Seriously Business - Entrepreneur, Business, and Inventions Blog

Blogs, podcasts�.what’s next when it comes to getting your message across to the widest audience possible? It could just be that the new trend for ‘moblogging’ rises inexorably - with at least one high-profile provider now ready to roll this out to the awaiting masses.YouTube, fresh from its takeover by Google, is that firm - having stated that it will spread its video-share capabilities to mobile phones amid high public demand. This could have interesting implications for businesses which have already chosen to capitalise on YouTube’s ability to snare internet users, with mobile phone customers potentially very amenable to viewing short, sharp clips which can be loaded up by doing little more by putting their hands in their pockets. (more…)

To what extent does force of personality make or break an entrepreneur? It sounds a bit like an exam question, but it’s well worth pondering by casting the eye over the successful businessmen we’ve already profiled.

Sir Richard Branson has already been cited as an example of somebody who was ineffective academically but grew to thrive through, in part, force of personality. Never failing to exude an almost boyish charm, he thrives on spontaneity and the ability to come out with a pleasing soundbite which will make others feel good and promote a positive image of himself or his own ventures. But that’s not to suggest that he isn’t genuine - he once explained that “having a personality of caring about people is important. You can’t be a good leader unless you generally like people. That is how you bring out the best in them,”and this has been borne out in his career. He is an altruist, somebody who genuinely wants to make the world - and people - better. Profitable relationships and joint ventures are always likely to result from such an outlook, especially when married with an astute business sense. (more…)

The 17^th century philosopher John Locke spoke of the “tabula rasa” - the blank slate onto which experiences are etched, subsequently affecting our ideas, sensations and characteristics. There were, he said, no innate ideas stamped upon the mind from birth. A budding entrepreneur might construe this as a sign that Locke was suggesting, by extension, that a man must become successful in business through training, application and experience rather than through an innate drive - but can we say that this is true?

A recent survey by the US’s Northeastern University, in Massachussetts, tends to fly in the face of this. Studying the responses of over 200 entrepreneurs from across the Atlantic, it gleaned that a majority (62 per cent) believed they were born with the desire and ambition to found their own businesses - suggesting that nature may be more valuable than nurture when it comes to realising one’s goals. (more…)