Timid salesmen have skinny kids. —Zig Ziglar, author, motivational speaker Reality hit us like a Mack truck and stopped us dead in our tracks. Although we reached our goal of creating OmniPublisher, one of the first content management systems built specifically for newspapers and other periodicals, we realized that we forgot to include the most […]
View Post Apple, Eduardo Saverin, Facebook, George Cloutier, Goldman Sachs, Mack Truck, Mark Zuckerberg, Netflix, OmniPublisher, Pandora, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Twitter, Webvan, Zig Ziglar
Everybody can tell you how to do it, they never did it. —Jay-Z, recording artist, entrepreneur. Since I started my business, I have been fortunate to have excellent mentors who have helped me to grow as an entrepreneur. In fact, not only have they been great advisers, but they have also brought me valuable clients. […]
View Post Advisory Board, Angel Investor, Board, Fear, Initial Public Offering, Mentors, Mentorship, Venture Capitalist
You don’t pay taxes. They take taxes. —Chris Rock, comedian, actor I was anxious out of my wits as I sat in my chair waiting for the calculations to tabulate. I had dreaded this day ever since the previous January, when I knew I had only three months left until the deadline. On that early […]
View Post Chris Rock, EIN, IRS, Taxes
Systems are the essential building blocks of every successful business. —Ron Carroll, entrepreneur, business coach As a computer science major in college matriculating with some of the brightest students from around the world, I quickly learned that my computer programming skills were not the most economical. I could get the job done, but not in […]
View Post Henry Ford
The man who has no problems is out of the game. —Elbert Hubbard, writer, philosopher. When checking my e-mail one morning, I noticed an urgent subject: “Web Site Down. Call Immediately.” This wasn’t a good sign. I knew then that it was going to be a long day—and it was. Until that moment, I had […]
View Post Customer Service, OmniPublisher, Software, Strategy, Technology
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
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
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
The customer determines at the end of the day who is successful and for what reason. —Jerry Harvey, inventor, entrepreneur Everyone talks about how entrepreneurship affords you freedom and independence to do what you want. No longer do you have to suffer the rigid and long hours of corporate America. Nor do you have a […]
View Post Apple, Bank of America, BlackBerry, Circuit City, Facebook, IBM, Jerry Harvey, likes, Verizon Wireless, Wells Fargo