Category: Entrepreneurship

Imagine starting out with two employees who laugh at your dreams and targeted projections and quit two months later.

This is what Masayoshi Son, founder of The Softbank Corporation, experienced. And note, it has been reported that he currently earns some $200 million per day from his Internet investments such as Yahoo!, E*Trade, and Ziff-Davis, just to name a few.

When queried about his path as if it had all been a successive string of successes, he replied, “I’ve made a lot of moves. I have lots of scars and am ashamed and shy when I look back.”

He went on to explain that most warriors have battle scars that remind them of pains experienced. It is often these reminders that become the greatest teachers, helping us prepare more intensely for the next round.

Masayoshi’s formula for success is tried and true: “Strongly believe in big dreams and have a strategy.”

And yet the numbers associated with his dream were huge, so I asked him, “Many goal setting experts state that we should set goals that are believable, so how does one set large goals and make them believable to the mind?”

He replied, “Start with the big picture and break it down from there. I figured out what it would take to be number one in the industry and worked backwards.”

In the end, perhaps entrepreneurial success is best defined by ongoing efforts and not merely by the results. Thus to paraphrase a Chinese proverb, “It matters not what path a person is on in life. What matters is their commitment to the path.”

Wally Amos, aka Famous Amos as in the Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie founder, was perhaps the most colorful entrepreneur I’ve met to date.

I remember him on stage at the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs beaming with tons of energy, flashing a huge warm smile, and wearing this outrageously colored, fully embroidered, denim-jacket glittering with patterns of sequins that were all things cookies and chocolate chip cookies at that. It was one of those jackets that you’d expect to find in a Broadway play like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and not your typical three piece navy or gray pinstriped suit jacket worn by most panelists.

Before Wally started to give his presentation, he turned to the audience and explained the honor and joy he had in wearing his embroidered cookie jacket — because his wife had made it for him.

Wally went on to explain how important it is to have family support when embarking on entrepreneurial paths and his jacket clearly indicated his family’s enthusiastic support.

Before starting his cookie business, Wally was in the music business out in California as an A&R guy. At the time, he could not read or write and had less than a skyrocketing career, although he did represent some famous talents - e.g., Helen Reddy.

Apparently, whenever Wally called on clients and prospects, he would always bring along some homemade chocolate chip cookies to leave behind with his appointments. It was his grandmother’s recipe and Wally loved to share the cookies he baked with everybody in the business.

Prospects would teasingly say, “Hey Wally. Sorry I can’t use your services, but those cookies - they’re awesome. You should really think about opening a business selling them. They’re incredible and any chance I can get some more next time you swing through the area? And, I’ll pay!”

And so with the support of family and friends (e.g., Helen Reddy as early financial investor), Wally launched into the cookie business.

The one sad note about Wally’s story was with respect to intellectual property rights. Turns out when Wally sold his business, unwittingly to him, he also lost the right to use his own surname to promote any new food products. I recall a court battle and being appalled that his counsel did not give him better advice when he signed the sell agreement but I digress.

In the end, Wally conveyed encouragement to follow one’s passions, gain the trust of family stakeholders and friends, then go for it. And if lucky enough to collect any awards along the way, not to hesitate to wear true colors - on sleeves, back, front pockets, chest, etc. - viva the Chocolate Chip Cookie DreamCoats!

Leslie Wexner, founder of The Limited, addressed an intimate audience of 50 or so after his auditorium award presentation to The Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs.

Part way into this intimate Q&A, albeit with with some mild frustration, Les stopped fielding questions and proclaimed, “As many look at my global chain of stores, corporate jet, power, wealth, I’ve sensed students today implying ‘How do I get where you’ve gotten and get what you have?’ and I must admit, I do not have the answers. I can’t tell you how to do it.”

He went on to say that he could tell us only that he followed his love for retail. From his first store in Columbus, Ohio, he loved putting the key in the door first thing in the morning and turning the lock. He loved putting the key in the door at the end of the night after sweeping and locking up. “I’m still the world’s best men’s sweater buyer,” he chuckled.

In all, he communicated that chasing the trappings of success had nothing to do with his path.

His focus was on his passion.

Les came from humble origins, with parents who weathered the depression and honored the security of postal work. So, when he received a call early in his career from a leading New York retail chain magnet, his father was in total disbelief of his son’s actions.

Apparently, this magnet invited Les to New York, all expenses paid, and offered him a staggering salary and wild perks like a penthouse apartment.

Les responded, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize this is why you brought me to New York. I’m not interested in a job,” and proceeded to leave. When he got off the elevator, he called his father and recounted the experience.

“Now you get right back up there and tell the man you’re sorry, of course you’ll take his offer,” suggested his father.

About a year later, Les felt compelled to call the magnet and inquire as to why he had been inspired to make such a generous offer in the first place.

“Well Les, you might be a terrific retailer, but in your whole life you’ll never have more than fifteen stores without my capital.”

Les hung up the phone and was beside himself.

“Fifteen stores,” he thought. “I never thought I’d have more than six.”

This retail magnet had in effect raised the bar of possibilities for Les’s vision for himself. At last count, Les’ chain includes well over 3000 stores.

