Austin Business

The Rug Merchant and Robert Cialdini

One of the books that Charlie Munger/Warren Buffet recommended when we were in Nebraska was Yes! By Robert Cialdini. Munger liked Cialdini so much he gave him an A share of Berkshire stock and recommends his book every year. Guy Kawasaki has a decent intro to this book...but first a really cool story about a Turkish rug merchant. This one struck a chord because...Indian rug merchants work about the same way..

http://academicbiz.typepad.com/piloted/2007/01/what_i_learned_.html

Here's Guy's summary...

http://blogs.openforum.com/2008/08/07/how-to-be-persuasive/

Business Rules of Thumb

A wiki with rules of thumbs

http://rulesofthumb.pbwiki.com/

Thinking Alike

"If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn't thinking"

George S. Patton

Leadership

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Due Diligence

Need to do due diligence on a company that you are thinking of acquiring or investing in?  The Ottawa Capital Network has a good FAQ.

http://www.ottawacapitalnetwork.com/entrepreneurs/faq.cfm?display=entrepreneurs&faq=2

More presentations at

http://www.ottawacapitalnetwork.com/investors.cfm?display=investors

What is the best advice you ever got?

The editors at Fortune magazine posed that question to twenty-eight business “superstars” in the
March 21, 2005 issue. For me, a handful of the responses stood out from the others.

Andy Grove, Chairman of Intel: “When 'everyone knows' something to be true, nobody knows
nothin'.”

Peter Drucker: “Get good—or get out.”

Dick Parsons, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner: “When you negotiate, leave a little something
on the table.”

Jack Welch, Former Chairman and CEO of General Electric: “Be yourself.”

What is the best advice you ever got?

What is Necessary

“Necessary is an interpretation, not a fact.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

Looking forward

"The day when our memories become more important than our dreams is the day when our organization begins to suffer from our leadership." --- Dr. Michael Hammer, author and organizational coach, President of Hammer and Company, speaking at the Air National Guard Senior Leadership Conference, December 11, 2006

Taxes

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well
Unknown

Playing Big

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves,
“Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?”
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

You playing small does not serve the World.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to manifest the glory of God that is in us.
It’s not just within some of us; it’s in everyone.
When we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give to other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”

Marianne Williamson