The article below outlines a few lessons regarding innovation that fit nicely with the original post in this thread (about entrepreneurship and risk taking). Not the most groundbreaking insights, but valuable nonetheless.

Innovation
Lessons from Apple
Jun 7th 2007
From The Economist print edition

What other companies can learn from California's master of innovation

http://www.economist.com/opinion/di...tory_ID=9302662

quote:

Originally posted by SuperJimbo The Economist

That magazine, plus Business Week are the only two magazines worth treading IMO.

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quote:

Originally posted by rabbitjoker That magazine, plus Business Week are the only two magazines worth treading IMO.

I also like Wired, Vanity Fair, Atlantic Monthly and Rolling Stone. Would way rather read a magazine than watch or read the news. Way less depressing.

quote:

Originally posted by SuperJimbo The article below outlines a few lessons regarding innovation that fit nicely with the original post in this thread (about entrepreneurship and risk taking). Not the most groundbreaking insights, but valuable nonetheless. Innovation Lessons from Apple Jun 7th 2007 From The Economist print edition What other companies can learn from California's master of innovation http://www.economist.com/opinion/di...tory_ID=9302662

I was skeptical seeing the title/subtitle, but that was actually a good article. Too many companies imitate Apple in a cargo-cult sense, just doing the opposite of whatever Microsoft does (or doing the same, but thinking they'll do it "better"), and forgetting that Apple's had to deal with a long string of failures and license a lot of outside technology and ideas.

They did leave out one thing, which is more on the technology side - Apple's had a good 20 years to build up it's technology, culture, and talent. Chances are that [your startup] isn't going to match Apple's loyal following within a couple of years, so you might have to pander a little bit more than they do.

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Maybe a more accurate point would be that young people, relative to the resources they have (money, business domain knowledge, connections) have more success as entrepreneurs.

quote:

Originally posted by SuperJimbo I also like Wired, Vanity Fair, Atlantic Monthly and Rolling Stone. Would way rather read a magazine than watch or read the news. Way less depressing.

I prefer novels for entertainment when bored, passing time, or looking to use my mind.

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Some practical tips/advice for entreprenuers from Guy Kawasaki....


The Entrepreneur's New Year's Resolution: "I Will Fix My Pitch"

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/12...ntrepreneu.html


The Art of Bootstrapping

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01...rt_of_boot.html


The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01..._ten_lie_1.html

Last edited by SuperJimbo on Jul-17-2007 at 03:50

I am surprised to find a Clay Shirky article posted here on TA, but all right. I generally enjoy what he writes--his work was instrumental in opening my eyes to a few nuances of blogging, free music (and culture), and other such things some time ago (all of which is now reflected in what I do). He seems to have a case here as well (how old are the CEOs of Facebook and Digg again?) although two points some people seem to be missing here (probably because they only read the title of the article) is that Shirky stresses that the entrepreneurial breakthrough is rare, and youth and "novice" are interchangeable for the purposes of the discussion. The thrust of the article is really no different than the old aphorism "it's so crazy it just might work." Once you begin to take the conservative view that most startup ideas are nuts, you've lost the potential for a true "once-in-a-lifetime" entrepreneurial breakthrough. Seems straightforward to me. Thanks for posting the article!