Do You Have The Brains, Brawn and Mindset To Be An Entrepreneur: Carol Roth Interview
In these challenging financial times, President Obama is encouraging Americans to lift the economy and restore the stocks of this proud nation by reinventing themselves as the new wave of can do entrepreneurs.
Great if you are cut out for it and have the appetite for calculated risks, a bright idea and the stamina of a marathon runner, but what if you are not and don’t know that.
I suggest you listen to Carol Roth who has sage advice for would be tycoons too in lust with their million dollar idea but have not enough business sense to execute their plans.
Click here to listen Carol Roth Interview (unlinked)
She is an investment banker who used her business strategies to secure more than $1 billion for her clients and complete hundreds of millions of dollars in mergers and acquisitions.
Carol knows a thing or two about this subject and recently authored “The Entrepreneur Equation-Evaluating the Realities, Risks and Rewards of Having Your Own Business” a must read for anyone who is tempted to tell their boss to do the anatomically impossible, quit and assume they can create a fortune from their first business venture.
Carol uses her “Spinach In Your Teeth” method of communication that is both truthful and compassionate to let you know if you have the brains, brawn and mindset for the brief. As painful as it is, the uncomfortable fact for some is that being employed may be the best option for all concerned.
With refreshing candour, Carol encourages women entrepreneurs to acknowledge but not buy into the real or perceived gender divide in the world of big business. She tells with grace and good humour her own experience in this regard when she inadvertently found herself the recipient of the “Best Legs in the Business” award.
Get more information and no nonsense advice on www.CarolRoth.com
Robert Jordan Interview: Six Success Tips for Aspiring Billionaires (How They Did It)
If you are like me, you too will wonder about what sets these seemingly ordinary people apart from the rest in terms of their capacity to recognize and identify a need, develop a service or a widget that addresses that need and then go on realize their goal of turning their ideas into millions of dollars.
I asked Robert Jordan who has compiled interviews with 45 billionaire entrepreneurs and published his book telling us how they did it. Below are six indispensable tips that helped them succeed. 
Click here to listen Robert Jordan Interview (unlinked)
Robert Jordan is an entrepreneur and author who has made it his mission to discover the “secret sauce” used by self made billionaires to launch themselves from growing an idea into $100 million dollar companies or if it suits, taking their pride and joy public to the tune of $300 million or more.
Robert’s entrée into their world is paved by his own success when he launched and grew his startup company, Online Access, the first Internet-coverage magazine that made it on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies.
As is quintessential a characteristic of all serial entrepreneurs, he then sold his highly profitable Online Access and proceeded to start up a couple more companies, RedFlash, a project implementation team, and interimCEOinterimCFO, a worldwide network of interim, contract, and project executives.
Robert’s gift for getting consensus saw 21 of the eventual 45 founders agreeing to meet and freely share their insights, occasional pain and billion dollar experiences.
Their collective wisdom has been distilled into his latest book, How they did it: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America. 
He freely admits this book was a labor of love, driven by an insatiable curiosity to know the minds and passions of this select group of diverse individuals.
All aspiring entrepreneurs who believe they are billionaires in the making will do well to heed the advice of the 45 who have gone before them. Here are just six tips to steer you to success:
1. Do not be afraid to fail; if and when you do, make sure you fail fast.
2. Do not be precious about your idea, be willing to tweak it
3. Leave your ego at the door; be astute enough to hire people smarter than you
4. However, make sure they are nice not just smart.
5. Honestly is still the best policy, so be on the level when communicating with the people who work for you because no one becomes a billionaire on their own.
6. Believe in the goodness of your angel investors but have Plans B, C and D just in case they decide to bail
Find Robert Jordan on http://www.HowTheyDidItBook.com
Dal LaMagna Interview: Failure Is Not Final
If you subscribe to self-development eNewsletters, round about this time of the year, (late January of 2011), your inbox will be inundated with a ton of emails with subject headings like “10 reasons why your new year’s resolutions have failed” and that is usually followed by an offer of “How we can help”.
If you have stuck with your resolution to improve your health, fitness, finances, and personal relationships then kudos to you.
Okay, so the title of this article may sound like one of those motivational, “Come on people, pick yourself up when you’re down” types.
Maybe it is, may be it isn’t. It all depends on your perspective.
Dal LaMagna Interview You can download the mp3 recording and pdf transcript of this interview by going to http://yourmoneyandyourmindset.com/online-store/
You see, we often make the mistake that successful people (millionaires) burst on to the scene as readymade straight out of the box (overnight) successes.
Some of these erroneous assumptions are engineered by the popular press because of the higher drama impact it has on the reader and hence circulation, and revenue (ooh, isn’t that cynical).
