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Thread: Expose Economists

  1. #11
    Email problem Karenwhe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marq View Post
    Or is it the media who are unskilled in finding the correct or alternative people and turn to the old faithful economists for an opinion?
    Media is skilled and may I add very skilled at one thing: Selling newspapers, which in turn is selling stories that make people read them - so that they can stay in business.

    Once people get that we are 90% home free from BS and 50% free to self-empowerment.

    A very close family member worked for newspapers she said: "the only thing you believe in a newspaper is the date in which it was printed and the name of the newspaper (and even then you need to assume there are no miss-prints)".

    I heard this when I was around 10 years old. I still till this date can't forget it.

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    I wonder how much of the problem then is deadlines and the pressure to produce something, even if you haven't had the time to really scope out the real situation. Something of an indictment against the pace of life nowadays.

    Karen, I wonder if you ever found/read an article I did ages ago - Business lessons from surfing. It's kinda related and I'd be interested in your thoughts.

  3. #13
    Email problem Karenwhe's Avatar
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    Hi Dave,

    Thanks for pointing out the article. Nope, I didn't see this yet.

    It is brilliant article and very true.

    Most entrepreneurs fails at the "know yourself". When you say strengths and weaknesses, I am not sure if you mean personal or business/product/service in terms of positioning.

    But unfortunately most fail at the "know your personal strengths and weaknesses".

    The first thing as a basis for everything that has to come an entrepreneur has to work with the tools he or she has and at that beginning the only thing that the entrepreneur has: his or her professional skills, emotional stability and mental ability (as a side note: everything can be compensated externally to some extent or another other than emotional stability/intelligence that is something that only consistent personal growth can achieve).

    As a surfing analogy, imagine a beginner surfer that wants to learn and makes all the plans and watches techniques and surfers and the day he wants to surf the dies because he doesn't know how to swim, but didn't take that into consideration as a weakness. He should have learnt to swim first (too late now). I know that in surfing is the most ridiculous example, but in business things are not as obvious as this.

    At the beginning of a business the entrepreneur is pretty much on his/her own, they have to build something. At the early stages of startup the plans, decisions and actions are crucial to build/grow to the next stage.

    But at the same time the entrepreneurs are alone and should know themselves and their own weaknesses and strengths insider out to make objective decisions and take actions that support their abilities until such time as they have help without running themselves into the ground (e.g. someone can be a brilliant engineer with the best product ever and marketing but loses clients because his client service skills suck or their cash flow management skills are very bad).

    I strongly believe that because entrepreneurs do not know themselves, but keep focusing on only knowing the market and the business environment, they simply fail within the first 3 years.

    So, imho, the first thing an entrepreneur should do is know himself of herself very well to maneuver to success until such time as the organization is self-standing.

    The best plan on the face of the planet can fail due to execution and personal weaknesses which have not been taken into consideration to compensate for in that plan.

    For example: if one is bad at cash flow management, sit with an accountant monthly or someone that is good at it and take notes and learn and do what is necessary to survive until the business takes off - do this as a rule.

    In short if one doesn't know their personal strengths and weaknesses with the best plan on the face of the planet - all bets are off.

    P.S. Sorry I didn't have many surfing analogies, but I don't know much about surfing.... of course other than surfing the web that is .

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