1. Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way

“Oh, screw it, let’s do it.”

That’s the philosophy that has allowed Richard Branson, in slightly more than twenty-five years, to spawn so many successful ventures. From the airline business (Virgin Atlantic Airways), to music (Virgin Records and V2), to cola (Virgin Cola), to retail (Virgin Megastores), and nearly a hundred others, ranging from financial services to bridal wear, Branson has a track record second to none.

Losing My Virginity is the unusual, frequently outrageous autobiography of one of the great business geniuses of our time. When Richard Branson started his first business, he and his friends decided that “since we’re complete virgins at business, let’s call it just that: Virgin.” Since then, Branson has written his own “rules” for success, creating a group of companies with a global presence, but no central headquarters, no management hierarchy, and minimal bureaucracy.

Many of Richard Branson’s companies—airlines, retailing, and cola are good examples—were started in the face of entrenched competition. The experts said, “Don’t do it.” But Branson found golden opportunities in markets in which customers have been ripped off or underserved, where confusion reigns, and the competition is complacent. And in this stressed-out, overworked age, Richard Branson gives us a new model: a dynamic, hardworking, successful entrepreneur who lives life to the fullest. Family, friends, fun, and adventure are equally important as business in Branson’s life. Losing My Virginity is a portrait of a productive, sane, balanced life, filled with rich and colorful stories.

2. Steve Jobs

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

3. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

You want to learn about the path that we took at Zappos to get to over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales in less than ten years. You want to learn about the path I took that eventually led me to Zappos, and the lessons I learned along the way. You want to learn from all the mistakes we made at Zappos over the years so that your business can avoid making some of the same ones.

You want to figure out the right balance of profits, passion, and purpose in business and in life. You want to build a long-term, enduring business and brand. You want to create a stronger company culture, which will make your employees and coworkers happier and create more employee engagement, leading to higher productivity. You want to deliver a better customer experience, which will make your customers happier and create more customer loyalty, leading to increased profits.

4. The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal

Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were Harvard undergraduates and best friends–outsiders at a school filled with polished prep-school grads and long-time legacies. They shared both academic brilliance in math and a geeky awkwardness with women. Eduardo figured their ticket to social acceptance–and sexual success–was getting invited to join one of the university’s Final Clubs, a constellation of elite societies that had groomed generations of the most powerful men in the world and ranked on top of the inflexible hierarchy at Harvard. Mark, with less of an interest in what the campus alpha males thought of him, happened to be a computer genius of the first order.

Which he used to find a more direct route to social stardom: one lonely night, Mark hacked into the university’s computer system, creating a ratable database of all the female students on campus–and subsequently crashing the university’s servers and nearly getting himself kicked out of school. In that moment, in his Harvard dorm room, the framework for Facebook was born.

What followed–a real-life adventure filled with slick venture capitalists, stunning women, and six-foot-five-inch identical-twin Olympic rowers–makes for one of the most entertaining and compelling books of the year. Before long, Eduardo’s and Mark’s different ideas about Facebook created in their relationship faint cracks, which soon spiraled into out-and-out warfare. The collegiate exuberance that marked their collaboration fell prey to the adult world of lawyers and money. The great irony is that while Facebook succeeded by bringing people together, its very success tore two best friends apart.  You want to build something special.

5. The Mary Kay Way: Timeless Principles from America’s Greatest Woman Entrepreneur

Mary Kay Ash built a global independent sales force that today numbers 1.8 million women, and is respected by business and academic leaders. How? The secret is in this book.  For forty-five years, the principles in The Mary Kay Way have helped the company succeed through changing economic times and explosive global growth. It has been said that no company wholeheartedly embodies the values and reflects the beliefs of its founder more than Mary Kay Inc. Now you can put the same inspiring principles to work for you.

Recognized today as America’s greatest woman entrepreneur, Mary Kay Ash stepped out in 1963 in a man’s world to blaze a new path for women. She grew her business based not on the rules of competition, but on The Golden Rule. By “praising people to success” and “sandwiching every bit of criticism between two heavy layers of praise,” this energetic Texas titan opened new opportunities for women around the world and built a multibillion-dollar corporation.

Mary Kay’s unconventional business philosophy was first published in 1984. Now revised and updated for the first time, with examples from her company’s top independent salespeople, The Mary Kay Way is perhaps her most important legacy.