The reality is more boring, but nevertheless equally important.
It isn’t sexy to talk about the hard yards, sacrifices and sense of self belief and faith these people showed in the face of adversity.
Show me a person who claims to have just thought up an idea, implemented it and cashed in the millions of dollars without breaking into a sweat and I will show you Pinocchio.
So, I am going to throw you this idea. If you don’t fail, you will not know how to succeed. No, it’s not a mind bender, it actually occurs with predictable frequency.
I have made it my mission to ask self made millionaires how they arrived at their current situation.
Not a single millionaire has glossed over their multiple attempts before finally getting the right business plan, system or model to work well for them. Their candour and honesty is indeed refreshing.
Therefore, I would like to share with you the following interview with Mr Dal LaMagna, the founder of Tweezerman. He is actually a funny guy.
Mr Tweezerman
I have included a synopsis and titled the interview: How to fail your way to success
Dal LaMagna speaks honestly about his sixteen failed business ventures including turning down an offer from Coca Cola and saying no to being involved with the Woodstock Music Festival before he made his fortune from his company Tweezerman.
Tweezerman started as a one-man operation with seed capital of $500. By using head and heart business principles to grow his venture, he was able to walk away with millions when he sold it years later.
Dal shares his wisdom and insights on how to succeed as an entrepreneur in his new book Raising Eyebrows: A Failed Entrepreneur Finally Gets It Right (John Wiley & Sons).
He has done a huge favor to all the budding business tycoons out there by being up front and authentic when he tells it like it is which means you have to do the hard yards and own up to your mistakes, and that’s just for starters.
What more, the man shows that you can be a capitalist and have a social conscience.
I found Dal’s leadership style inspirational-there aren’t many CEOs who genuinely care and will take onboard every employee’s suggestion to grow a business.
Tweezerman flourished because Dal had the foresight to make each and every employee a partner in the business. Yes folks, they got a share of the revenue, not just a monthly pay check.
Do yourself a favor, get the book and read Dal’s many tips on how to succeed in business, and maybe just maybe you will not need to fail 16 times before hitting the mother lode.
Find him at his website:
http://www.dallamagna.com
What has leadership got to do with becoming wealthy: Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, I finished with the statement that a good leader demonstrates emotional intelligence in his/her daily dealings with their staff.
A good leader realizes and publicly acknowledges that they cannot achieve their goals on their own, and a good leader learns to place their well-founded trust in their staff.
This folks, is another form of leveraging of your time (as in time equals money) to succeed in whatever business you are in.
So, how do you recruit good staff who share the same values, ie work ethic and general outlook in life. In other words, how do you find the best people who will fit nicely into your business organization.
Well, I am a firm believer in asking questions beyond the standard run of the mill enquiries so beloved of human resource types, during a formal interview process.
Without straying into the “no go” zone about their personal life, and orientation which is none of my business, I want to know what makes them tick, what inspires them to get out of bed in the morning to come and work for me.
This is because I can then get a better sense of the person. To me they are not a number or a drone but real people who have real feelings, fears and aspirations and hopefully a burning ambition and a bit of fire in their belly.
It’s a bit like being on a first date, a lot of this time is spent talking, shooting the breeze and when a person is at ease, they reveal themselves.
All I have to do is shut up and listen and observe. So, a good leader knows when to speak and when to be quiet. I’d hazard the ratio is a 20:80 split. Do you get my drift?
Do yourself a favor and read up on body language; believe me that speaks volumes when it comes to getting an honest response from your interview candidate.
As I previously said, people are not motivated by money as much as feeling that their contribution is worthwhile and publicly acknowledged.
This is the human connection that you are looking for. If you get this right, your people will go the extra mile for you, simply because you have gotten them wholly involved in your vision.
And it all comes down to the “C” word, communication.
For the old school types, communication consists of me (the boss) talking and you (the minion) listening and carrying out my wishes. It does remind me of one of those typical army movies where the drill sergeant yells at the recruit, “Hey, meathead, if I want your opinion, I will give it to you”.
For the rest of us who do not subscribe to this method of communication, stay tuned and I will share with you some worthwhile ideas.
Yours in health, wealth and happiness
Women Executives: Leadership Role Models (Part 4)
So, you have arrived at a position within your organisation that has some degree of autonomy and responsibility. In fact, you now lead a team of individuals, with unique talents.
Your boss has handed you a brief that requires your team to deliver on an important project on time and on budget. You know that it is the make or break opportunity and you really want to prove that you have what it takes.
This is your springboard to making it at the executive management level, your holy grail.
