Along with the notion that an entrepreneur has to be a ruthless warrior, there's another metaphor that gets used a lot for small business owners--you've gotta have brass balls. Apart from the irritating implication that only people with certain kinds of plumbing get to be successful, once you start meeting a lot of extremely successful people, you … [Read more...] about Do We Really Need Brass Balls?
Dumb Things Small Businesses Do #7: Following the Herd
Human beings are wired funny. We were given these giant brains so we could be creative, could think of new ways to do things, could come up with incredible new inventions. We even have opposable thumbs, with which we can make all kinds of nifty tools like the wheel, the printing press, and Twitter. But we also have a big scary alarm that goes off … [Read more...] about Dumb Things Small Businesses Do #7: Following the Herd
Why This is the Best Time to Finally Break Free
I've been thinking about Moscow again. I was there in the late spring of 1997. I can still remember gripping the arm rest on the plane as we circled the dachas outside the city. I was terrified. I thought of Moscow as the "Wild, Wild East" (It turns out it had calmed down considerably since, say, 1994, when the mafiya is reputed to have used … [Read more...] about Why This is the Best Time to Finally Break Free
Dumb Things Small Businesses Do #6: Ingratitude
So instead of the obligatory Thanksgiving post where we talk about gratitude (don't get me wrong, I think gratitude is awesome), I'm going to assume you know enough to stop for a second and remember how much amazing stuff is in your life. How many fantastic people, how much material abundance (even when it doesn’t feel that way), how much … [Read more...] about Dumb Things Small Businesses Do #6: Ingratitude
