Picking the Winners

How do you pick future champions while they are still young and developing? How do you identify a talented team of entrepreneurs at an early stage? How do you measure the real potential of a startup business? (more…)

Be Careful What You Believe

Henry Ford is one of my heroes. He was a pioneer of large-scale mass production, he founded the Ford Motor Company and he produced the Model T in 1909 - a product that forever changed the world’s idea about what was truly possible. (more…)

When Life Leaks In

I had an email exchange with a business associate last night. What started as a work discussion, emerged into a dialog about life and death, values and meaning. She wrote that she had received some bad news lately. I inquired what it was. She told me that she has recently...

Worshiping Genius

“Italy worships Genius, but has not yet figured out how to create a culture of entrepreneurship”. This was an interesting statement made by the Executive Director of the Italian Angels for Growth, Lorenzo Fanchini at last week’s semi-final of the European Venture Contest (EEVC) held in Turin. Italy is a...

“If you are so smart… why are you not rich?”

“If you are so smart, why are you not rich?” I saw this written on a T-shirt the other day at a gathering of entrepreneurs. It was a blatant challenge and it made me stop and think. In looking back on my 20 years as an entrepreneur, have I failed...

A Crisis is a Terrible thing to Waste (Part 2) – Smoke Signals

When I was a boy I loved to watch “Cowboy and Indian” programs on television. The plots were always the same. They usually started with a group of settlers – who were traveling in their covered wagons towards some dream of a better life in a faraway place. Then would...

Meetings with Remarkable Men

I saw a strange French movie in 1979 that made a big impact on me. It was called Meetings with Remarkable Men and told the story of G.Gurdjieff, a philosopher who traveled through Central Asia in order to discover spirituality through dance, music, near-encounters with death and by meeting remarkable...

A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste (Part 1)

My own company is in a crisis right now… a real crisis with tough decisions to make, sleepless nights to endure and an impending sense of doom that is like a nasty hangover.  A bit of bad luck, bad timing, some strategic mistakes and a global financial crisis have all...

Expose yourself and show your heart

Exposing yourself may get you arrested, but for a small business it is critical. Too many startups fail to clearly communicate who they are – I mean who they REALLY are. Today I held a speech for approx. 250 small business leaders from an association in Norway called Growth Companies...