Entrepreneur Geek

Ravi Malagi sent this to me and I found it worth sharing.

Don Miguel Ruiz‘s Four Agreements – code for life and personal development

Agreement 1: Be impeccable with your word

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Agreement 2: Don’t take anything personally

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering

Agreement 3: Don’t make assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life

Agreement 4: Always do your best

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

Frugal To the Max

When you are starting your own venture, be frugal. Whether you are putting in your hard-earned savings or have investor backing, take care of every penny you spend.

Cut down on:

• Fancy office setups & employee facilities
• Expensive hardware, software, equipment and gadgets – you don’t need to flaunt
• Number of employees – work with small number of talented, all rounders
• Traveling and related expenses – use VoIP / Video conferencing
• All expenses!

Staying cashflow positive should be the number one priority for a startup. Bootstrapping is the best entrepreneurial model. Do whatever it takes to generate your monthly cashflow from the business. Set a limit for yourself – you will never go cashflow negative for more than 2 months.

And once you get the cash, be even more watchful. It’s easy to waste money on promising opportunities / people / technologies.

Avoid temptation.

(Image courtesy Buster Benson)

I do not believe there are traditional qualifications which make a business owner a winner. Drive, common sense and intuition count for a lot more. Even inventors and technical experts who start businesses tend not to be organisational types. They are often mavericks who want the freedom of self-employment. And although entrepreneurs have a reputation as wild risk-takers, in reality they judge the downsides carefully – because they have their own capital at stake, and they have learned about the dangers of the marketplace first hand.

…

Typical entrepreneurs would have never been hired by these corporations – or indeed understood the complex modelling upon which the financiers based their entire business model. But the bankers placed far too much faith in such artificial worlds of computer programs and clever buzz words – and completely lost the plot.

Rajesh Patel, a client who’s starting on his own after an impressing career, suggested a Financial Times article about entrepreneurs and why top companies failed. It was a very interesting reading. My belief in entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship just got thicker!

Entrepreneurs take decisions on gut instincts. They of course study the background and numbers, but more often than not, their decisions are based on their intuitions. It’s managers who decide by spreadsheets!

What’s your take?

If the post about increasing spending, rather than saving intrigue / upset you, here’s something more!

A theory says that international bankers control almost all of the cash in the world. They have control over printing currency and the flow of money that circulates in the economy. And they have been controlling it for over a century now.

This 3.5 hour, fast-paced, non-fiction, historical documentary explains how international bankers manipulate America. It was produced by Patrick Carmack, directed and narrated by Bill Still. This video shows how the European and American banking systems have been taken over by the Rothschilds and other families.

The full video is available from Google for Download. You can view it from here as well.

Checkout the official site and some updates on people behind the video.

What do you think? How do you feel?

Some notes from today’s Team Leader Training in Magnet. The topic was how can we train ourselves to be leaders.

• Leadership = People around you producing expanding results.
• First step is taking responsibility. Responsibility = Ability to Respond. You have ability to respond to any situation, any person. Responsibility is not a burden. It’s a grace you give yourself.
• How do we listen to our people? People show up as we listen to them. If I listen to someone as a loser, he will always do things like a loser. Are we listening to our people as if they are leaders?
• Be a lifelong student. This does not come easily, you have to practice and allocate time to learn. Not just to learn technical skills, but also leadership.
• Keep your battery charged! Disempowering conversations drain your energy. Replace them with thoughts that give you energy.