6. Sam Walton: Made in America : My Story

Meet a genuine American folk hero cut from the homespun cloth of America’s heartland: Sam Walton, who parlayed a single dime store in a hardscrabble cotton town into Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world.  The undisputed merchant king of the late twentieth century, Sam never lost the common touch.  Here, finally, inimitable words.  Genuinely modest, but always sure if his ambitions and achievements.  Sam shares his thinking in a candid, straight-from-the-shoulder style.

In a story rich with anecdotes and the “rules of the road” of both Main Street and Wall Street, Sam Walton chronicles the inspiration, heart, and optimism that propelled him to lasso the American Dream.

The national bestseller that tells the fascinating life story and unique business philosophy of billionaire Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. Meet a genuine American folk hero cut from the homespun cloth of America’s heartland, who parlayed a single dime-store in a hardscrabble cotton town into the largest retailer in the world.

7. Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

Since 1987, Starbucks’s star has been on the rise, growing from 11 Seattle, WA-based stores to more than 1,000 worldwide. Its goals grew, too, from the more modest, albeit fundamental one of offering high-quality coffee beans roasted to perfection to, more recently, opening a new store somewhere every day. An exemplary success story, Starbucks is identified with innovative marketing strategies, employee-ownership programs, and a product that’s become a subculture.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a manager, a marketer, or a curious Starbucks loyalist, Pour Your Heart into It will let you in on the revolutionary Starbucks venture. CEO Howard Schultz recounts the company’s rise in 24 chapters, each of which illustrates such core values as “Winning at the expense of employees is not victory at all.”

 8. One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com

Amazon’s business model is deceptively simple: Make online shopping so easy and convenient that customers won’t think twice. It can almost be summed up by the button on every page: “Buy now with one click.”

Why has Amazon been so successful? Much of it has to do with Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder, whose unique combination of character traits and business strategy have driven Amazon to the top of the online retail world. Richard Brandt charts Bezos’s rise from computer nerd to world- changing entrepreneur. His success can be credited to his forward-looking insights and ruthless business sense. Brandt explains:

- Why Bezos decided to allow negative product reviews, correctly guessing that the earned trust would outweigh possible lost sales. – Why Amazon zealously guards some patents yet freely shares others. – Why Bezos called becoming profitable the “dumbest” thing they could do in 1997. – How Amazon.com became one of the only dotcoms to survive the bust of the early 2000s. – Where the company is headed next.

9. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.”

Although the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards. Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of paradoxes. He set out to prove that nice guys can finish first. Over the years he treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and speaker. At the same time he became the world’s richest man, all from the modest Omaha headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway. None of this fits the term “simple.”

10. Oprah: A Biography

For the past twenty-five years, no one has been better at revealing secrets than Oprah Winfrey. On what is arguably the most influential show in television history, she has gotten her guests—often the biggest celebrities in the world—to bare their love lives, explore their painful pasts, admit their transgressions, reveal their pleasures, and explore their demons.

In turn, Oprah has repeatedly allowed her audience to share in her own life story, opening up about the sexual abuse in her past and discussing her romantic relationships, her weight problems, her spiritual beliefs, her charitable donations, and her strongly held views on the state of the world. After a quarter of a century of the Oprah-ization of America, can there be any more secrets left to reveal?

There is a case to be made, and it is certainly made in this book, that Oprah Winfrey is an important, and even great, figure of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. But there is also a case to be made that even greatness needs to be examined and put under a microscope. Fact must be separated from myth, truth from hype. Kitty Kelley has made that separation, showing both sides of Oprah as they have never been shown before. In doing so she has written a psychologically perceptive and meticulously researched book that will surprise and thrill everyone who reads it.  Book reviews and descriptions via Barnes & Noble

Throughout her coaching career in working with business owners all around the world there have been many key distinctions and learning’s as to what is required for an entrepreneur to be successful.

According to Rhiannon the most important element in any successful business is to have a vision.

“By not having a vision or an end destination entrepreneurs tend to get lost along the way, there must be a purpose; an inner map to achieve and strive towards. When the going gets tough people will leave but if you have a purpose it becomes more than just money.

Entrepreneurs also need to think of how the business is going to end, most get caught up in the day to day work requirements and have no actual vision for a future. They need to think first and then take action steps second. By doing this you become faster and better every week.” Rhiannon explains.

Over 95% of businesses fail within the first three years, mainly due to a lack of research and understanding of the market they are entering. Rhiannon goes on to state that in setting out your vision for your business, market research will play a vital role.

