The Mirror Exercise

Select a random person, such as a friend, co-worker, or celebrity. How would you describe this person? Make a short list of this individual’s key character qualities. Then put a plus (+) next to the qualities you like and a minus (-) next to the ones you dislike. Now look at the list you’ve created, and read it back to yourself. But this time consider it from the perspective that you’re looking at a list someone else wrote to describe you. You’ll likely gain some new insights about yourself as you recognize that this is a fair representation of what you like and dislike most about yourself.

I’ve offered this mirror exercise to many people around the world, and those who apply it are often stunned by what it reveals. I encour -age you to try it for yourself. It only takes a few minutes, and it will help you realize that other people are not so different from you after all. We commonly praise in others what we like most about ourselves, while condemning those qualities we resist facing in ourselves. Inci -dentally, did I mention what a beautiful, brilliant, and loving person you are?

Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth

Stephen King writes every day of the year, including his birthday and holidays, and he almost never lets himself quit before he reaches his daily quota of two thousand words. He works in the mornings, starting around 8:00 or 8:30. Some days he finishes up as early as 11:30, but more often it takes him until about 1:30 to meet his goal. Then he has the afternoons and evenings free for naps, letters, reading, family, and Red Sox games on TV. In his memoir On Writing, King compares fiction writing to “creative sleep,” and his writing routine to getting ready for bed each night: Like your bedroom, your writing room should be private, a place where you go to dream. 

Your schedule—in at about the same time every day, out when your thousand words are on paper or disk—exists in order to habituate yourself, to make yourself ready to dream just as you make yourself ready to sleep by going to bed at roughly the same time each night and following the same ritual as you go. In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives. 

And as your mind and body grow accustomed to a certain amount of sleep each night—six hours, seven, maybe the recommended eight—so can you train your waking mind to sleep creatively and work out the vividly imagined waking dreams which are successful works of fiction.

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey

Notes - The Sure Thing (entrepreneur as predator) - New Yorker - Malcolm Gladwell - 1/18/2010

Great article by Gladwell, that shows the successful entrepreneur is not a risk taking, fool hardy person, but a rational predator who minimizes risk. Entrepreneurs make things happen but know why and how.

What makes or breaks a business.

"The entrepreneur has access to that deal by virtue of occupying a "structural hole," a niche that gives him a unique perspective on a particular market." What entrepreneurs see is opportunity not risk.

Read " From Predators to Icons" - Michael Villette and Catherine Vuillermot; " The Illusions of Entrepreneurship" - Scott Shane
"The Greatest Trade Ever"

"his focus throughout the sequence is on hedging his bets and minimizing his chances of failure. The truly successful businessman, in Villette and Vuillermot's telling, is anything but a risk taker. He is a predator, and predators seek to incur the least risk possible while hunting."

"Marty Gruss drilled a maxim into Paulson. ' watch the downside, the upside will take care of itself.'"

"Negative-carry trades are a 'maneuver' that investment pro's detest almost as much as much as high taxes and coach-class seating. Their problem with negative-carry is that if the trade doesn't pay off quickly it can become ruinously expensive."

Failed Businesses violate all kinds of established principles of new-business formation;

New business success is clearly correlated with the size of initial capitalization. Failed entrepreneur's tend to be wildly under capitalized. Data shows organizing as a corporation is best, failed entrepreneur's tend to sole proprietorships. Writing a business plan is a must. Failed businesses often skip this step.Taking over an existing business is always the best bet. Failed entrepreneur's prefer to start from scratch.

90% of the fastest growing businesses sell to other businesses; failed ones usually try to sell to direct consumers and rather than serving/ finding customers that other businesses have missed, the chase the same group as the competitors. Failed business under emphasize marketing. Failed businesses compete on price. Failed businesses don't understand the importance and need/ use of financial controls.


Some risks are unavoidable, you take them when you have no choice, but a good many actually reflect a lack of preparation and planning and foresight.

Taking excessive risks is a psychologically protective strategy: no one can blame you when you fail

Predator is often quite happy to put his reputation on the line in the pursuit of the sure thing.

Why are predators willing to endure abuse? They are sufficiently secure and confident that they don't need public approval.

Shane says that the average person would have to earn 2 1/2 times as much money to be happy working for someone else as he would be working for himself.

The predator is a rational actor - but deep down also a romantic, motivated by the simple joy found in the work.

Books
Outliers: The Story of SuccessThe Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big DifferenceBlink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures 

Notes - The Sure Thing (entrepreneur as predator) - New Yorker - Malcolm Gladwell - 1/18/2010

Great article by Gladwell, that shows the successful entrepreneur is not a risk taking, fool hardy person, but a rational predator who minimizes risk.

Bullet points below on what makes or breaks a business.

"The entrepreneur has access to that deal by virtue of occupying a "structural hole," a niche that gives him a unique perspective on a particular market."

Read " From Predators to Icons" - Michael Villette and Catherine Vuillermot
            " The Illusions of Entrepreneurship" - Scott Shane
            "The Greatest Trade Ever"

 
"his focus throughout the sequence is on hedging his bets and minimizing his chances of failure. The truly successful businessman, in Villette and Vuillermot's telling, is anything but a risk taker. He is a predator, and predators seek to incur the least risk possible while hunting."

"Marty Gruss dilled a maxim into Paulson. ' watch the downside, the upside will take care of itself.'"

"Negative-carry trades are a 'maneuver' that investment pro's detest almost as much as much as high taxes and coach-class seating. Their problem with negative-carry is that if the trade doesn't pay off quickly it can become ruinously expensive."

Failed Businesses violate all kinds of established principles of new-business formation;

• New business success is clearly correlated with the size of initial capitalization. Failed entrepreneur's tend to be wildly under capitalized.

 

• Data shows organizing as a corporation is best, failed entrepreneur's tend to sole proprietorships.

 

• Writing a business plan is a must. Failed businesses often skip this step.

 

• Taking over an existing business is always the best bet. Failed entrepreneur's prefer to start from scratch.

 

• 90% of the fastest growing businesses sell to other businesses; failed ones usually try to sell to direct consumers and rather than serving/ finding customers that other businesses have missed, the chase the same group as the competitors.

 

• Failed business underemphasize marketing.

 

• Failed businesses compete on price.

 

• Failed businesses don't understand the importance and need/ use of financial controls.

Some risks are unavoidable, you take them when you have no choice, but a good many actually reflect a lack of preparation and planning and foresight.

Taking excessive risks is a psychologically protective strategy: no one can blame you when you fail

Predator is often quite happy to put his reputation on the line in the pursuit of the sure thing.

Why are predators willing to endure abuse? They are sufficiently secure and confident that they don't need public approval.
 

Shane says that the average person would have to earn 2 1/2 times as much money to be happy working for someone else as he would be working for himself.

The predator is a rational actor - but deep down also a romantic, motivated by the simple joy found in the work.