Nolan Bushnel was the founder of Atari - the wildly famous video game developers from the 1970s and early 1980s perhaps best known for their block buster games like Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, plus others. Mr. Bushnel is a serial entrepreneur and is also the founder of Pizza Time Theaters, Inc. (aka Chucky Cheese) among other enterprises.

It was a springtime afternoon while sitting in a packed auditorium during an Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs presentation that I first heard Mr. Bushnel speak about how to truly start a business.

Okay, so you want to start a business. Great. Here’s how you do it.

First you call your smartest accounting friend and say, Hey Joe, gotta great idea for a business that I want to share with you and a couple other prospective key people. Can you come over this Saturday morning at my place around 10AM and can you bring some donuts?

Then you call your smartest marketing friend, Hey Sharon, gotta great idea for a business that I want to share with you and a couple other prospective key people. Can you come over this Saturday morning around 10AM and can you bring some orange juice?

Then you call your smartest human resource friend, Hey Steve, gotta great idea for a business that I want to share with you and a couple other prospective key people. Can you come over this Saturday morning around 10AM and can you bring some coffee?

Then you call your smartest engineering friend, Hey Tim, gotta great idea … and can you bring some napkins and paper plates?

Then you call your smartest finance friend, Hey Linda, gotta great idea … and can you bring some cranberry juice and a couple bottles of water?

So then on Saturday morning all your smart friends show up and say, Okay Nolan. So what’s your big idea of this new business?

Now here’s the funny part, you can say almost anything like “A new car wash.”

And your smart friends will likely boo you and say stuff like, “You got us out of the house for this - a car wash, you gotta be kidding us. We thought you had a really great idea.”

But now here’s the killer part - you turn to your smart friends and say, “Come on, we’re all smart people, we like and respect each other, so what ideas do you have for starting a business.”

Worse case scenario, you got a free breakfast and planted some seeds with your friends. Best case scenario, the group brainstorms an option to pursue and away you go!

Later that evening I had the opportunity to ask Mr. Bushnel a follow-up question regarding business and action plans resulting from a Saturday morning planning session. I forgot his exact words but it went something like this - “Chuck - this is why you have your engineering friend bring the napkins. The action plan has to fit on one napkin otherwise the business will never get off the ground. You gotta keep it simple. Your marketing friends will go through too many napkins, your accounting friends will complain that the napkins don’t have ruled lines, but your engineering friends, they can help you produce a napkin of action steps that keeps your new team focused.”

The scene was a nomination committee for the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs sitting around a large oval conference table at Babson College in 1981.

The committee was comprised of a mixed sort of twelve-plus voting attendees, most of whom were either business school professors, college administrators, and/or Academy stakeholders (e.g., representatives from Business Week, Fortune Magazine, Wall Street Journal). And then there were the two students - one undergraduate, the other a graduate - who sat at the table with equal voting consideration.

In front of us was a list, a rather long list at that, of world class people who were to be considered for the following year’s induction into the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs.

As way of background, The Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs is the world’s first entrepreneurship hall-of-fame established in 1978 to annually honor and recognize the top three or four “entrepreneurs who have contributed significantly to the development of free enterprise throughout the world.”

And since this is a blog I’ll jump to the point.

Jim Henson’s name came up (i.e., famed muppeteer responsible for Big Bird, Ms. Piggy, Kermit the Frog, Oscar the Grouch, etc.) and a robust discussion ensued.

Was Jim an artist, an entertainer, a puppet guy, and could he really be considered an entrepreneur?

On one hand I was stunned that the question was even raised and on the table. Up to then, I had innately supported the idea that entrepreneurs were born and came in all shapes, sizes, colors, disciplines, backgrounds, ages, etc. Furthermore, I had a special appreciation for those creative entertainment-entrepreneurs who cut new grounds in memorable and exciting ways.

Yet part of the echoes I recall from that meeting stirred with voices of contradictory spirit like, “Come on … This is business and we are a business school … Business sticks to the facts and has to keep it black lined, balance sheet approved, otherwise we’re sunk - how could we follow the slippery slope of muppeteers as entrepreneurship … Okay, sure he runs a production company, has licensing deals and other business dealings, but he hangs with the likes of Ms. Piggy … PLEASE! … We have lots of other serious names to consider so can we continue … Besides real entrepreneurs are the likes of Ben Franklin and Andrew Carnegie - legendary people who kick it big in marketplace …”

In the end, that nomination committee helped set the pace for the three entrepreneurs who were ultimately officially voted into the Academy for 1982, including: Wally Amos - The Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie Corporation; William Norris - Control Data Corporation; and Carl Sontheimer - Cuisinarts, Inc.

A lot has changed since 1981 and somewhere over the years I once heard the definition of an artist as someone who makes the unknown knowable - e.g., takes that which was previously unseen and makes it see-able.

Like the artist, I think this vision also applies to entrepreneurs in that they provide a service where one was missing or void, they bring higher quality deliverables at more efficient pricing to markets that were unknown before, etc.

During the next couple of days in this blog, I will share reflections of various world class entrepreneurs I met along the years of participating in front rows with the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs.

