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I love it! I also love Simon Doonan's new title creative ambassador-at-large, at Barneys new York. The other obstacle in our way is our upbringing. We are told to do well in school work hard on the 40/40 plan (40 hours a week for 40 years) and then die... I mean retire. It’s a good plan for most people...but not for us! I met a woman who was an entrepreneur development coach in Nebraska. She was working on a high school program to teach kids how to think like one. She told me she wished that she could start the program in grade school since the "entrepreneurial" spirit had already been beat out of the children by the time they got to high school. Think about what we teach our children....follow the rules...its not if you win or lose...play fair...don't boss your sister & brother around (ok, that last one might have been specific just to me) but you get the idea. Unsuccessful business owners tend to discourage the entrepreneur. "Your going to leave your 'good job' to start what?" “Be ready to work 20 hour days,” is the feedback most of my clients get. How about this as a mantra for starting a business? “How do I work as little as possible for the most amount of money?” Industry know how can really only come from two ways, education (which doesn’t cover everything) and experience. Every other vocation requires you to apprentice (chiefs, plumbers, and teachers) yet how many designers or store owner have never worked in the industry for one day.

inventors even artists they have all failed....but their determination helped them overcome. This might be a weird example...Madonna and Britney Spears. Britney Spears fell victim to media criticism- shaved her head and had a break down? That never happened to Madonna and the reason was experience. Madonna had to crawl her way up in the belly of the seediest New York City clubs, far from home and broke. She developed focus and the guts to pick her self up, change, grow, move on and start over. When you are a product of a Hollywood lab...you never learn from experience. Think of Babe Ruth...the home run king, he was

I feel that too many business types forget to use their imagination. They spend weeks reviewing numbers but never envisioning the project.
also known for the most strike outs. You just have to take a swing, or you will never know if you have a home run or strike out.

A Time for Opportunity
Now I would like to quote my favorite movie Wall Street, the scene is driving down 5th ave, Gecko is speaking to the young and naive junior stock broker. He turns and says to him "You see that building? I bought that building ten years ago. My first real estate deal. Sold it two years later, made an $800,000 profit. At the time I thought that was all the money in the world. Now it's a day's pay. You will never be a player because you can't think like one. You want to fly first class and I own the plane”. I would like to leave you with this thought; we are living in a moment of opportunity, if someone else can do it….why can’t you? Those of us that are brave will reek the benefits of “thinking big”. Be brave, be smart and in order to make your dreams come true. Wake up and get to work.

Face the Fear of Failure
Being afraid of failing is another reason for the small thinking. And really that becomes a matter of ego. We don't want to look stupid or bad in front of our friends or family. It’s really about understand the safety nets that are available and putting them in place. We should also understand that failure is part of the feedback we need to change and grow a business. Take a look back at all of our greatest business persons,

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THE BEST OF INTIMA – 02/2011

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