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In this episode, we discuss the power of entrepreneurship as the answer to our economic and political woes.  It is the answer to keeping the American Dream alive, creating jobs, bringing financial stability, and bringing America back to its roots!

Listen up and let us know your thoughts by commenting below…

Malcolm Gladwell shares his thoughts on the importance of passion and attitude in regard to business success.  Do something you are passionate about!!!

A common thought used when describing the entrepreneurial life is “entrepreneurs like to take risks”.  Well, my friend, the fact is that NO ONE LIKES RISK.  Why would they? The reason some are willing to deal with risk is in hopes of greater reward.  It is the reward they like, not the risk.  Now, the risk may bring a level of exhilaration but ultimately that energy is experienced upon success, not failure.

So how could they trade security for risk, isn’t that gambling? The said truth is if you are asking this question, you are likely blind to the fact that they aren’t.  In fact, entrepreneurs often have more security than a regular wage earner.  I mean, think about it. If the company you work for is struggling, who gets fired first, you or the owner? Now don’t mix this up with any publicly traded behemoth who has a board and such with high CEO turnover. The CEO isn’t the owner anyway, its the shareholder.  The owner holds the cards!! They will always be the last to go, obviously.  Typically, the choice for entrepreneurship is simply a choice or exchange of differing risks, not risk v. security.  This doesn’t mean everyone should start their own gig, many shouldn’t nor have the desire to.  It is, however, a reminder that risk exists even within the big company.

Everyone has job security when times are hot, and that is when no one needs it.  Its when struggle comes that we rely on our security and this is exactly when the behemoth has to cut back (as does the small guy).  When you actually need the security is when you lose it! Employee or employer, we all need to heed that point.  As Daniel Isenberg over at HBR said in a recent article discussing a list of questions you should ask yourself:

“I like to take risks” is not on the list. People don’t choose to be entrepreneurs by opting for a riskier lifestyle. What they do, instead, is reframe the salary vs. entrepreneur choice as between two different sets of risk: the things they don’t like about having a steady job — such as the risk of boredom, working for a bad boss, lack of autonomy, lack of control over your fate, and getting laid off — and the things they fear about being an entrepreneur — possible failure, financial uncertainty, shame or embarrassment, and lost investment. In the end, people who are meant to be entrepreneurs believe that their own abilities (e.g. leadership, resourcefulness, pluck, hard work) or assets (e.g. money, intellectual property, information, access to customers) significantly mitigate the risks of entrepreneurship. Risk is ultimately a personal assessment: what is risky for me is not risky for you.

So… do you want to be an entrepreneur? How do the risks line up for you?

Well, Chris Anderson over at WIRED just published yet another article that is sure to get its fair share of praise.  I’m sure it will gain a following and eventually be another book, following up “Free” and “The Long Tail“, both of which essentially started as articles in the mag.  I will start by saying I’m a fan of Chris and his work.  Those two books are some of my favorite business-ish books. Well, on to the article.  This latest incarnation of thought is titled “The New Industrial Revolution” as it is emblazoned on the cover of the February 2010 issue, or “Atoms are the New Bits” as titled within (I don’t know what they want it called).  The line of thought in this piece can be seen not only in Chris’s previous works but many strains of it can be seen throughout WIRED over the past few years. One of the key points that I’d like to highlight regards community & open-source development.

As seen in both Free and The Long Tail, community and open-source are the future of industry, advancement, and entrepreneurship. Even large, blue chips are taking part to some degree.  Take Microsoft’s decisions to open beta-test its latest Windows and Office packages as an example.  Other companies are entirely based on these community participation models. This free or near-free participation and approach has been tested, and proven, with the web and the constant content generation found there. Now, as can be interpolated from the article title, the open-source and open availability of these digital bits is being translated into near-free atoms! Actual physical products and goods are the next step to prove the concept of opensource.  As we translate all the content, development, and innovation of the web into physical products, entrepreneurial opportunity will explode and prices, competition, and innovation will accelerate at levels unseen. Now, resistance will obviously occur, but pressing forward will yield tremendous return.  Threadless is one company that is a common example of this opensource bits-to-atoms process, and a good one at that.  They have demonstrated the win-win possibilities of the model in creating not only more unique, high-quality products but at reasonable prices with low-overhead, high profit business returns. This is only the beginning, of course, as Chris introduces us to much more complex possibilities than t-shirts.

