The Blog For Entrepreneurs

One of the geat things about the web is that you have virtually instant access to great thinking. I have several Google alerts for words like ‘entrepreneurship‘, ‘entrepreneur‘, ‘motivation‘ ‘personal development‘ etc. Occassionaly there wings into my inbox some super content. The one I would like to share today is a short video of Guy putting accross a small thought with big consequences and then I discuss its implications on the life of an entrepreneur.

Make Meaning – Make Money

One of the phrases that I repeat endlessly is “You cannot succeed at something you hate, and you cannot fail at something you love“. At the core of this simple quote is the echo of Guy’s philosophy above.

A business that is created from a passion, that has meaning for the entrepreneur and their customers, is a business that has solid foundations. If executed correctly and managed prudently a business built on these foundations will succeed. Guy goes on to explain ‘how’ you can ‘make meaning’ in business:

Increase the Quality of Life

This is such a great ‘focus question‘. The message is so simple it is awesome. Think about it for a second. Does you product or service increase the quality of life? Are you thinking about adding to people’s lives with your business? I have several business that have been on the short list for me to start. I have been doing the pros and cons, thinking about the execution of each and slowly narrowing down which one will be the one that gets the nod in 2010. 4 of the businesses that I was evaluating have been crossed off the list after applying this simple question from Guy.

Right a wrong

Guy uses an example of the not-for-profit businesses striving to end poverty or fight AIDS etc, but this can easily be applied to business. Richard Branson built a billion dollar empire on the core message that the Virgin Brand gives out which is “We side with the consumer and give you a better deal“. Whether or not this is true now is immaterial, this message built Virgin – ‘righting a wrong‘.

Prevent the end of something good

This is a superb, thought provoking statement. Wide ranging in its application, perhaps, but nonetheless powerful. Again, non-profits will immediately identify with this, however I see a whole range of businesses using this very philosophy as a business ethos; the ‘green’ industry.

The green industry is centered around ’saving the planet’. A pretty bold statement for any business, but in the years to come I believe that the industry of combatting climate change will be huge, with a capital H-U-G-E.

At the risk of watering down an already excellent message, I would add one more thing:

Make a better mousetrap

History’s innovators have made our lives so much simpler, history’s immitators have shown us that there are many ways to make a product better.

One example of this is James Dyson of Dyson vacuum cleaner fame. He took a product that had become synonmous with its dominant manufacturer, ‘Hoover’, applied modern thinking and technology to it and came up with the ‘cyclone technology‘ that is at the center of his billion dollar company.

My design and technology teacher said to our class the very first lesson we had “This class will change your life, you will never look at anything the same again – Let me tell you about Design and Technology and how everything you see can be designed better“. Funny that 25 years later I still look at everything and ask myself how it could be designed better.

Let me know your thoughts on Guy’s video. I would be interested to hear your views.

Regards
David
@OneLifeNoFear