Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers. —Tony Robbins, author, professional speaker. As an entrepreneur, your success depends greatly on your ability to ask the right questions. However, few people understand the enormous value of mastering this art. I would argue that several entrepreneurs—business professionals, too—have no idea that […]
View Post Competitive Advantage, Customer Objections, Marketing, Paul Cherry, Sales, Skills
Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets. —Steve Jobs, cofounder, Apple As a sophomore in college, I cofounded a Latin jazz band called Río Negro with a Puerto Rican friend of mine who played congas. We loved everything about Latin music and […]
View Post Apple, Atlanta, Bill Clinton, Latin Jazz, Rio Negro, Steve Jobs, Super Bowl
I hate weekends because there is no stock market. —Rene Rivkin, Australian stockbroker, entrepreneur. A few months ago on a Monday morning, I updated my Facebook status with the following: “I absolutely love Mondays. Not so thrilled about Fridays.” I anticipated some lighthearted criticism from my friends, but I didn’t think that my sanity would […]
View Post Easybeats, Employees, Facebook, Friday, Friday on My Mind, Happy Hour, Motivation, Payday, T.G.I.F.
Hire slow, fire fast. —Unknown. I recently received a desperate call for help from one of my mentees, who is working hard to grow his new clothing company. He sought advice about how to deal with a lazy business partner who is preventing the company from moving forward. My mentee wrote, I have been working […]
View Post Attrition, Human Resources
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. —Henry Ford, founder, Ford Motor Company. The two kinds of entrepreneurs are those who create markets and those who do not. On the one hand, the entrepreneur who creates markets is considered a revolutionary. On the other hand, the entrepreneur who […]
View Post Amazon.com, Blue Ocean, Blue Ocean Strategy, Cirque du Soleil, College, Forbes, George Lucas, Harvard Business Press, Henry Ford, Jeff Bezos, Lexus, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Dell, Nike, Phil Knight, Profit, Ralph Lauren, Red Ocean, Renée Mauborgne, Revenue, W. Chan Kim, Wall Street
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. —Proverbs 27:17 The average person is intimidated by smart people. I know firsthand: Whenever people find out what I scored on an SAT exam, they are shocked. (I have very proud relatives.) Some try to stump me on the spot with a complex riddle or math […]
View Post E. James Rohn, Hewlett Packard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, SAT
I think, team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed. —LeBron James, NBA champion One of the most costly mistakes I have made as an entrepreneur is to rent high-end office space, thinking that it would foster growth through increased productivity and project a more professional image. It did none […]
View Post Buckhead, Prestige, Regus
Beauty awakens the soul to act. —Dante Alighieri, Italian poet. Excited to hit the pavement and to sell advertisements for my new magazine, I visited a local mom-and-pop store near my alma mater, Morehouse College. After my sales pitch, I waited to hear if the business owner would place an ad in my next issue. […]
View Post Black in America, Black in America: The New Promised Land, Cadillac, Chelsey Rodgers, CNN, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ford, Investors, Los Angeles Lakers, Miss USA, Morehouse College, Silicon Valley
Clothes don’t make the man. —Unknown. Apparently, Wall Street investors prefer that disruption be applied to business and not to fashion. When Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder of Facebook, began his IPO tour to persuade Wall Street investors to purchase stock in his company, he showed up in his iconic hoodie. In doing so, he continued a […]
View Post Analyst, Brooks Brothers, Business Attire, Dress Code, Fashion, Hoodie, Initial Public Offering, IPO, Izod, Michael Pachter, New York City, R. Jewels Diamond, Rolex, Silicon Valley, Wall Street
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. —C. S. Lewis, author, theologian. “I’m too old to start a business,” said my forty-four-year-old friend when I encouraged her to become an entrepreneur. I shook my head as she rambled on about how she has too many responsibilities and […]
View Post Age, Alfred Hitchcock, David Galenson, Experimental Innovators, Film, Hollywood, Inspiration, Instagram, Kevin Systrom, Main Street, Mark Twain, Media, Motivation, Research, Sole Proprietorship, University of Chicago