocabulary, are more powerful than they have ever been in our existence. Simple letters assembled together have the ability to make you feel like you are on top of the world; or, they can serve as a guillotine and do irreparable damage.
Depending on your intent, words can be used as a tool and if utilized wisely, could lead to one achieving the result they so seek. Knowing this, the responsibility to learn and choose words carefully, is great and often not treated with the respect it so deserves.
To MBA or Not To MBA? Part II
So what is the “hidden” value of an MBA program? My hint, in my previous post said, “it has nothing to do with education”.
Let’s try to look at this objectively. As part of an MBA curriculum, a student is required to learn the core functions of a business. Now, depending on the program itself, a student can specialize in a particular subject (e.g. finance), but generally speaking, the program will still need to cover other topics including, but not limited to, HR, Marketing, Finance, Ethics, Economics, and Strategy thereby providing the student with a broad knowledge base needed to operate a company. So, regardless of whether you go to Columbia, Berkeley, Stanford, or Pepperdine, you’re going to have to learn the same topics.
To MBA or Not To MBA?
That is the question – and one that I get asked, now that I have completed my MBA, often.
To start, we must all understand what an MBA degree is. As defined formally, “the Master of Business Administration (MBA or M.B.A.) is a master’s degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out scientific approaches to management. The core courses in the MBA program are designed to introduce students to the various areas of business such as accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, operations management, etc.”
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