However, you also notice that you are going boldly to where no other woman has been, in fact your company is devoid of women executives. So, nada and zip in terms of finding a role model or a mentor in a skirt and killer heels. Bummer!
You are a modern woman (read resourceful, and confident), and you take it upon yourself to hire a career or executive coach to fast track your ambitions.
Any coach worth their salt will start with working out what makes you tick.
I am fond of quoting this line from Sun Tzu, “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle”–Art of War
In other words, if you want to achieve (and earn) more, you have to become more.
You cannot expect to operate on a higher level without first making the necessary changes in the way you think, behave and conduct yourself. If you are expecting circumstances to adapt to suit you (as you are now), you are going to be waiting a very long time to become successful.
Have you given some serious though about what it means to be a well respected and effective leader?
In your present role where you work for your immediate boss, ask yourself what is it that you admire about him/her. Conversely what do not like very much about the way they run their unit or department especially in their daily interaction with their team.
List what you consider as the traits of your ideal leader, a person that you’d happily become. What are the interpersonal skills that you would like that person to possess?
Remember, to be an effective leader means getting your team to carry out a piece of work to a standard and level above what they would normally deliver. More importantly, it is getting them to do this willingly without cajoling or the threat of unemployment!
Bottom line: It means being influential and having your people opt in to your vision and goals.
I shall leave you to ponder this for the time being.
Yours in health, wealth and happiness
Women Executives: Leadership Role Models (Part 3)
If my 2 previous posts have seemed less than optimistic, let me assure you that there is hope (for us all!).
Below is an article by Professor Ginka Toegel the Director of Strategies for Leadership Program, International Institute of Management Development, Switzerland.
Companies are not setting themselves these targets out of some generalized notion of equality but because there is a strong business case for them to do so.
There has been a great deal of research in this area that suggests the value of having gender diverse management teams.
For example, companies that have more than three women in management positions tend to have better return on equity and assets than do those with fewer women.
They also tend to score higher on organizational effectiveness criteria. Equally, women board members tend to be very well-prepared for meetings, which raises the benchmark for others.
This subsequently leads to better discussions, and better decisions.
So, there is a clear business case for companies hiring and promoting more senior women. But what is life like for the women who are already in these roles?
When we have less than 15 percent of a minority in a social category, we talk about tokens.
And anyone who is in that position is likely to be under a huge amount of pressure, as they are highly visible, and frequently will feel that they represent not just themselves, but their entire category.
At 25 percent – in many companies this is currently the target – they are still in a minority, but they are no longer tokens.
The tipping point is 35 percent: once we reach this level, visibility becomes less of an issue and women’s identity as women becomes less salient.
Past this point, when women speak, they are heard as individuals with their own separate backgrounds, values and personalities, not as “the woman”.
Her opinions and views are not reduced to her gender.
The problem at the moment is that we have so few senior women in management positions that they are perceived as outsiders.
This creates a kind of legitimacy gap, in that they do not fit the (male) stereotype of what it is to be a leader.
This leads in turn to another problem, which is that male leaders tend to be associated with “agentic” behavior: they are more likely to be proactive, assertive, dominant, in control of the situation.
Female leaders, by contrast, show what we call “communal values”: friendliness, support, warmth and a caring attitude.
When we look at these two sets of values, it becomes clear that it is the agentic approach that we associate with leadership.
Many women come to the conclusion that, as a result of these stereotypes, the only way for them to be perceived to be legitimate leaders is to emulate male leaders.
However, the real answer is not so straightforward.
If women simply emulate men, they violate the gender stereotype, which creates a perception that they are being phony.
This creates a real problem, and can lead to them being penalized for being inauthentic leaders.
Women should instead blend both sets of characteristics.
Indra Nooyi, the Chief Executive and Chairwoman of PepsiCo, does this very successfully; she can make tough decisions and is very assertive in negotiations, but her direct reports also describe her as extremely warm and caring.
What then of the future? Well, despite the disappointing statistics there are many good reasons to be positive.
The next 5 to 10 years will see a dramatic change for the better.
Women managers can contribute to this by understanding that there are certain expectations related to organizational leadership, and developing their skills accordingly.
Women Executives: Leadership Role Models (Part 2)
Just in case you are wondering if there is still a stigma attached to being a woman and aspiring to executive and management roles, please read the article below.
I would be very interested to hear your thoughts
Maternity leave will kill your career, recruitment companies warn women
By Jane Hansen The Sunday Telegraph, September 19, 2010
Pregnancy
Refusing to promote a woman because she pregnant is illegal but recruitment agents believe those who take maternity leave are less likely to get ahead.
HEAD-hunting companies say women should forgo maternity leave if they want their careers to flourish.
