The Profit Prophet

I will begin and end this article with two quotations. The first is from Edward Rogers: "You don't deserve to be called an entrepreneur unless you've mortgaged your house to the business." --Edward S. (Ted) Rogers  This one sentence pretty much says it all. Entrepreneurs are not necessary gamblers, but they are willing to put everything they own, or go all in, in order to make it happen. In the classical sense an entrepreneur is define as anyone who has possession of a new enterprise, endeavor, venture or idea, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks associated with the development, growth, and outcome. He or she is an organizer who combines land, labor, material resources, and/or capital to create and market new goods, products, or services. The term "entrepreneur" is loaned from the French and was first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon, where the term was applied to the type of persona who was willing to take upon th...

Since I have been emailing friends for over 15 years with quotations, and keep a post of quotations ( wordecho.blogspot.com ), I have been asked by quite a friends to compile a list of quotations that would best describe the characteristics of an entrepreneur since it seems like most "Best" lists just seem to be a Hodge-podge of quotations without any real focus. In a previous post ( Traits of an Entrepreneur ), I listed the 18 traits of an entrepreneur which are: Creative, Perseverance, Self-Confident, Intuitive, Independent, Self-Motivated, Optimistic, Focused, Forward-Looking, Decisive, Enterprising, Disciplined, Cooperative, Results Oriented, Energetic, Persuasive and Organized.  This list of quotations highlight these 18 characteristics. 1. “Creative people are at their most productive when they appear to be doing nothing.”             --Tim Askew 2. “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies i...

You know, the BIG NEW thing nowadays is creativity in the workplace. Companies of all sizes are asking how can we come up with new ideas, or get our employees to be more creative, or somehow come up with more ideas on how to solve problems...And that's the rub! The more you try to FORCE creativity, the less creative you are..but have you ever noticed how children have NO PROBLEM with being creative? In any case, I thought this little story about how a father sees his kids seeing the world might shed a little light on the subject. Through Their Eyes - author unknown When I look at a patch of dandelions, I see a bunch of weeds that are going to take over my yard. My kids see flowers for Mom and blowing white fluff, you can wish on. When I look at an old drunk and he smiles at me, I see a smelly, dirty person who probably wants money and I look away. My kids see someone smiling at them and they smile back. When I hear music I love, I know I can't carry a tune and don...