My name is Evan Carmichael and welcome to a special video post brought to you by American Express Canada. They have recently launched their Amex for Business Canada Facebook Page where you can access the latest news, information and resources for Canadian entrepreneurs.

I believe that the fastest and most effective way to build a business is to model the strategies of people who have already done what you’re trying to do. I call it Modeling the Masters.

Today we’re going to look at how a young entrepreneur went from performing in the streets and sleeping on park benches to becoming a billionaire who plays high stakes poker and is a space tourist in his spare time. This is the story of Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success.

Must Watch Video

“I bet everything on one night. If we failed, there was no cash for gas to come home.” – Guy Laliberté

Guy Laliberté, (born September 2, 1959) is a Canadian entrepreneur, philanthropist, poker player, space tourist and the founder of Cirque du Soleil. When Laliberté was 18 years old he left Canada for Europe to become a street performer. He played traditional Canadian music on an accordion with a hat for donations and slept on a park bench by night. He also met other street performers who taught him how to breath fire, juggle, perform magic, and walk on stilts before returning home.

Unable to find a 9-5 job back home, he started a business that would create large-scale street shows. After 3 years of successful shows in 13 Canadian cities, Laliberté wanted to get bigger. In 1987 his company was booked as the opening act for the Los Angeles Arts Festival. He spent all the money he had to get to Los Angeles and prepare for the show. If it didn’t work out he’d have to perform on the streets to get gas money to go home. Luckily for him the gamble paid off – his performance received standing ovations and ticket sales came flying in.

With an estimated net worth of US$2.5 billion, Laliberté was ranked by Forbes in 2011 as the 11th wealthiest Canadian and 459th in the world. In 2006, Laliberté was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and his company now employs over 5,000 people – not bad for a hustling entrepreneur who started off sleeping on park benches because he couldn’t afford to pay rent.

Action Item #1: Have a Greater Purpose

Is your goal to make a lot of money or to change the way something is done? If you look at the most successful entrepreneurs in the world you’ll find that they started their businesses to have an impact. Sure they had to make money, but it wasn’t their primary objective. Strangely enough, if money is your only goal then it rarely comes to you but when you focus on a greater purpose you’re much more likely to become successful.

Laliberté’s goal isn’t to make money; it’s to touch people – even if it’s only for a few hours on a single day. He goes to great lengths to help people open their imagination, be awed like a child, and see the world in a slightly different way. He transformed the circus industry from being large-scale amusement park shows designed to make people laugh to a full out experience that expose people to new cultures and ideas.

According to Laliberté, “We are in a position of financial and social power, and we could be agents of change in our society. Without pretension, I believe we could be a nice little gardener who takes care of the garden, and hopefully our neighbor will do the same. Then, maybe we’ll achieve a better world… Inside every adult there’s still a child that lingers. We’re happiness merchants – giving people the opportunity to dream like children.”

Action Item #2: Foster a Creative Workplace

Very few entrepreneurs can’t benefit from an influx of creativity into their businesses. When you and your team and creative, you’re coming up with new ways to solve problems, unique products and services to sell, and interesting ideas to fuel your future success. Think about your own success. Did you have your best ideas when you were in a creative space or when you were stressed out and overworked?

Laliberté believes that if you create a creative place to work, you’ll be rewarded with unique ideas that will help grow your business. He’s resisted the urge many entrepreneurs have to go public because he wanted to prevent shareholder pressure for short-term profits. He also invests 40 percent of profits back into research and development, twice the average for his industry. His hands-off management style allows his team to be as creative as possible without his interference and he only provides feedback in the final phases of production.

According to Laliberté, “I believe that the profits will come from the quality of your creative products… Business is difficult. But it could be approached two ways: Seriously, or with the same way you’re doing your job, with entertainment aspect, with pleasure, with fun. And we decided to try to make it as fun that we do our creativity… I believe in nurturing creativity and offering a haven for creators, enabling them to develop their ideas to the fullest… We are each but a quarter note in a grand symphony.”

Action Item #3: Take Risks

It almost goes hand in hand that to be an entrepreneur you have to take some risks. You’re venturing into the unknown and are creating new products and services. But when you’re betting on yourself then there’s no better investment in the world. If you commit to seeing things through until you reach your goal you’ll have the confidence to take the necessary risks and move mountains to accomplish your vision.

