The Great Startup Game

How to Use Creative Financing to Launch and Grow Your Startup

How I Learned to Stop Waiting for Investors and Start Building Companies

If you're finding it tough to find startup capital why not learn how those Inc 500 entrepreneurs did it? Stop playing the Chump's Game today.

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Entrepreneurship: Brits Get Rich in China

Brits Get Rich in China

If you enjoy reality type television about entrepreneurs on the make, check out this one hour long British documentary on three British businessmen who go to China to make their fortune. All three are very interesting characters. One is a profane street smart seller of kitchen counters and cabinets back at home who needs to get his costs down by working with Chinese suppliers. Another has been forced to shut down his UK-based pillow factory after basically being driven out of business by low cost competitors. He now tries to re-enter the business by building a factory in China with investor capital. The last man is quite the character. He's a retired British army officer in his 70s who smugly believes everything will go his way simply because he's British, old chap. Wot?! Are you suggesting it won't? To find out who succeeds and who doesn't, kick back and watch this.

Brits Get Rich in China Part 2

Brits Get Rich in China Part 3

Brits Get Rich in China Part 4

Brits Get Rich in China Part 5

Brits Get Rich in China Part 6

Brits Get Rich in China Part 7

Colorado's Marijuana Economy: An Explosion of Ganjapreneurship

I found this interesting on the Atlantic Monthly site. It's a good short read for a break.

What can only be rightly described as an explosion of ganjapreneurship is currently underway in Colorado, sparked by the Obama Administration's new policy announcement in February, which directed federal agencies to defer to state law enforcement on the issue of medical marijuana.

Colorado's Marijuana Economy: An Explosion of Ganjapreneurship

Advice from Dragon's Den Doug Richard - 6 Rules for Startups

Short, concise yet meaty advice.

How Your Failures Become the Foundation for Your Success

MythBuster Adam Savage's Colossal Failures

This is a superb 32 minute talk where Adam explains how his two greatest professional failures served as the foundation for his success today. It's an hour long if you stick around for the Q&A session with the audience.

Your Entrepreneurial Money-Making Profile

A huge part of business success is doing what you truly are good at and therefore enjoy.  If you hate your work, it's highly unlikely that you will ever succeed.

Hopefully you have all taken the Myers-Briggs personality test by now as it's important to work with your strengths instead of going against them.

For the past twelve years or so I enthusiastically referred hundreds of people to take the free online versions of the Myers-Briggs Personality Profile test. M-B provides a superb profile of your personality including your strengths, weaknesses, and temperament. Everyone who has ever taken the test has come back to me to exclaim how accurate it is. My only criticism of it has been that it’s designed from the viewpoint of employers to help them better understand their employees. In other words, it doesn’t provide any clear cut information to entrepreneurs on how to build their businesses and make money.

Now that’s all changed.

I Ching Ka-Ching Ka-Ching! 

“If you want to find your vision, follow your passion. The less your work feels like work, the closer you are getting.” - Roger Hamilton

 

The M-B is based on Carl Jung’s work with the ancient Chinese book the I Ching or “Book of Changes”. The original draft appeared approximately around 2800 B.C.E.  Jung published the first western translation of the I Ching (translated by his friend Richard Wilhelm in 1919) and then went on to write a book called "Psychological Types". That book became the basis for Myer-Briggs and other profiling systems.

Recently a man by the name of Roger Hamilton returned to the I Ching in order to devise a personality profiling system for entrepreneurs and money making. As opposed to the 16 personality type M-B profile, Hamilton's only has eight. You can find out more about his Wealth Dynamics system for identifying your money making profile and strategy at his site.

Each of the following eight wealth profiles create value and leverage in unique combinations:

CREATOR – create wealth from products
Examples include Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Walt Disney

STAR – create wealth from personal brand
Examples include Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Michael Schumacher

SUPPORTER – create wealth from leadership
Examples include Jack Welch, Steve Balmer, Steve Case

DEAL MAKER – create wealth from deals
Examples include Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch, Li Ka Shing

TRADER – create wealth from trades
Examples include George Soros, Kirk Kerkorian

ACCUMULATOR – create wealth from appreciation
Examples include Warren Buffet, Paul Allen

THE LORD – create wealth from cashflow
Examples include John D Rockefeller, John Paul Getty

THE MECHANIC – create wealth from system
Examples include Sam Walton, Ray Krok, Jeff Bezos

While the system is still complex, it resonated with me because I have learned the hard way over the years not to try to engage in activities which go against my personality type. Instead I need to go with my strengths and build a team with complimentary ones. Success is a team effort. Look at any billionaire and you will see a team of millionaires surrounding him. In some cases, the team will include a few billionaires as well. Think Google and Microsoft. The trick to success is to focus on your strengths and passions while others with complimentary skills cover your weaknesses.

Yes, the test is rather pricey so a good place to start is with the Your Life Your Legacy book sold at the site.

Wealth Profiling Video

Consider the above for entertainment purposes only.

However, intuitively speaking, there appears to be something to it, especially for team building purposes.

Enjoy.

The Best Billionaire How To Books

Billionaire Strategies

So you want to learn how to become a billionaire?

