Archive for February, 2007
Sunday, February 25th, 2007
What is it about getting older makes us deny our ability to get sick? As my fever began to creep up I heard myself say “I don’t have time to be sick.” Like there is anyone that does? And as if we have a choice? I take care of myself and don’t believe I am under any larger-than-normal amount of stress, but here I am recovering from two days with a fever and a cough that would wake the dead (for those of you that have heard my normal cough, this is MUCH WORSE!). Why does a fever hit so hard after a certain age?
I tried to make meetings and take conference calls – and actually made a few. My apologies to those that had to talk to me or, worse, see me in this condition. Looking back, I should have taken to bed much sooner than I did.
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Posted in Being a ParentPreneur, Work/Life Balance | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007
I met Mary Moslander, President & CEO of Live Healthier, when she won the REDI business plan competition. Ruth Semple of the Maryland Technology Development Center had been telling me “You just have to meet Mary – you have so much in common!” Thank you, Ruth, for being right on the money. I owe you a debt of gratitude for introducing me to Mary. From the first 2-3 hour lunch we had (that could have gone on much longer if we didn’t have so many other things to do!), I discovered that I was missing something in my life – girl friends.
You see, I have always been around men. My business was focused on the manufacturing sector, which was at the time decidedly male-dominated. I seemed to get along better with guys – I can even remember lines to stupid movies and use them at an appropriate point in a conversation. Most of my close women friends were people I grew up with, or that knew me from before I started my business. It seems that once I started a business and that business started to become successful, the chasm started to open. I just didn’t fit in anywhere.
I love my children, and having flexibility to be with them was one of the catalysts for me to start my business. But I love what I do for a living, too. I loved writing my book. I love empowering others to find the greatness within themselves. I love creating opportunities by connecting people with each other. I refuse to choose between family and work – it is not an ‘all or nothing’ game for me.
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Posted in Being a ParentPreneur, Business Growth, Work/Life Balance | 6 Comments »
Monday, February 12th, 2007
A recent article in the Harvard University Gazette, “Cross-cultural study of entrepreneurs has surprising findings“, discussed the results of a recent study completed on 377 entrepreneurs from China and Russia on how gender affects revenues, growth, and profit of new ventures.
When I first read the article, I was confounded. The study found that women have bigger and less useful networks than men and that men have better ‘emotional’ networks than women. Then I started to think about what that really meant.
Several years back, a speaker we had through my TEC group, Tom Hill, said something I never forgot: you are the average of the 10 people you spend the most time with. At that time, his statement scared me to death. I realized I was not seeking out the right relationships. I was not spending time with people who had similar life goals or who had achieved what I wanted to accomplish. Now that I look back, the direct emotional support that I was receiving from my network at that time was nonexistent if not counter-productive.
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Posted in Business Growth, Entrepreneurship | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 8th, 2007
In a recent e-mail from Margaret Heffernan, author of “How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs are changing the rules for business success”, she relayed a story that horrified me. She was speaking at Babson College and one of the students shared a comment from one of her professors. This ‘eminent’ professor told her that she could have a business, she could have a family, but she could not have both. And the Princeton Review recently named Babson College’s MBA Program the “Best Opportunity for Women” for the third year in a row. Hmmmm.
Now, giving this man the benefit of the doubt, I’ll assume he meant that she could not have them at the same time. But would that make it any better? Absolutely not.
This is exactly the type of thinking I am motivated to eradicate. “If you are serious about business, you can’t have a family or if you are a good parent, you can’t be serious about your business.” That is bunk (I would use stronger language, but I am trying to keep it clean). I have several examples I can share, as Margaret did with that student, which prove his comment is nonsense, not to mention dangerous.
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Posted in Being a ParentPreneur, Entrepreneurship, Work/Life Balance | 10 Comments »
Tuesday, February 6th, 2007
Can you teach someone to be an entrepreneur? Tough question that is often hotly debated. My answer is: perhaps. I believe that if someone has certain innate characteristics they can learn a great many things that can improve their chances for success in starting a business. Is it guaranteed? No way. In 2005, the SBA estimates that 544,800 businesses closed. If success was guaranteed, if there was a manual that anyone could follow and be successful, who wouldn’t do it?
So if it is so risky, why do so many people start businesses? Fortune Small Business declares “we are in the midst of the largest entrepreneurial surge this county has seen.” While plunging into entrepreneurship is generally a personal decision (much like the decision to start a family!), I’ve seen a number of common themes emerge:
1) If I am going to work this hard, I might as well be the one benefiting from it (money)
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Posted in Entrepreneurship | 1 Comment »
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