Meetings With Remarkable Men

I saw a strange French movie in 1979 that made a big impact on me. It was called Meetings with Remarkable Men and told the story of G.Gurdjieff, a philosopher who traveled through Central Asia in order to discover spirituality through dance, music, near-encounters with death and by meeting remarkable people along the way.

Over the last 24 hours I have had 2 encounters with remarkable men. Both related to my last blog entry regarding how to handle a crisis. I learned something new.

The first encounter occurred yesterday with a friend who is fighting to recover from a life-threatening accident that left his body and brain damaged and has forced him to have to re-evaluate his entire life. His courage and his determination inspire me and remind me to stay focused on what is most important here in life. His re-evaluation of his career has also reminded me of how important these types of questions really are. When we are forced, due to a crisis, to re-examine things at a fundamental level, then we sometimes get a chance to start over and re-create our lives and our businesses as we would ideally have them rather than after a pattern that merely came about over many years. Crisis is a valuable opportunity and an important process if you want to grow your business or accelerate your own personal development.

The second encounter was in a meeting with a business associate. We met over coffee this morning and discussed plans to collaborate on some workshops and marketing projects. Two things were remarkable. First, his energy level was contagious to the point that I left our meeting charged with a sense of urgency and a new determination to attack the problems that this crisis has presented. Second, as we were parting he said “Thank you for being you”. I realized that in light of the current crisis, my true self - my true colors are being freed and are shining through. Adversity brings out the best in us if only we let go and don’t fight it.

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who believes that this beautiful world that we have created needs our help. Subscribe to this blog to receive frequent updates and to join in the work. Learn more at www.ricksalmon.com

A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste (Part 1)

My own company is in a crisis right now… a real crisis with tough decisions to make, sleepless nights to endure and an impending sense of doom that is like a nasty hangover. A bit of bad luck, bad timing, some strategic mistakes and a global financial crisis have all combined into a witch’s brew of a startup company cash-flow mess. The squeeze we have gotten ourselves into is not all that uncommon for most small business leaders and entrepreneurs. A friend said “just get used to it… the bigger your business, the higher the stakes and the smaller your odds of survival”. Thanks for the depressing thought.

Now before you all start to worry that I am about to throw in the towel, shipwreck the business and go take a job flipping hamburgers at McDonalds, just relax for a moment. I am attacking this situation head-on because...

A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste.

Throw away 1000 years of history

When I arrived in Trento, Italy on Thursday the first thing I noticed were the city walls. Since the medieval times they have kept out invaders from the north and conquerors from the south. When you are reminded of your ancient past each day, perhaps it makes it harder to understand that THE PAST IS NOT THE FUTURE.

I was a speaker at a venture event in Trento this week that was sponsored by the local government and businesses. This region is making a fantastic effort in their attempt to break from the traditional thinking of old Italy and Europe and to foster innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. While perhaps this may sound novel, the reality of changing peoples’ beliefs and even values is daunting. In almost every single meeting I had with entrepreneurs it only took about 3 to 4 minutes before they started by telling me how difficult it is to succeed with a startup in Italy. It was almost as if they felt it was their task to convince me that this was impossible!

Entrepreneurs are Losers

A few weeks ago I was standing in line at the store behind two boys. They were probably 13, maybe 14 years old and these guys were really cool. They wore low-rider pants that constantly tried to slide down to their knees, big T-shirts advertising their favorite vampire heavy metal bands. One had a skateboard under his arm while the other had a ski hat tugged down over his ears in spite of the warm day. I overheard them talking about a friend of theirs who had recently quit the skateboarding scene and moved on to something else (I think they said he quit skateboards and started chasing girls…). As they talked about him, they both stopped, looked at each other and simultaneously lifted their right hands to their foreheads. Placing their thumbs against their foreheads and extending their index finger straight up, they had both created the big “L” sign. This stands for “Loser”. Having both agreed on this point and signaled what they thought about it, they smiled to each other and went on to talk about something else.

Are Entrepreneurs Losers? Today I will be speaking at a venture event in Trento, Italy. There will be 20-30 startup entrepreneurs who will pitch their business plans to investors in the hopes of getting capital for their young businesses. To be really honest, most of them will not leave this event with any promise of funding. Many will be frustrated and go home and wonder if it would be better to go back to the university or research environments they came from and live the easy life on student loans and government grants.

Only a fool would tell you that being an entrepreneur is easy. It takes a ridiculous amount of blood, sweat and tears in order to create a successful business when you start with nothing but a great idea. If first-time virgin entrepreneurs knew what they were getting into and how much hard work is required, then most would probably never even attempt a startup. This is not a career of choice for the weak of heart.

Entrepreneurs are Losers… but only if they quit. The only real failure for any entrepreneur happens when they abandon their idea and quit. “Success” for an entrepreneur is not any specific event or goal to be achieved. Success is the process of learning how to create businesses. Becoming a “successful entrepreneur” means that you know how to do this kind of work - you know how to start with a good idea and how to persevere with it until it becomes a real company with real value for it’s owners and customers. It means that you know how to do the dance and to make it rain on your cornfield.

Don’t be a loser. Learn rather than quit. Find a way to adapt or change your business until you eventually get what you are seeking. Successful entrepreneurs are winners.

For more about the Trento venture event and other funding opportunities for entrepreneurs, contact Europe Unlimited (www.e-unlimited.com).

For more information about how I work with startup groups to help them accelerate their startup business, contact me: rs(@)ricksalmon.com

Pitch your Baby

I have a friend who just had his first child. He’s over the moon about this baby and OK, all his friends are happy for him too, but he sends out constant emails with photos, short video clips, frequent little stories about first baby steps. There are facebook pages and even twitter messages from time to time. This is a great example of pitch and even the most experienced entrepreneur in the world could learn a thing or two from a new parent.

This is how you should pitch your startup company… just like it was your newborn baby child. Pitch your business with enthusiasm, pride, a strong sense of purpose and a belief that this baby will someday grow into something big and fantastic!

Pitching your startup to venture capital people is a blast and also a great way to accelerate your business development. I learned early-on that getting honest and direct feedback is essential in order to help me as an entrepreneur to face reality and to keep my startups on the right path. Honest feedback may not always be pleasant to hear, but it is always valuable – either to confirm or to correct your strategy.

Seek out opportunities to pitch your business to experienced businesspeople and especially to venture capitalists. There are lots of different venues for pitching. Check out the Europe-Unlimited venture events, which are free and open to all European startups. You will be amazed what you will learn.

Want my feedback on your business pitch? Contact me today. Maybe I can help.
rs(@)xelerator.com

Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who believes that this beautiful world that we have created needs our help. Learn more at www.ricksalmon.com

photo credit: Quinn Dombrowski