Month: October 2015
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Top 10 UnReasonable Business Strategies for 2012
Monday evening I was getting increasingly nervous as I saw the 21 entrepreneurs’ faces turn from excitement to dread. The guest speaker was on stage telling my students why being an entrepreneur really sucks! And Gary meant it. Gary Whitehill, a good friend, is one of the top entrepreneur advocates in New York. His rapid…
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Top 5 Tips For UnReasonable Calls To Action
Last week my wife gave me a gift of getting a massage by one of the top massage therapists in New York City. Since it’s been years since I’ve gotten one, I jumped at the chance. The session was intense and extremely helpful. As we were finishing, I suspected the therapist was interested in working…
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Snooki Meets Social Enterprise?
Forbes: Reality TV and social enterprise. Seem like strange bed fellows. But there’s a new incubator/accelerator/boot camp called VentureCamp trying to mix the two. (Just to be clear, co-founder and CEO Giadha Aguirre de Carcer calls what she’s doing a “docu-series”, not reality TV. More on that later). And May 12 is the last day…
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Tech Companies Are MORE Than Just Computers
A couple of months ago, I was invited to be a mentor for the Do School, a one-year educational training program started in Hamburg, Germany, for young social entrepreneurs from around the world. They had just launched their newest office here in New York City. They work with entrepreneurs who are trying to solve serious…
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How to Be Successful as a Creative Entrepreneur
Throughout his entire life he felt he fooled the world into thinking he was special. In fact he was dumbfounded that people actually cared anything about his personal life. Even after he had received the Nobel Prize, was considered the second most popular and trustworthy man on the planet in the ‘30’s, a key creator…
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Why the World Needs UnReasonable Entrepreneurs
I was excited to introduce the class’ next speaker. I started by explaining how his company had been more than doubling in size for the past several years, with last year breaking the $2MM mark, how he had landed some very large customers, successfully raised over $2MM in investment capital, and was recently in The…
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Are You Raising Capital For Your Company? Who’s Your Lead Investor?
I felt like a little kid waiting for that letter from Santa. I kept checking the mailbox. A few days earlier I completed the legal terms and amount from my first investor for my newest company, the Shift Group. My investor told me he was sending the check and our contract in the mail. More…
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What to Do When You’re Totally Out of Ideas?
Even before I opened my eyes, I knew I was screwed. Opening them only confirmed it. The guy I was traveling with had drugged and robbed me of everything I had. I was in a dangerous city in a foreign country, didn’t speak the language and now with no passport, travel visa or money. And…
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How To Stay Focused On the Important Stuff
Last Friday, I sat among others in the waiting room of an incredible organization that helps people with hearing loss. The Center for Hearing and Communication is a century-old not-for-profit that has been instrumental in helping me hear and relearn to communicate after my near-death experience in 2002. Disturbing the quiet of patients waiting to…
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Six Green Movers and Shakers of New York City’s Startup Scene
Entrepreneur magazine compiled a list highlighting thirty movers and shakers of New York City’s startup scene. How many of their startups are green? If you take a look through the list you will find six movers and shakers who are behind green startups. I’d like to give them special attention. Of the “The Hot 30…