“You can’t give the market what you want, you need to give them what they want in order to be successful and not rely on luck. It’s all about the outside inside approach. How you conduct the research all really depends on your business type and industry. You can do surveys, focus groups, hire a market research company, speak to the public etc.”

By doing market research entrepreneurs are able to create a great level of foundation before moving forward in their operational activity. In the past five years there has been a big shift in certain industries such as social media, IT health, online businesses etc. So knowing your market is extremely important to the success of your business.

“Because things are moving at such a rapid pace I think businesses will have a shorter life spam so entrepreneurs need to think very closely before starting their next venture to make sure it is something that has longevity and future potential.” After market research is conducted and a company’s vision is set out, Rhiannon sees leadership as the next big factor in a company’s success.

“Behind every successful company there is successful leadership and management, it all starts from the CEO. As a leader you want the team to grow past you because you know that you have been part of the training ground and your skills have enabled the staff to rise and grow within themselves and the organization.

There are three main reasons in my opinion why most entrepreneurs fail:

• Time: They don’t utilize their time
• Team: Don’t know how to use there team
• Money: Either spending too much or two little and not growing the business

By having the right leadership team within your organization it will help in bringing out the best in your staff, help people feel as part of the team and get the job done with a clear message.”

I think most successful entrepreneurs would agree in saying that leadership is absolutely critical for any business to be successful. And most importantly Rhiannon believes that the number one factor for an entrepreneur to be truly successful before anything else is their reason for getting into business.

“The ones who become really successful are the ones who are in business to create change rather then to make money. By doing this they are able to focus on delivering value to others and in return they reap the rewards.”

Interview by: Alex Pirouz is the founder of RIDC Advisory Pty Ltd. A Business and Sales Advisory firm partnering with Australia’s largest and fastest growing companies to further increase their revenue. Visit www.RIDC.com.au for more details

Along the way there have been many key distinctions and things learned, but one which Bruce regards as the most important is Business Planning. “The most important thing about doing a business plan is becoming clear on what it will look like when it is finished. Most people don’t have an exit strategy.

“A lot of business owners don’t have clarity in where they are heading because they don’t know the end step. Included in the business plan should also be a succession plan, over 70% of businesses don’t have this. “The main purpose is to have the business plan active and turn it into an action plan by breaking it down to 90-day cycles. Then chunk it down to weeks and then days,” Bruce explains.

How long should a business plan be and what should the business plan be based on?

This all depends on the style of business you are in; if you make it too complex they just don’t get followed. Ask any successful entrepreneur and they will tell you that any good business plan should be based around the numbers because at the end of the day the only measure of the success in business is the financials and numbers within it.

In saying that, what are the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when writing their business plan?

The biggest mistake is not taking the time to write their business plan in the detail necessary to build the foundation to grow from. It is absolutely catastrophic to go into business without a plan. Loss of money and failure will be evident unless the entrepreneur is very lucky.

The second biggest mistake is not conducting market research before launching their idea. Market research is critical and the more you can do it without getting analysis by paralysis the greater your level of success will be in business. It is much easier to look for the void in the marketplace and provide a solution then it is to try and come up with a solution that is not relevant or existent.

What can entrepreneurs do to increase their chance of success once they have started their business?

• Have the right team around them
• Hire people who are more skilful than they are
• Focus on their strengths and delegate other duties
• Focus on the business and don’t look at any other opportunities
• Get familiar with the financial aspect of the business

Research every aspect of the business to make sure there is a need for what you’re actually coming up with, and most importantly don’t think every idea is going to be a good one without crunching the numbers. Doing this will ensure you are able to create a business that has the capacity to be scalable and sale-able, because the ideal outcome for any entrepreneur should be to sell and exit their business.

Alex Pirouz is the founder of RIDC Advisory Pty Ltd. A Business and Sales Advisory firm partnering with Australia’s largest and fastest growing companies to further increase their revenue. Visit www.ridcadvisory.com.au for more details.

1. Consider running your business as a part-time operation alongside your current job. This is a great model because you’ll continue to have income and benefits.

2. You need to understand and follow your employment contract to the letter, especially if it makes reference to inventions and intellectual property (IP) that you develop as part of your job. Almost always, anything developed on company time and using company property belongs to the company. If you do not have an employment contract, you’re still not in the clear. Check the company’s Employee Manual for references to ownership of inventions and IP. No manual? Ask your Human Resources manager or someone functioning in that role to explain the policy.