Okay, I won’t name drop but tidbits forthcoming in this blog include entrepreneurs like the founders of Federal Express, H&R Block, Peoples Express, Famous Amos Cookies, Winnebago Industries, Atari and more

Stay tuned and to be continued … cs

This audio interview is approximately 15 minutes in length and the file is a 3.7 meg mp3 file
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Note the sound is a tad scratchy for the first minute or two but soon levels out - we apologize and as fyi, have since upgraded to a digital hybrid/broadcast radio host for better sound quality

About the Interview
Here we talk with Julie Jansen - a speaker, coach, trainer and consultant who helps individuals and organizations reach their fullest potential in today’s chaotic business world.

Julie is also the author of:

I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This: A Step-By-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work

You Want Me to Work With Who? Eleven Keys to a Stress-Free, Satisfying and Successful Worklife…No Matter Who You Work With … which will go on sale February 28, 2006.

Some of the Themes Discussed with Julie Include:

• Believe you can work and be happy - you don’t have to get everything from your work but if you get a lot that makes a huge difference in your life and with those who love you…
• Case study of woman going from IT Project Management to mobile dog grooming business, selling franchises, making more money than ever, and never looking back …
• Are you bored or stuck ..??.. even when you like where you work, get paid well, enjoy the people, the perks, have flex time, etc., sometimes it is not the pain that forces us to move on but the lack of challenging work …
• You don’t have to get everything from your work … just figure out what would make you happier than you are now - e.g., more travel, more interesting people, different challenges to solve, etc., then go for the next level …
• Resume writing can be fun … and put your creative energy into them even though they require a sense of formulaic structure, you can still capture your essence in unique, captivating ways …

Okay, no bull - if you were an entrepreneurial farmer, how would you go about selling your cows? Perhaps the clues to entrepreneurship can be found in the DNA of our respective birth nations - read below and let me know

Traditional Capitalism
* You have two cows.

* You sell one and buy a bull.

* Your herd multiplies and the economy grows.

* You sell them and retire to greener pastures.

American Capitalism
* You have two cows.

* You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public buys your bull.

Chinese Capitalism
* You have two cows.

* You have 300 people milking them.

* You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, arrest and detain (without trial) the journalist who reported the number of cows.

Egyptian Capitalism
* You have one cow.

* You keep telling people you have ten.

French Capitalism
* You have two cows.

* You go on strike because you want three cows.

Italian Capitalism
* You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.

* You break for lunch, toasting to the warm sun and gentle breezes.

Lebanese Capitalism
* You have no cows.

* The Syrians have one cow.

* You convince them to sell the cow to the Kuwaitis with a 50% profit.

* The Syrians are satisfied with the 50% they made.

* The Kuwaitis are happy because you arranged a good deal for them.

* Your commission is worth TEN cows.

New Zealand Capitalism
* You have two cows.

* That one on the left is kinda cute.

Russian Capitalism
* You have two cows.

* You count them and learn you have five cows.

* You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.

* You count them again and learn you have 12 cows.

* You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

Saudi Capitalism
* You buy one thousand cows.

* There is no grass, just sand.

* You buy European grass for them.

* You hire one foreigner to milk them and 100 Saudis to watch him.

* The milk costs you 500% more.

* You call it WATANI (homeland produce) and sell it in the local market.

Swiss Capitalism
* You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you.

* You charge an outrageous fee to others for storing them.

* You wonder how the holes gotta associated with your cheese.

CoolTea Capitalism - Part A
* You have two cows and a pasture you enjoy.

* One of the cows starts a wireless internet service in your pasture.

* The other cow becomes a goodwill ambassador.

* Pretty soon, all the cows are connected and happily influencing the dairy industry for better milking conditions, natural fertilizers, lower fences, and inspiring the rest of the world to honor the cow lineage akin to respected levels held by most of India's residents and/or others who share Ghandi's bovine sensibilities

* And so the milk churns for greener pastures et al.

CoolTea Capitalism - Part B
* Shifting climates and polluted environments inspire above-ground hydroponic farming.

* Cattlemen follow the money and wrestle-up record hydroponic farming profits.

* Disney hydroponic specialists become high-paid in-demand speakers at growing conferences.

* Beef Industry Merges with Hydroponic Growers Association Intl.

* Mad Cow, Bird Flu, Chicken Whatever, give-way to hydroponic growth markets winning consumers and investors alike.

* Country Fair Bovine Stars outplace those at Academy of Awards, Grammys, Oscars, Tonys, etc - mooo!

And finally, Hollywood Capitalism
Courtesy David from ClearLightPictures

* You have two Celebrity Cows

* You hire Peter Jackson, give him a half a Billion $ budget to make a blockbuster, A Tale of Two Cows

* After a year of shooting in New Zealand, AToTC doesn’t test well with audiences so you spend 18 months doing Special Effects work at ILM to create CG Cows.

* The Cows do a lot of press junkets, Leno/Letterman and the Daily Show, etc…

* The movies bombs at the box office, but rakes in DVD sales, especially in India where they love Cows. Indian iTunes download mirrors crash under the load.

* You break even, but the Cows sign a $200M contract for the sequel.