Laliberté isn’t afraid to take risks. He attributes this quality to his early years as a street performer where he had to be creative and daring to stand out and to survive. His first big risk was to change the way a circus was run. Gone were the dancing bears and lion tamers. He would create an animal-free circus. He then introduced the concept of having a permanent show. How could a circus survive without travelling? Laliberté would show them. He continued to bet on himself believing that the risks would pay off and he was right.

According to Laliberté, “We’re not afraid of risking what was our success yesterday in order to explore some new field. We’re adventurous. We like the challenge of unknown territory, unknown artistic field, and that’s what stimulates us… I have seen many successful people fail after they start fearing they might lose what they have built. [We stop growing] if we start being afraid of taking risks and if we start diminishing our creative pertinence. We should always aim at doing more-creative endeavors, not in terms of volume but in terms of more creativity and more sharing… I don’t believe in pitfalls. I believe in taking risks and not doing the same thing twice.”

True Story

Laliberté understands the importance of getting the right people for his company. Once a year, Cirque du Soleil engages in a hiring campaign to bring new and freshly energized talent on board. For 16 weeks, anywhere between 60 and 70 candidates from around the world are gathered together to be tested. Pushed to their limits, Cirque encourages candidates to do things they probably have never done before, evaluating not only their core competencies, but also their values, generosity, courage, teamwork and problem solving skills. Laliberté wants to hire people who are risk-takers, just like himself, and who fit with the company’s core values.

More Quotes

“It was live or die in L.A. And we bet everything on one night.”

“If you want to be good you have to connect with the best people.”

“Today, the dream is the same: I still want to travel, I still want to entertain, and I most certainly still want to have fun.”

What Do You Think?

Does your company have a greater purpose? Are you afraid to take risks? What part of Guy Laliberté’s message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Evan Carmichael

To learn more check out my list of Guy Laliberté articles. Also don’t forget to check out the Amex for Business Canada Page!

Today’s post is brought to you by American Express Canada. Check out their new Amex for Business Canada Page and vote for the winning small business story in the “Take Off with American Express contest.”

I believe that the fastest and most effective way to build a business is to model the strategies of people who have already done what you’re trying to do. I call it Modeling the Masters.

Today we’re going to look at how an entrepreneur whose father didn’t believe he would ever reach his goals set out to follow his passion for computers and built one of the largest companies in the world, quickly proving his father wrong. This is the story of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success.

Must Watch Video

“Don’t think about the money you don’t have. Rather, what can you do with what you do have?” – Steve Wozniak

Stephen “Woz” Wozniak (born August 11, 1950) is a Polish American computer engineer and programmer who co-founded Apple Inc. While in school, Wozniak tapped into his intense passion for computers and started designing computers on paper based on the theories that he knew. He told his father that he would one day own his own computer. When his father said “Well Steve, they cost as much as a house,” Wozniak replied, “Well, I’ll live in an apartment.”

Wozniak didn’t have friends growing up. He spent his time between his schoolwork and his experiments. Things changed, however, when he met Steve Jobs. With Jobs’ ability to convince people to give them parts, Wozniak went to work on building the Apple I. In 1976, Wozniak and Jobs started Apple together with the goal of making computers a tool everyone could use, not just big corporations.

Today, Apple has over $100 Billion in revenues and is one of the largest 50 companies in the world. In 2000, Wozniak was inducted into the National Hall of Fame and has received honorary degrees from multiple universities. His plan was never to start a company but rather to design computers. Luckily for the world, he decided to do both.

Action Item #1: Don’t Think About the Money You Don’t Have

I can’t tell you how many times I hear from entrepreneurs that they’re not successful because they don’t have enough resources to start. If you look at the stories of most famous entrepreneurs, they didn’t have rich investors giving them a huge cash injection to launch their businesses. It’s not about how much resources you have, it’s about how resourceful you are that will determine your success as an entrepreneur.

Wozniak felt that his best work came from not having a lot of money to get started. It forced him to be creative, make things simpler, and challenge conventional thinking. Being short on funds forced Wozniak to create over 50 designs for a mini-computer before he hit on the right one that would work. He saw it as a personal challenge to create a computer that could be sold to everyone like radios and televisions were and he wasn’t about to let a lack of money hold him back.

According to Wozniak: “When you are a startup or an individual on your own, you don’t have very much money, so the fewer parts you have to buy, the better. When you design with very few parts, everything is so clean and orderly you can understand it more deeply in your head, and that causes you to have fewer bugs. You live and sleep with every little detail of the product… Steve Jobs and I started with literally no money. No cars. The parts we used to create the Apple I were purchased on thirty days credit… Don’t think about the money you don’t have. Rather, what can you do with what you do have?”