Refusing promotion to an employee because she is pregnant is illegal, but leading head-hunters admit mothers are more likely to be promoted to top-level positions, such as chief executive officer or board director, if they do not take maternity leave.
“You’re only the parent of a one-year-old for a short time and if an employee is worried about childcare arrangements, uncomfortable, or worrying who’s looking after the baby, then I’m not sure you’ll be focused on the job,” recruitment firm Talent 2’s New South Wales (Australia) general manager Nicholas Tuckfield said of women who return from maternity leave too early.
Mr Tuckfield, who head-hunts candidates for jobs with salaries of more than $100,000, said taking 12 months’ maternity leave in an extremely competitive job market would have a negative impact.
He said at senior executive level, where MBAs were mandatory and long hours par for the course, competition was stiff.
Highly competitive
“On a logical level, if you’re out of the workforce for 12 months you don’t advance your managerial skills and, inevitably, everyone else does,” he said.
“You don’t get to the top doing 37 1/2 hours a week.
“It’s highly competitive, and if you’re an aspiring rising star and take a year out, your star won’t keep rising.”
Julia Ross, who was pregnant when she set up her recruitment agency 22 years ago, said although times were changing, at the executive level it was unforgiving.
“If you’re aiming for managing director, stopping and starting your career will make it tougher to place yourself properly,” Ms Ross said.
“You may even pass up promotions but, hey, it didn’t stop (Westpac Chief Executive Officer) Gail Kelly, did it?”
Fair Work Ombudsman chief counsel Leigh Johns said more than 70 pregnancy discrimination complaints had been made to the agency since its inception in July last year.
Complaints
A prosecution has been launched in the case of a 36-year-old mother-of-one who allegedly was told she might not be able to return to her position as clerical worker and that her pregnancy had “caused inconvenience” for a printing company.
Several of the complaints, including those arising from employers declining to keep a job open, demotion of someone on parental leave, and refusing promotion to an employee because she is pregnant, are currently under investigation.
Mr Johns said women needed to be aware of their rights.
“News of impending parenthood should be met with delight, not discrimination,” he said.
Neil Waters from Egon Zehnder, a company which specialises in placing chief executives, said if a woman was genuinely good at her job she would be given the right to juggle work and pregnancy.
“You can’t put a line through someone because they’re going to bear a child … but there are trade-offs and not everyone can make them,” he said.
“The CEO becomes the company. It’s hard work, 18 hours a day, six days a week, and it’s an enormous commitment.”
Slow change
Other top level executive recruitment officers, such as Heidi Mason from Russell Reynolds, said the findings were a reflection of an old, conservative view which was slowly changing.
“I think there’s a perception that there’s an impact, but we’re starting to respect that men and women who balance their lives make better leaders,” Ms Mason said.
But the fact remains that only two per cent of chief executive roles are held by women, and men outnumber women on boards by 10 to one.
The NSW Anti Discrimination Board president Stepan Kerkyasharian said there are unwritten rules at play that explain the deficit of women in the upper echelons of business.
“Some recruitment agencies may be complicit in this, a client says to them ‘no, we don’t want a women who might get pregnant’ wink, wink, nudge nudge,” he said.
Women Executives: Leadership Role Models (Part 1)
If you think 21st century women have it made as top flight executives, Chief Executive Officers and the ultimate holy grail of governance as Chairman of the Board of a multi national corporation, think again.
Male captains of industry have been fortunate to have so many outstanding male examples to model as they ascend the corporate ladder. In fact there is an embarrassment of riches with regards to asking and getting a strong and positive mentor to help them grow and develop into the top job.
The same cannot be said for females. Women executives in leadership positions are few and far in between according to some statistics I uncovered.
A 2008 Australian Census of Women in Leadership published by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency found that the number of women on boards and executive management of Australia’s top 200 ASX (Australian Stock Exchange) companies could be counted on fingers on one hand (with one digit to spare).
The percentage of women as Chairman and CEOs were 4 of 200 (2.0%) in each category; board of directors numbered 125 of 1504 (8.3%).
There was no female on the board of directors in 51 % of these ASX 200 listed companies.
Because we see more women in business suits today (than say in the 1950s) there is an assumption that they must occupy executive management positions. The reality is that there are more women in middle management positions in human resources, finance, medical and health administration, and real estate and property businesses today than any other time.
However, at the pointy end i.e., top management where the real game is played, women are under represented.
In 2010, only 2.8 percent of Fortune 500 chief executives were female.
I believe that sisters need to do it for themselves.
Specifically they need strong, smart and compassionate female role models to help them navigate their way through the management maze.
How will they do this? I will discuss some strategies in my next post.
Yours in health, wealth and happiness