3. Set aside cash reserves from the income your startup creates that can sustain you when and if you decide to leave your job.

4. You must be as open with your employer as possible. In fact, if your business is not competitive with theirs, see if you can turn them into a customer or client. You may even be able to get your employer to invest in your startup, or allow you to hold equity in a joint venture. If you think you might go the route of having an employer as a customer, investor or partner, get input from a trusted advisor such as an attorney on how to proceed.

5. Clear the decks. If you are going to do your day job and your part-time business, that doesn’t leave much time for non-essential activities. Decide what’s really important and dump the rest.

Don’ts

1. Don’t use corporate computers or email systems to send any emails related to your business. Even if you log into your webmail account to send email, you still have problems: you are using their property to further your own business, which could present a legal challenge later. They may have the right to read whatever keystrokes you’ve entered, even if your emails were not entered on the company’s email system.

2. Don’t feel pressured to leave your job as your business starts to gain traction. New businesses go through life cycles and some early wins do not necessarily mean you have a sustainable enterprise.

3. Don’t choose a business that doesn’t lend itself to part-time involvement if you can only do it part-time to start. For example, opening a retail food store can be an all-consuming endeavor. If you are not reachable and not hands-on at the beginning stages, you are setting yourself up for potential failure.

4. Don’t talk about your part-time business to other employees around the proverbial water-cooler. This could be construed as promoting your business on company time. The silence rule extends to discussions on company time with your employer’s clients and suppliers.

5. Don’t be afraid to take the leap to full-time entrepreneurship when the time is right. Running a business part-time can be partly successful, but unless you are going to be a passive investor, the business will grow only up to a certain point without the full-time commitment of the owner. About.com

Before launching my second company Infographic World in 2009, I earned a Master of Business Administration from Binghamton University. While I’m certain that I’d still be an entrepreneur today if I hadn’t attended graduate school, that experience did help prepare me for the daily rigors of running a business. Among others, I’m able to create financial models and develop marketing campaigns. In addition, I was able to make connections with people who would later become key investors. I also learned how to manage people and businesses.

But of course, for every guy like me, there’s someone else who had the opposite experience — either they thought school was a waste of time or they begrudge getting stuck with massive student loans. So the question remains: Should you put off entrepreneurship and study it first or run right out and start up? Though either path has its own pros and cons, if you choose school first, make sure you pack these three lessons into your coursework:

1. Develop confidence. Use your classes as a tool to develop your confidence in risk-taking. Risks taken in a simulated setting will serve as a base for potentially difficult real-world decisions. Just make sure you choose classes that get you involved. Look for courses that force you to operate as if you were starting a business. Whether it’s pitching a company to financial backers or bootstrapping, that practice could pay off once you really do start up.

2. Take case studies to heart. While the things you learn in a classroom setting can come off as “stuffy,” it’s important to take them in too. Learn about management styles, financial models and marketing successes. Then, figure out how to take these examples and scale them to fit your specific company. This knowledge base will help you avoid making the most basic mistakes.

3. Learn from the best. Seek out professors who will challenge you. It might seem more beneficial to coast with an easy course load and focus your efforts on entrepreneurial experiences outside the classroom. But, at many schools, entrepreneurship professors are seasoned veterans who can help you through the uncertain beginning stages of a business. Use the resources that your degree program offers you while they’re still available. If you don’t, you’re throwing away money.

Use your education to develop your risk tolerance, and apply the resources — classes and professors — that you know will challenge you to thrive. But don’t rely on the things you’ve learned in school for all of your business decisions. A degree is a degree, but your experience will define your ability to succeed as an entrepreneur in the real world.

Running a business, whether big or small, requires a type of leadership that taps into various areas of business expertise to bring together an all-around profitable business. Some companies excel in certain areas and bleed profits in others. It is important to be sure that all aspects of the business will be managed effectively to profitability.

Need help pinpointing where to start in assuring your small business is on the track to prosperity? Here are 7 vital keys for running a profitable small business:

1. People

Building a business with a solid employee base is an important key to running a profitable small business. Your employees must be dependable, flexible, and more simply, they should be people you like to work with everyday. An enjoyable work environment means happy employees, which almost always leads to great customer service and higher productivity.

Small businesses are also fairly dependent upon their vendors, partners, contractors, and other professional relationships. Building and strengthening these associations will not only make for a pleasant work environment, it can also translate into customer referrals or even a crossover from professional relationship to loyal customer.