Action Item #2: Focus

Being an entrepreneur requires a lot of dedication and hard work. You have a goal for what you want your business to look like and you need to focus your energies and not get distracted until you get there. Don’t let the naysayers convince you that you won’t succeed and don’t give up too early before you’ve given your business enough of a chance to let momentum work in your favour.

Wozniak needed to focus to be productive at Apple. He was stubborn with his ideas, confident that his designs would work, and forced himself to keep going until he solved the problem. It cost him his personal life in those early years but he was a man on a mission and knew exactly what he wanted so he went after it with all the energy he could muster together.

According to Wozniak: “The way I work requires so much concentration. Getting to know the problem well enough by thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking. And then you try every day to make it a little better, go through it again and again, cutting something off here or there… When I was doing this work well, I didn’t have a wife or a girlfriend. I couldn’t do anything else.”

Action Item #3: Partner Up

You can’t do it alone. You either need a really good team around you or you have to partner up with someone else who complements your weaknesses. This seems especially true in technology companies where it’s rarely one person who is the founder of the business. Partnering up isn’t easy. It’s like getting married – you have to really know the person and make sure you’re picking someone you want to be with for the long haul.

Wozniak knew he had a unique set of skills that could revolutionize the way people ran their lives. He realized though that he didn’t have the complete package that would be needed to launch the revolution. He needed someone who wasn’t as inward and quiet as he was. He needed to partner with someone who liked to sell and promote and allow him to focus on the engineering side of the business. Partnering up with Steve Jobs proved to be a perfect match for both of them. Neither of the two could have accomplished the same level of success without each other.

According to Wozniak: “I was shy, he was outward… I created, he sold… I had the incredible technology, which was important when you’re starting up and have very few employees. Steve had this big drive to have a company and he had foresight.”

True Story

Wozniak sold his HP calculator and Steve Jobs sold his Volkswagon van raising $1,300 to fund the launch of Apple. Jobs told Wozniak that even if they were not successful they could at least tell their grandkids they had their own company.

What Do You Think?

How did you get the startup funds to launch? Do you have the right people around you to succeed? What part of Steve Wozniak’s message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

To learn more check out my list of Steve Wozniak articles.

Once again, today’s post is brought to you by American Express Canada. Check out their new Amex for Business Canada Page  and vote for the winning small business story in the “Take Off with American Express contest.”

In support of the launch of http://www.simplyaccounting.com/BusinessResources, a new website created by SAGE Simply Accounting (one of my recommended tools for running your business) I’ve created a list of my favourite 5 Gutsiest Entrepreneur Launches Moves of All Time. These are from entrepreneurs who knew how to make a splash and get people talking about their products as soon as it came out! Enjoy!

Must Watch Video

Gutsiest Entrepreneur Launch #5: Dana White Saves the UFC

Dana White is the current President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).  White began managing MMA fighters Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell before taking over the UFC. His current net worth is $150 million.

After purchasing the UFC, Dana White and his partners accumulated over $30 million in losses trying to make the business viable. In a last ditch effort to save the business White launched a reality television show, The Ultimate Fighter, to feature up and coming fighters. He was unable to convince any network to air the show until Spike TV agreed with one major condition: the UFC would have to pay the entire $10 million production cost to create the show.

White agreed and put his business on the line. The show became a huge success which ended with  Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar fighting for a six-figure contract. White credits the show for saving the UFC and continued airing new seasons of The Ultimate Fighter to expand the awareness and popularity of his company.

Gutsiest Entrepreneur Launch #4: Philip Knight Signs Michael Jordan

Philip Knight is the co-founder and Chairman of Nike. As of 2010, Knight’s stake in Nike gives him an estimated net worth of US$12.7 billion, making him the 58th richest person in the world.

In 1985, Knight launched a new shoe called “Air Jordan” after signing a young up and coming basketball player named Michael Jordan to a sponsorship deal.  The initial deal was for $2.5 million over five years, an expensive deal at the time that changed the face of sports marketing. The Air Jordan was then banned by the NBA because its black and red colours didn’t fit within NBA guidelines. Jordan continued wearing them and was fined $5,000 per game which Nike paid.

The Air Jordan became the most valuable footwear franchise in Nike’s history. It was so popular that launch dates had to be postponed to weekends so kids wouldn’t be tempted to skip school to get their hands on the latest Air Jordan. The move took Nike from being a running shoe company with no exposure to the basketball market to now  owning as much as 85% of the basketball shoe market.

