Do M.B.A.s Make Better Entrepreneurs?

It's one thing to learn how to crunch numbers for an investment bank, quite another to start the next Microsoft, Google or even a decent restaurant.....

In the last 10 to 15 years, business schools have massaged their curricula to attract and then train the next generation of Bill Gateses, Sergey Brins and Karan Goels. Along with core classes in accounting and marketing, students now tackle interdisciplinary exercises with macro themes like globalization and environmental sustainability. They even team with engineering schools to learn how to start and run companies, not just maneuver spreadsheets.........

The number of U.S. business-school faculty teaching entrepreneurship classes has exploded, to 349 in 2006 from 12 in 1997, according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business......

Of the members of Forbes' 400 Wealthiest Americans, approximately two-thirds each year are self-made. How many of those carry M.B.A.s? In 2006, just 15%, down from 17% five years earlier.

The Secret to Reinventing Yourself

How do you leverage the things you’ve done in the past for what you want to do in the future?

What have you done in the past that can enhance your personal brand? Remember, you’re more than the sum of your parts. You’re an evolving person who in the act of change has an edge over the other guy who doesn’t have your background. As the adage goes, you’re not getting older, just better.

How big is your bull?

Milo of Kroton was a famous Olympic wrestler in ancient Greece and was said to be the strongest man of his time. How he gained that strength is a tale worth telling and one that can teach us about ways to achieve our own goals.

When Milo was young, his family had a small farm and, on that farm, a small bull calf. Milo’s father placed the bull in Milo’s care and instructed his son to ensure that the bull grew up healthy and strong. One day, Milo’s father asked him, “How big is your bull today, Milo?” Milo ran outside, picked up the calf and carried him inside to show his father.

Each day, Milo’s father asked him “How big is your bull today, Milo?” and each day Milo ran outside, picked up the bull and carried him to his father. This went on for a number of years. As the bull grew, so did Milo’s strength.

One day, his father was competing in the games at the great Olympic Stadium. Knowing his son’s incredible strength would shock the crowd, Milo’s father asked his son the familiar question, “How big is your bull today, Milo?” Milo ran the short distance to their farm, picked up the now full-grown bull and carried him into the great stadium, placing him by his father’s side.

The crowd, seeing Milo carry a full-grown bull on his shoulders, erupted in applause. Word of his feat spread across the land and a legend was born.

In exercise physiology, this story represents the principle of progressive overload, or the need to progressively increase the degree to which we challenge ourselves when exercising in order to see continued improvements in our fitness. Fortunately or unfortunately, the human body is a great adapter and it will adjust, as necessary, to the amount of physical activity we undertake.

For example, 3.0 miles per hour might be a great speed on the treadmill when you first begin exercising but your body will soon adapt to that stimulus and will require a greater challenge if you want to keep seeing results. By gradually increasing the speed each week, you will continue to see improvements from your exercise routine.

In the story above, Milo became progressively stronger because he lifted a progressively heavier and heavier weight each day. If he had simply lifted the same size bull everyday, he would not have gotten any stronger because there would have been no need for him to get stronger. Likewise, if you are no longer seeing results from your exercise sessions, you need to ask yourself what you are doing differently today that will keep you progressively moving toward your goal.

Also, notice that Milo does not begin by trying to lift a full-grown bull. Instead, he begins when the bull is young and small and lifts him each day. It often takes great perseverance and patience to achieve a goal. Had Milo first attempted to lift the full-grown bull, he would have quickly become frustrated (and possibly injured) and given up, never realizing his true potential.

With exercise, begin easy and gradually work your way up to increasingly more challenging workouts. Make small adjustments to the intensity of your aerobic workouts and small increases in the weights you use when strength training. The objective is to establish a reasonable goal and then keep progressing toward it at a pace you can handle.