2. Planning

There’s no need to write a dissertation about the intricate goals and business trajectories you intend for your new business. Setting pen to paper and outlining a clear business plan for your business will help ensure that you stick to your plans as time goes on and your business evolves. Evolution is great in business development but keeping a reminder of the business plan from day 1 should serve periodically as a helpful eye-opener.

3. Personal Development

Your small business is a reflection of you. As you develop personally, so will your business, and this should translate into greater earnings across the board. The more you invest into yourself by building your knowledgebase and expanding mental and physical well-being, the better off the company will be. It’s important to make a strong commitment to your own personal development, and it’s easy with these tips:

• Spend commute drive time listening to audio books or informative podcasts.
• Work, or maintain consistent phone or email contact with a business or personal mentor. Having a successful role model to hold you accountable and offer advice throughout the maze of business ownership can be priceless.
• Invest 15-30 minutes a day catching up on industry-relevant reading. Make a goal to read 12 books a year, and you’ll end up way ahead of the game.

4. Products and Services

Whether your business is a brand new startup or an established business looking to expand, take a moment to step back and really look at the products and services your company offers. Not just to analyze whether or not you’re selling at the proper price point, but to take a close look and really consider the quality of your offerings. This will also be a good way to identify if there is something clearly lacking from your product or service line. Is it time for a technology upgrade, or is it possibly time to seek out new product lines?

5. Promotions

Thinking outside the typical marketing box can really pay off. We see promotions everyday directed at new customers, such as discounts for first time visits or a waived initial fee. Why not thank existing customers? Posting special promotions to email subscribers or Facebook followers will not only bring already happy past customers back, but it will greatly increase the likelihood that you’ll be on the receiving end of that priceless word of mouth advertising from those happy customers.

6. Processes

Henry Ford had it right. Creating an automatic process similar to an assembly line will greatly heighten the efficiency of any given procedure, and it will also build credibility with your customers, as they can count on consistent results every time. This will also help remove quite a bit of pressure off of you as the owner. Having a systemized process in place will share the work amongst employees, rather than mandating the owner to micromanage day in and day out.

7. Profit

An important key to ensuring you have a profitable company is to be able to understand what makes you profitable. You don’t have to be trained in high finance or be a professional accountant, but investing in dependable accounting software is a minimum. Being able to demonstrate gross profit margins, net profit, customer retention rates, and track accounts payable and receivable is fundamental to running a profitable company.

Having a profitable small business of course depends upon a multitude of different factors. Implementing these 7 vital keys will be a sure way for your company to be on the fast track to profitability.

Adam Toren is an Award Winning Author, Serial Entrepreneur and Investor. He Co-Founded YoungEntrepreneur.com along with his brother Matthew. Adam is co-author of the newly released book: Small Business, Big Vision: “Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right” and also co-author of Kidpreneurs.

It’s a perennial question for  college graduates: Should you cling to the stability of a corporate job or try  for your dream with entrepreneurship? To be sure, many young people  today aren’t flush with job offers upon graduation. But for the lucky ones who  do have a choice, the question of what to do is no less though. And in these  rocky economic times, it’s likely an even more stressful decision.

So what should you do? Besides  the obvious questions of whether a company offers healthcare and retirement  options, here are five factors to consider:

Structure versus flexibility: Big companies have the infrastructure and  policies to keep it running well. Your position would likely be highly  structured with specific duties. There will be regular performance measures and  goals for every department. Everyone is taught his or her level of authority.  If rigidness keeps you focused, this may be a good choice for you.

Smaller firms, particularly  startups, invent and reinvent themselves as they grow. Goals are fluid and a  new opportunity can completely change the company’s direction. If you like to  do new things every day and you’re not afraid of change, this type of company  might be your best fit.

Focus versus multitasking: With a larger corporation, you’ll likely have  few dedicated tasks to complete. You’ll only interact with certain people and  departments and your work may have a lot of routine. Because of the company’s  large size, you will be able to focus on one project or responsibility and rely  on others to complete their responsibilities.

A startup doesn’t have enough  people to allow any one person to focus on just one task or problem at a time.  You may be pulled out of your current project to help another area that needs  an extra pair of hands. Chances are that every day will have more projects and  work than you can complete. You will have to constantly prioritize the work  that needs to be done.