Gutsiest Entrepreneur Launch #3: Bill Gates Pitches a Product that Doesn’t Exist

Bill Gates is the chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world’s wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third. His current net worth is $56 billion.

Bill Gates and long time friend Paul Allen turned their passion for programming into a business when they saw a picture of the Altair 8080 on the cover of Popular Electronics. Gates called Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the company that was manufacturing the Altair, and told them that he and Allen had developed a programming language for the computer that was ready to launch.

With not a single line of code written and no Altair to work on, Gates and Allen worked around the clock on Harvard computers to do what they said they had already done. Eight weeks later, Allen flew to MITS headquarters in New Mexico to present their code. Without even a test-run, their program was a success and MITS bought the rights, making it an industry standard. Within one year, Gates had dropped out of Harvard and the two high school friends established Microsoft Corporation.

Gutsiest Entrepreneur Launch #2: Richard Branson Drives a Tank into Times Square

Sir Richard Branson is a British entrepreneur, best known for his Virgin Group of over 400 companies. Richard Branson is the 212th richest person in the world according to Forbes’ 2010 list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of approximately £2.97 billion (US$4.0billion).

To launch Virgin Cola he rode into Times Square in New York City on top of a tank, promising to battle with Coke and Pepsi. To launch Virgin Mobile in Canada he repelled into the heart of Yonge-Dundas square. Branson has also made several world record-breaking attempts. With “Virgin Atlantic Challenger” and “Virgin Atlantic Challenger II” he raced to have the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing. In “Virgin Atlantic Flyer” he created the world’s largest hot air balloon and was the first to cross the Atlantic in a balloon. He then tried to become the first person to go around the world in a hot air balloon.

Branson is always thinking of new ways to launch and promote his businesses – the more high profile, the better. Even when his stunts don’t work out they garner so much attention for his businesses that it’s all worth it for him.

Gutsiest Entrepreneur Launch #1: P.T. Barnum Puts on a Show

P. T. Barnum was an American showman, businessman, and entertainer. He was the founder of the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. His show was called “The Greatest Show on Earth” and he’s my top pick for this list of the gutsiest entrepreneur launches of all time.

Even if you didn’t have a ticket to his show, when Barnum’s circus was in town, you would know it. He would sweep into the city with gusto; elephants would be paraded through the streets, clowns would be sent to local hospitals to visit with sick children. Barnum provided a pre-show to his circus that he hoped would get people talking and raise excitement about his show. He would give tours of his circus to anyone who wanted to see inside the Big Top, and also put on multiple free contests in order to attract crowds to his show.

Barnum was always thinking of ways to promote both himself and his circus. From making splashy entrances to using cross-promotion, Barnum did what it took to make sure people knew who he was.

Business Resource Centre Launch

SAGE Simply Accounting’s launch of its Business Resource Centre has some very useful tools to help you with your accounting basics as well as up to date business news. My favourite features are the checklists – examples are how to improve your cashflow or set up a payroll system. Check them out and let me know what you think! More content will be coming in the following months.

How did you launch you product or service? Which famous entrepreneur launch would you add to your list? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

In support of http://www.myboldmove.ca, a new website created by TELUS and BlackBerry I’ve created a list of my favourite 7 Boldest Entrepreneur Moves of All Time. These are from entrepreneurs who risked everything to take their shot at success and, against all odds, they made it. You can also win $25,000 by reading this post… details below!

Must Watch Video

Bold Move #7 Milton Hershey Doesn’t Give Up

Milton Hershey was the founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company. He was not only one of the 20th Century’s most successful entrepreneurs but also one of the country’s most generous philanthropists. Today, The Hershey Company continues to reign as the world’s largest chocolate company with more than 13,000 employees and over $5 billion in sales.

At the age of 19, against his parents’ wishes, Hershey decided to move to Philadelphia in order to start up his own caramel company. The business was never able to generate a profit and was forced to close six years later. Hershey refused to give up. He traveled throughout Denver, New York, Chicago and New Orleans trying to find fortune but each time he was unsuccessful. He returned home at age 28 with no money and was seen as a disgrace by his family.

But he still refused to give up. He started a new business with a former employee of his and moved from making caramels to chocolate. After 10 years of failure, Hershey finally hit on a winning business. His company expanded year after year and if he had listened to his friends and family through those 10 years of failure we would never have known the Hershey Chocolate bar.