Take Local Motors as an example that he mentions.  They have actually begun production on a car that was designed and voted on by a community, in fashion of Threadless’ t-shirts.  It will be built mostly using “after-market” parts and assembled individually as orders come in.  Interestingly, Local Motors follows a model described in another WIRED article found back in June here. Currently Local Motors is coming out as a niche company, giving little competition to the major car conglomerates but that will likely change as Local Motors develops or others come into the game.  This is only the beginning! Local’s design-to-market turn around is a distant dream to any detroit competition.  As Chris states:

the company says it can take a new vehicle from sketch to market in 18 months, about the time it takes Detroit to change the specs on some door trim.

Even better is the open availability of the design plans under creative commons license.  This allows components, add-ons, mods, and more to be created by anybody, unveiling countless other business possibilities. This is just one example of companies taking technology, community, and open-source to the world of physical products, to “atoms”.  Many other examples may not scale like Local Motors nor have the desire to do so.  The fact is many small entrepreneurial ventures, with today’s technology and tools, have the opportunity to compete with the behemoths or simply fill niches that are untouchable by them.  It is a beautiful thing to behold.  And we aren’t talking about the digital realm here.  This is manufacturing, production, products, this is atoms!  With simple tools such as 3D printers (for less than a grand), access to custom limited-run manufacturing at remarkably affordable prices (thanks again internet), and open community feedback, the opportunity pool is much deeper than it used to be!  Even nuclear power is being approached with this technique as I discussed here regarding yet another WIRED article.  Like I said, this theme can be seen throughout their articles over the last while.

So what does all this mean for the entrepreneur?  Well, if you haven’t picked it up already, its all about endless opportunity and open, community development of ideas!  With that in mind, what do you think? Any other great examples of similar business models in use?  Let me know!!

Entrepreneur Mag for December includes an article here that helps put Twitter into perspective a bit more and gives “The netiquette of Twitter.”

From the Article:

“Twitter is about reaching the right people at the right time,” says Becky McCray, a longtime Twitter user and advocate who operates her own cattle ranch and liquor store as well as a website, SmallBizSurvival.com., in Oklahoma’s Woods County. “But you have to think carefully about what messages you want to communicate.” Here are some recommendations for what to do–and what not to do–on Twitter.

• Listen before speaking. “When you sign up and start reaching out to folks, listen to them before joining the conversation,” McCray says. “What are their customers talking about? Who are they listening to, and what can I learn from them? When you feel it’s time to tweet some messages, share things you find interesting–share things you wish other people would share.”

• Don’t be boring. “Make sure your tweet is interesting to the reader–be unselfish, and be useful,” says Laura Fitton, co-author of the book Twitter for Dummies and founder of the Twitter application storefront oneforty.com. Short, direct messages work best, especially given Twitter’s 140-character limit. Talk about what your business is doing–e.g., new products, services or promotions, or anything else likely to pique the curiosity of your clientele.

• Consider the source. “The beauty of Twitter is that tweets with value are almost instantly recognized,” says John Battelle, founder, chairman and CEO of Federated Media Publishing. “Does it come from somebody who’s been on Twitter for a month, or for a year? Someone with 10 followers, or 10,000 followers? Did that tweet get picked up and re-tweeted? You can tell a lot about the value of a tweet by those metrics.”

• Update daily. Give your customers a reason to follow and return to your Twitter feed. Download a mobile client to your smartphone to facilitate regular updates while on the go–some of the most popular include Twitterific, TwitterBerry, PocketTweets and Twidroid.

• Embrace Twitter applications. Don’t wait for followers to find you–identify and connect with local Twitter users via services such as Twitter Advanced Search, ChirpCity, Nearby Tweets and Tweepz. Other Twitter apps of value: SocialOomph (for scheduling tweets, tracking keywords and sending direct messages), CalTweet (for tagging, promoting and sharing upcoming business events) and Twitalyzer (for measuring the impact and influence of your tweets).

“Twitter is a tool that’s incredibly powerful,” McCray says. “What makes it powerful is the fact that it can be used in so many different ways.”

Well, there you have it straight from Entrepreneur. One day, we will all figure out Twitter and maybe, just maybe, Twitter will figure out itself!