Plentiful resources versus not enough: Generally, large companies have the resources  to meet their goals. Office equipment, supplies and services such as FedEx are  available as needed. Someone comes by every day to deliver and collect mail.  There’s an internal team that can solve any technology problems. Legal and  other support is also available.

Startups don’t have enough of  anything. Every dollar needs to go in about 20 different directions. Often you  need to make do with limited equipment and supplies. If you’re lucky, there’s a  computer geek on the team who takes care of problems when he or she has time.

Growth versus survival: Large corporations can go for years before  they notice that they’re in financial trouble. Six quarters of million-dollar  losses can be absorbed without affecting anything much other than stock prices.  Eventually problems will lead to layoffs, but not until they trim the travel  and training budgets. The focus is on increasing revenue — and survival is  assumed.

Startups, by contrast, are  always in some form of survival mode. Sales are critical, expenses are  carefully monitored and a decision such as attending a conference is carefully  weighed. Owners know that they may be only one or two clients away from closing  their doors, even as the business progresses.

Risk versus reward: Initially, the large corporate option looks  very inviting. Salaries may be bigger, benefits are richer and stability is the  order of the day. But over time, the potential for advancement is limited to  the capabilities and structure of the firm.

At riskier startups, stability  can seem unattainable, while salaries are generally lower and benefits may be  nonexistent. There’s no guarantee that the company will be around a year from  now. But — and this is a big but — promotions can happen quickly, along with  raises or bonuses. And if you can get some equity in the company, the rewards  could be amazing.

What other considerations  would you add?Leave a comment and let us  know.

Adam Toren

Do you have what it takes to start a business? A veteran entrepreneur suggests a surprising character for start-up life. Dream of starting a business, but wonder if you have the best personality for the job?

Veteran entrepreneur Kevin Johnson may be able to help you answer that. On his blog, he writes about the unexpected characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.

For example, in his latest post, he suggests that if you like to be the smartest guy in the room, start-up life might not be a great fit for you. Intellectual humility is actually a good sign you’ll do well as an entrepreneur, he writes:

The average person is intimidated by smart people…If given a choice to spend a week quarantined with really smart people or people of average intelligence, the average Jane would choose people of average intelligence.  Who can blame her?  But what a tragedy! It’s as if Jane’s fear, ego, or yearning to fit in prevents her from growing and learning.

When in high school, I learned the value of hanging around brilliant people. Somehow I ended up befriending some really bright students. I make it sound coincidental, but the relationships I developed were probably strong because I was a social outcast like they were. The geeks always are, right?  Nevertheless, the end result was the same; I was able to learn so much from them and therefore increase my abilities…Today, I continue to maintain an ever-expanding circle of intelligent people. They make me feel inadequate and sometimes just really stupid, but I am OK with that because I know that I learn so much from them…it behooves every entrepreneur—and anyone else who strives to be successful—to surround himself with the brightest and best minds.

With so much emphasis in the media placed on the cleverness of entrepreneurs (and no doubt many of these folks are incredibly clever), Johnson’s post is a nice reminder that focusing on your own relative intelligence really isn’t productive (or probably much good for your mental health).

A better bet is to devote your energy to acknowledging the talents and abilities of others and seeking out ways to learn from them, even at the cost of sometimes appearing less than brilliant yourself. It might be hard on your ego but it’s probably good for your business. Columbia Business School professors have even written thatdumb is the new smart, citing a willingness to admit what you don’t understand and appear foolish as a highly undervalued business skill in this post financial crisis world.

Do you agree that successful entrepreneurs need to be willing to spend time with people that make them feel dumb?

Jessica Stillman is a freelance writer based in London with interests in unconventional career paths, generational differences, and the future of work. She has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch, GigaOM, and Brazen Careerist. @EntryLevelRebel

Shaq O'Neal

The star athlete on why he’s getting his Ph.D., how he chooses business ventures, and the weirdest pitch he’s ever received. One Shaquille O’Neal you probably know: The retired basketball player who has four NBA championship rings and an Olympic gold medal, who was voted an All-Star fifteen times, and who ranks 6^th on the all-time scoring list.

Or you might know another Shaq: The one who appeared in movies, released rap albums, was a character in video games, had a reality TV series, and is now an NBA television analyst for TNT.  But there’s one Shaq you probably don’t know: The one who has an MBA and is working on his Ph.D., who owns fitness centers, car washes, Five Guys franchises, nightclubs, and real estate, has his own shoe brand, and holds equity positions in companies like Google (his slice was pre-IPO), Vitamin Water, and Muscle Milk.