Bold Move #6: Ted Turner Decides To Be Successful

Ted Turner is the founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting System. He owns the Atlanta Braves, gave $1 billion to the United Nations, and currently has a net worth of $1.9 billion.

Turner had a lot of bad luck growing up. He was a ‘C’ student at school, got expelled from University, had his parents divorce, got divorced by his wife, and had his sister develop terminal lupus. He went to work for his father’s outdoor advertising company when his father then killed himself because he couldn’t pay off the company’s debts. Ted Turner, at the age of 24 took over the company, restored it to profitability and began building his empire. He had all the odds stacked against him but he was determined to be a success.

According to Turner: “All my life people have said that I wasn’t going to make it… I’ve never run into a guy who could win at the top level in anything today and didn’t have the right attitude, didn’t give it everything he had, at least while he was doing it; wasn’t prepared and didn’t have the whole program worked out.”

Bold Move #5: George Lucas Challenges Traditional Business Models

George Lucas is one of the film industry’s most financially successful independent directors and producers with an estimated net worth of $3 billion. He is best known for his Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies.

When Lucas’ first movies didn’t give a financial return on investment he found it difficult to find support for his latest idea, a movie called Star Wars. To get the movie into production he waived his up-front fee as a director and agreed to own the licensing rights so he could profit from any toys, t-shirts, and other products that came from the movie. At the time movie studios didn’t see licensing rights as valuable so they agreed. The money he made from the licensing rights allowed him to finance the sequels himself and built his fortune.

According to Lucas: “My first six years in the business were hopeless. There are a lot of times when you sit and you say ‘Why am I doing this? I’ll never make it. It’s just not going to happen. I should go out and get a real job and try to survive’. I thought Star Wars was too wacky for the general public. Right or wrong this is my movie, this is my decision, and this is my creative vision, and if people don’t like it, they don’t have to see it.”

Bold Move #4: Anita Roddick Is Forced To Survive

Anita Roddick was the founder of The Body Shop, a cosmetics company known for its environmental and ethical best practices. In 2006 she sold the company to L’Oréal.for £652.3 million.

When she got married Roddick and her husband, Gordon, set up a small eight room hotel to support their family. Then her husband decided he wanted to fulfill his lifelong dream of riding a horse from Buenos Aires, Argentina to New York City. In order to support her family while her husband was gone she started The Body Shop. The bank rejected her $8,000 loan request so she got the money from a local gas station owner to get the business up and running while looking after her two children on her own.

According to Roddick: “For myself, I needed to earn money, to look after the kids while my husband was traveling for two years across South America… I started The Body Shop in 1976 simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters, while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas. I had no training or experience and my only business acumen was Gordon’s advice to take sales of £300 a week. Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.”

Bold Move #3: A.P. Giannini Bets On The Little Guy

Amadeo Peter Giannini revolutionized the banking world by providing services to “the little guy.” Giannini passed away in 1949 at the age of 79. By that time, the bank he had founded, the Bank of America, had become the largest bank in the world, with more than 525 branches in over 300 cities.

Before A.P. Giannini you could only get a loan if you already had some money. Hardworking immigrants like his parents didn’t qualify and Giannini wanted to change the system. He set up his bank across the street from a popular bank and began making loans to people other banks wouldn’t give a chance.

When a massive earthquake hit San Francisco in 1906, all the banks in the city closed down to assess their damage. People couldn’t get access to their funds at the time they needed it the most. The earthquake demolished Giannini’s bank but he opened up shop by setting up a desk using two barrels and a plank of wood across them. He would lend money to people based on a handshake to help them rebuild their lives. He also went on to fund entrepreneurs like Walt Disney who nobody believed in and projects like the Golden Gate Bridge that were considered too crazy to invest in.

Bold Move #2: Guy Laliberté Risks It All In Los Angeles

Fellow Canadian Guy Laliberté is the founder of Cirque du Soleil, a circus entertainment company whose shows have been seen by almost 100 million people worldwide. In 2006, Laliberté was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and his current net worth is over $2.5 billion.

After a couple of years of marginal success, Laliberté decided to risk everything to perform at the Los Angeles Arts Festival. Booked as the opening act, the performance was going to be watched by many big names, including high-profile Hollywood celebrities.

According to Laliberté: “It was live or die in L.A. And we bet everything on one night. By the end  of the show we had standing ovations. The day after, tickets were selling like crazy. I bet everything on that one night. If we failed, there was no cash for gas to come home.”