Lastly, the story demonstrates the need for consistency in your exercise program. If Milo had skipped a week or two every now and then, there is a good chance that bull would have outgrown him and he may never have caught up again. By sticking with it, day after day, Milo shows how important it is to maintain a consistent routine when trying to reach our goals. Each day is one small step towards your goal; don’t be afraid to take a bigger step today than you did yesterday.

Progressive increases in intensity, realistic goals, and consistent workouts will go a long way toward keeping you on the path to your own fitness goals. When you’re feeling impatient due to a lack of results from your exercise or diet plan, remember the words of Milo’s father - “How big is your bull?”. What are you doing today that has you progressing toward your goals for tomorrow?

Good luck and keep moving!

By Dan Strayton

http://209.15.46.229/fitnesspro/news/77.shtml

RISK-TAKING

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams, before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.

Quotes from Brian Tracy

Quotes from Brian Tracy.

Brian Tracy

“One of the things, which I teach over and over again that is so important, is that nobody’s better than you and nobody’s smarter than you. People who are doing well have learned the rules!” -Brian Tracy

“Therefore, if you want to be successful at anything, the rule that’s number one is that all the answers have been found already. You don’t have to find a new answer. Somebody’s already paid dearly to find the answer. And if you find the answer and do what the other people did, you get the same result, and it’s as simple as that.” -Brian Tracy

“ I’ve found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often. ” -Brian Tracy

“ You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile. ” -Brian Tracy

“ Perhaps the very best question that you can memorize and repeat, over and over, is, “what is the most valuable use of my time right now?” ” -Brian Tracy

“ A major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions. There is something about a well-worded question that often penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights. ” - Brian Tracy

“ Practice Golden-Rule 1 of Management in everything you do. Manage others the way you would like to be managed. ” -Brian Tracy

“ A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power. ” -Brian Tracy

“ People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine. ” -Brian Tracy

“ If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals. ”

-Brian Tracy

“ The Unsuccessful Salesperson says, the other guy has the best territory.
The Successful Salesperson says, every territory is the best one.
The Unsuccessful Salesperson says, that company will never buy.
The Successful Salesperson says, I can make that company buy ” -Brian Tracy

“ I believe through learning and application of what you learn, you can solve any problem, overcome any obstacle and achieve any goal that you can set for yourself. ” -Brian Tracy

“ The essence of a successful business is really quite simple. It is your ability to offer a product or service that people will pay for at a price sufficiently above your costs, ideally three or four or five times your cost, thereby giving you a profit that enables you to buy and to offer more products and services. ” -Brian Tracy

“ One quality of leaders and high achievers in every area seems to be a commitment to ongoing personal and professional development. ” -Brian Tracy

Myth Busters : Leadership & Management

Entrepreneurs & Leaders : It's simply a myth that entrepreneurs can't evolve into company builders. He says research shows quite the opposite: In great companies the entrepreneurs generally grow as the company grows. Here is a short list of those who evolved into company builders: Henry Ford, Sam Walton, Hewlett and Packard, J.W. Marriott, Sony's Akio Morita, Walt Disney, Intel's Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, Southwest Airlines' Herb Kelleher, and of course Gates and Phil Knight. They made the shift from time telling to clock building - to seeing their primary creation as the company itself: what it stands for, its culture and how it operates.

Success & Pride : He finds willful humility in the best CEO’s who display tremendous ambition for their company combined with the stoic will to do whatever it takes, no matter how brutal (within the bounds of the company's core values), to make the company great. They ascribe much of their own success to luck, discipline and preparation rather than personal genius.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/02/19/8400260/index.htm

A peek inside Google's war chest

Google has filed its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending 2006, and there are some interesting tidbits in there. First off, the company's good financial performance over the past several years—going from revenues of $439.5 million in 2002 to $10.6 billion in 2006—has resulted in a massive war chest. Google's cash and short-term investments amounted to over $11.2 billion at the end of 2006. That's a 433 percent increase from 2004's $2.1 billion, and there is little to indicate that the growth party will end any time soon.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070302-8966.html