He’s also the spokesperson for the Dove Men+Care Journey to Comfort campaign, a series where men share how they overcame obstacles in a journey to feel comfortable in their own skin.

And he “stars” in Shaq’s Big Excuse, a Facebook app based on the upcoming NCAA men’s basketball tournament: Fill out a quick form and Shaq will phone your boss, friends, or whoever you want to tell them why you won’t be available during the tournament. (My favorite: “We’re in a yodeling competition.”)

Inc: You’re a guy who seems as comfortable in his skin as is possible. You even conducted the Boston Pops. But I’m sure you didn’t always feel that way.

Shaq: My worst years were age nine to seventeen. I was shy. I was insecure. I stuttered. I wanted to be a basketball player but I wasn’t very good.

One day my father threw a paper at my chest and said, “Look at this guy. He just signed an NBA contract for $3 million a year, and he’s not that good.” I watched him play on TV and I thought, “I can do that.” So while everyone else was out doing juvenile delinquent stuff, I was on the court. I realized if I worked hard and stayed out of trouble, I could make a name for myself.

Inc: You’re on the way to becoming Dr. Shaq, but still, are there things you’re trying to change about yourself that would make you even more comfortable with who you are?

Shaq: Education is the main thing. I earned my MBA and I’m working on my Ph.D. I love learning about leadership, especially when it’s based on purpose and on trying to help other people become better leaders.

Inc: The average celebrity tends to invest in businesses where their name can help generate business, but your name doesn’t appear on many of your ventures. Some of your investments are pure business plays.

Shaq: One day I was riding through a neighborhood looking at all the huge houses, and I asked what the people who lived there did for a living. They owned businesses and they didn’t brag about what they did. I realized the business should be important, not just the name behind it.

Inc: In your book you talk about your Facial Recognition Advantage, and how being known can get you a meeting with almost anyone. But is it true you used to call Steve Jobs and ask for the new iPhone before everyone else got one?

Shaq: Oh yeah. That’s true. Didn’t work though.

Inc: There are obvious advantages to doing business with you… but what do you bring to the table that isn’t so obvious? If I take a meeting by Shaq, what will surprise me?

Shaq: The biggest surprise is that I do my due diligence ahead of time. If you contact me, I do my homework. Then, if I like your idea or your company or your product, I’m not really looking for an endorsement deal. I want a partnership. You get a great partner when you get me. I’m not interested in just taking your money. I’ll promote, I’ll help, I’ll do anything I can to make it work for both of us.

Inc: What’s the strangest pitch you ever got?

Shaq: A guy wanted to take my sweat, mix it with chemicals and create a cologne, and call it something like Elliuqahs (Shaquille spelled backwards.) Needless to say I turned that one down.

Inc: You’re pretty good at spotting undervalued business opportunities. If you were an NBA owner, is there a player today who is undervalued that you would “invest” in?

Shaq: Rudy Gay. Great player but he plays in a small market (Memphis). Get him in a big market and he would be a superstar.

Inc: What do you least enjoy about being an entrepreneur?

Shaq: Nothing. What’s not to like? You make your own decisions, you live with those decisions, and you move on. I don’t look for the quick hit. I invest in things because I believe in them. If you stick to that model, you can’t lose.

Inc: From the outside it appears your business strategy can be summed up as, “Hey, that looks like fun. I’ll try it.” How accurate is that?

Shaq: That’s it exactly. There are millions of opportunities. Why do something if you don’t think you can have fun?

Inc: My dad once said that someday, when you’re an old man sitting on a porch, the times that will make you feel good about your life are when you helped others. Is there a particular story that will make you smile someday when you’re sitting on your porch thinking back on your life?

Shaq: In my 20s I was at a car dealership in Los Angeles and an elderly lady was trying to buy a van. She came out crying and I asked her what was wrong. She didn’t have good credit and couldn’t get a loan. We talked for a while and she showed me a picture of her grandson who had lost his legs. She reminded me a lot of my grandmother who had just passed away, and I wanted to do something for her. So I bought her a van. I’ve helped a lot of people since then, but I will never forget how good it made me feel to help a person who really needed help.

Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up fromghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business. @jeff_haden

At a recent entrepreneurial pitch competition it was said that ‘Once you meet one entrepreneur, you meet one entrepreneur’.  Not all entrepreneurs are alike and you will find that they all look at the world through a different lens.  Here is my story.