Well, you came to the right place. Let me recommend a couple of books for your study. Be advised that I won't refer you to any of those manuals which claim to provide a roadmap to becoming a millionaire or billionaire. Likewise, I will ignore the books consisting of interviews with a smorgazbord of tycoons who offer free tips but few details on how to make it as big as they did.  Ditto for self-congratulatory autobiographies.

Being a skeptic by nature, I'm far more interested what people do rather than in what they say. The best way to find out what tycoons did is to read books written by impartial observers such as business journalists and historians, in my humble opinion.

Last night I started reading Business 2.0 writer Om Malik's book, Broadbandits, about the men who amassed, and in some cases lost, huge fortunes in the broadband bubble of the late 1990s and early 00s. I stayed up till 2 am reading this book because I simply couldn't put it down. Currently, I'm only half way through it so won't comment in detail until later. However, it gets a strong buy recommendation from me because it does a fine job of detailing how these men built their companies.

Broadbandits reminds me of another book I enjoyed thoroughly. The book is the classic by Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons, about the railroad, oil, and steel tycoons of late 19th century. I first read this one over ten years ago and consider it one of my favorite business books.

The reason I recommend these two books is because a careful study of both reveals that the basic business strategies for amassing great wealth are the same today as they have always been. Only the technology has changed.

So, if you're dead serious about building wealth as a captain of industry, go with these books instead of the  narcissistic pablum from people like The Donald and his co-wealth gurus.

If you feel stymied in your efforts by a lack of capital, learn how the elite Inc 500 entrepreneurs created money out of thin air to launch their companies. Get the Smart Startup Guide to learn how business startups are financed the creative way.

Read up on how Google has used a basic billionaire strategy to achieve dominance.

If you are serious about learning how billionaires become billionaires, enroll in the Billionaire Strategies  Course.

Why women make better entrepreneurs

This brilliant insight on what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur just discovered at the New York Times:

“I challenge any man to talk on the phone, send a fax, reply to an e-mail, change a diaper, get a toddler a snack, monitor what your school-age children are watching on TV and add to the grocery list — all at the same time,” wrote Heather Lawrence, owner of Texas Stork in Hickory Creek, Tex. which rents “stork announcement” yard signs for new parents. Ms. Lawrence, who has two children aged 2 and 6, says her business makes about $1,000 a month, most of it pure profit."

Read article here.

I am always surprised when people try to claim that multitasking is some sort of business skill to be proud of.  It's far more a coping mechanism for the disorganized and harried than a skill.

As a side note, you will never hear a male brag about his multitasking skills. It simply doesn't happen. Men understand that it's a sign of disorganization and lack of planning. Effective people focus on one thing at a time until its either done or time to move onto another priority.

Multitasking is the fastest road to mediocrity and failure.

Here's a new definition for the term.

Multitasking:  The art of running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

How to Go From Rags to Billionaire

Three Interviews with ex-Billionaire Bill Bartmann

Former billionaire Bill Bartmann has had one wild ride over the course of his life. He grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, got involved with some rough characters early on who could have easily steered him into a life of crime, became a teen alcoholic, and broke his back (but fully recovered) before finally becoming a billionaire in the mid-1990s. Then his life crashed.

But now he's back.

I first heard of Bill Bartmann while updating my book on the startup secrets of the Inc 500 entrepreneurs. Bill appeared on the cover of  Inc. magazine and was identified as the 25th richest billionaire in America. I actually tried to interview him for the newest edition of the book but was not able to get through. People like Bill who succeed against all odds have always been far more interesting to me than The Donald-types born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths. Bill comes across as a real street-fighter who never stays down for very long when life knocks him down.

A reader gave me a heads-up last week on three talks given by Bill. These range from 30 to 60 minutes in duration but are well worth your time. Rather than giving you the standard self-congratulatory sermons many successful people do, Bill speaks candidly about both his rise and fall in life. (His life is well-documented on-line if you want more information on him.) These talks will especially resonate with anyone who's gone through a rough patch which might have shaken their self-confidence.

So without further ado, here are the three talks:

The Nine Steps to Achieve Any Goal by Bill Bartmann

Ten Steps to Overcoming Failure by Bill Bartmann

Change Your Focus, Change Your Life by Bill Bartmann

If you're interested in how the elite Inc 500 entrepreneurs launch their companies without wasting time on begging to venture capitalists and angel investors for money, check out The Smart Startup Guide.

If you are serious about about leraning how billionaires become billionaires, enroll in the Billionaire Strategies Course.

How to become a Billionaire instead of settling for mere millionaire

Billionaire Bill Bartmann Speaks

Bill Bartmann who grew up dirt poor, eventually became a billionaire (yes, with a "b"), then lost it all, and recovered. So if you are interested in finding out how a billionaire thinks and their strategies for value creation, invest 45  minutes into listening to this interview.

How to become a billionaire.

This Bill Bartmann interview will be of special interest to anyone who may be doubting their abilities after a setback. It's very motivational.

If you are dead serious about learning business strategies from billionaires be sure to enroll in the Billionaire Strategies Course.