Bold Move #1: Walt Disney Does The Impossible

Walt Disney was a film producer, animator, and entertainer. He created films with iconic characters like Mickey Mouse, won 22 Academy Awards, and established the Disney theme parks. Today the Walt Disney Company has revenues of over $35 billion per year.

At a young age, Walt Disney had some modest success with animated short films when he decided to do the boldest move ever in his industry: Make a full-length animated feature film. It had never been done before, let alone in colour and with music. His competitors, associates, and even his wife thought he would never make it. Originally budgeted at $500,000, the project had gone over budget by half a million dollars in its early stages. Disney was forced to act out the film’s story in front of bankers in order to secure the additional loans he needed to finish it. In the end, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs went on to earn four times the box office of any other film when it was released.

According to Disney: “Somehow I can’t believe there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C’s. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence.”

Contest – Win $25,000

To honour Canadian entrepreneurs who make bold moves, TELUS and BlackBerry are giving away $25,000 via their new website http://www.myboldmove.ca. Enter today to win – the contest is only open to Canadians. You have until March 25th and can also win daily BlackBerry Smartphones.

What’s your boldest move? Which famous entrepreneur bold move would you add to your list? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/risquillo/

It’s been a while since my last video update so I wanted to share with you four of the new videos that I’ve created since my last post.

#1: Billionaire Lessons from Ingvar Kamprad (from farmer to IKEA billionaire)

“What is good for our customers is also, in the long run, good for us.” – Ingvar Kamprad

#2: Top 3 Lessons From King Gillette

“The razor was looked upon as a joke by all my friends. A common greeting was, ‘Well, Gillette, how’s the razor?’ If I had been technically trained, I would have quit.” – King Gillette

#3: Top 3 Business Lessons From Debbi Fields

“The greatest failure is not to try. Had I listened to all the people during the course of my life who said, “You can’t. You’ll fail. It won’t work. You don’t have…,” I wouldn’t be here today.” – Debbi Fields

#4: Top 3 Business Lessons from Jenny Craig

“[My husband] always tells me that I’m the most unrelenting person he’s ever met, and it’s true. If I make a commitment to something I will stick to it no matter what.” – Jenny Craig

Who else would you like to see profiled on this blog? I’d love to hear your thoughts if youleave a comment below!

Over the past two months I’ve added a lot of new content that I hope will inspire you as well as give you new ideas to grow your business. Here they are:

My Advice:

• 3 Ways to Grow Your Business in 2011 (and make it your best year yet!)

Famous Entrepreneur Videos & Blog Posts:

• Top 3 Lessons from Ted Turner (CNN Founder)
• Top 3 Business Lessons from Jenny Craig
• Top 3 Lessons from Akio Morita (Sony Founder)

Famous Entrepreneur Profiles:

• Vijay Mallya (Kingfisher Airlines)

Enjoy!

Photo Credit: World Economic Forum

Who else would you like to see profiled on this blog? I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

I made this video for all the entrepreneurs who are having a tough time getting their businesses to what they want it to be.

To where you feel you deserve to be.

The core message is: Don’t Give Up.

Enjoy!

If you know any entrepreneurs, pass this video on to them and give them a motivational boost for the day!

I’d also love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Over the past few months I’ve added a lot of new content that I hope will inspire you as well as give you new ideas to grow your business. Here they are:

Top 10 Lists

• Top 10 Inspirational Quotes for Entrepreneurs
• Top 10 Books for Entrepreneurs
• Top 10 Videos for Entrepreneurs

Famous Entrepreneur Videos & Blog Posts:

• Top 3 Lessons from Simon Fuller (American Idol Founder)
• How to Match Your Talents with Your Passion Like the Franchise King Ron Joyce (Tim Hortons)
• How to Find Your Passion Like Oprah Winfrey
• How to Find Your Next Big Business Opportunity Like Ray Kroc (McDonald’s)

Famous Entrepreneur Profiles:

• Tony Hsieh (Zappos)
• John Ilhan (Crazy John’s)

Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Robert Scoble

What are some of your favorite quotes and books for entrepreneurs? Who else would you like to see profiled on this blog? I’d also love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

“Most successful people are ordinary people with extraordinary determination.” – Mary Kay Ash

“Believe you can change the world.” – Bill Hewlett

It’s been a while since my last Modeling the Masters video but I recently created a new video and would love your feedback on it. This time the video focuses on how you can promote your business like P.T. Barnum, one of the greatest promoters of all time.