I was working at a large IT consulting firm during the day while doing my graduate work at night.  I found myself looking for that next move in my life, the one that would lead to that next great challenge and in my case it lead me to start Bookend Technology, an E-Learning company that creates web and mobile products to help students better manage and measure their educational achievement.  

Before I took the leap of faith I asked myself a few tough questions and pondered on the points below that I hope will help others who are on the fence with taking the entrepreneurial leap.

What are you waiting for? One of the most valuable assets the millennial generation has is time.  You can make mistakes and take on additional risk when you are young because should you find your venture unsuccessful, you have time to land back on your feet or pivot.  Also look at this as an opportunity for personal growth.  When you set yourself free into your own destiny it’s quite revealing with what is really important in life.

Failure is not a bad word.  If you notice one attribute that many of the other generations hang over our head, it is ‘experience’.  I would argue that their experience may be obsolete in today’s technology environment and as the consumerization of technology takes off with high school and college students it will be more important than ever to truly understand what it is that your customer wants.  Agility is a startup’s secret weapon against the large bureaucratic corporations.

There has never been a better time to start a business, and the resources out there such as Eric Reis’  ‘Lean Startup’ book and events like Startup Weekend will help you plan for success without breaking the bank, giving you the confidence needed to prevent your company from becoming a statistic.  Are you a student?  Look for entrepreneurial clubs and organizations around campus.  The one I joined at Georgetown has been invaluable to my development as an entrepreneur.

You get out what you put in. Entrepreneurship is not a part time job.  I quickly found that juggling corporate work obligations, meetings and multiple ‘weekly forecasts’ with your manager throughout the week prevents you from doing what YOU want to do.  Also factor in those who are close to you as they will be an integral part of the journey.  I am thankful everyday to have a supportive wife and family.  Paul Graham of Y Combinator fame sums up entrepreneurship in one simple sentence when he writes “What it amounts to, economically, is compressing your working life into the smallest possible space. Instead of working at an ordinary rate for 40 years, you work like hell for four”.

How many people have you ran into and when asked how they became successful said, ‘I was in the right place, at the right time’? You can not experience this unless you try, and sometimes with luck and hard work, everything will come together.

Don’t be afraid of big ideas and bigger solutions. Do not feel discouraged when someone says that your idea is crazy or will never work.  If you believe in it, that is all that matters and you will find that your passion is contagious.  In fact if I had a dollar for every time someone said my business didn’t make any sense, I would have my Series A funding by now (I later found out through experience that I needed to make my messaging more concise, but I learned).  Perseverance to adversity is a key trait among entrepreneurs.  There was once a smart man named Albert Einstein that said “if at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” It’s OK to be the crazy person who sees the world differently.

More Money More Problems. Ah the ‘F’ word: Funding. Do not take money until you need it.  I stood up at a DC Meetup recently and when asked if I had received funding yet I proudly responded that “Mastercard had recently invested in my second round.” Bootstrap as long as you can, you will reap the rewards down the road.  Get a product out and test it.  If it works, move forward and if you find that customers are looking for something else, be open and willing to change directions.

There has never been a better time to innovate.  Timing has always been a key component to entrepreneurial ventures.  There have been many well documented innovations that were simply ahead of their time.  Today you have a unique mix of economic, cultural, political and technological capabilities that are ripe for innovation.  It is no secret that the millennial generation will inherit the issues and problems of previous generations but that gives us a reason to act.

If you look closely there are a variety of awesome startups rising up in the field of health care, energy, agriculture and in the case of my venture, education.  Each of these industries have large opportunities and even larger markets if startups can create and innovate at the current pace.

So I ask you again, what are you waiting for? I left a demanding job that sucked every ounce of life I had to give it to breath life into something of my own.  Of course I recognize the risk involved with starting a venture but have gained the confidence through outlets like Under30CEO, The Startup America Partnership, Kauffman Foundation and Startup Weekend to know that it is possible to live my dreams…all you have to do is take the first step.

If you think you can change the world you have no excuse but to try!

Todd Cofer is co-founder and CEO of Bookend Technology; a DC based e-learning company that provides tools to manage and measure student achievement.  Prior to Bookend, Todd held various roles with Gartner Research & Consulting, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, Red Bull Energy Drink and spent his summers in college interning on Capitol Hill.  Todd lives in Arlington VA with his wife, Aimee and their dog Cooper.