Category: risk

Compound Effort

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Albert Einstein said compound interest is the greatest discovery of all time. There is no question about it’s power. Don’t believe me? $10K invested in the all ordinaries index in Australia in 1970, would today be worth $808K 

The tough thing that entrepreneurs face is life without a wage. Money makes life better. A wage can buy nice things. Shirts, shoes, dinners at fancy restaurants, weekend trips away and mortgages in gentrified suburbs. Yes, these are nice. The interesting thing about ‘compounding, is that it is not limited to financial instruments. It also applies to effort.    

                               COMPOUND EFFORT

       Definition: The ability to generate significant & tangible returns through long term continuous effort via the use of human capital. 

It applies to all things. Start ups, even exercise regimes. If you stay the course, the rewards are there. 

(If you’ve read this post before – you’ve consumed over 50,000 words on this blog! Thought it was worth a re-post) 

The map

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Sometimes we’re not as lost as we think we are. We just need to put the brakes on. Stop and revisit our map.

 world-globe.png 

We need to find our location, and determine if we’re on target, or if we’ve made a few wrong turns. If we’re not where we’d like to be, we might need to change direction.

 

The important this are that we don’t obsess over the map every day, or just keep forging ahead when we’re lost.

Passion – in action

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

How many people do you know who are prepared to die “literally” – in order to achieve their goals? Robbie Maddison is, would and just might.  

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOtpKQ-dAlg] 

He was actually quoted as saying the following:

  

“There is no doubt in my mind if this next jump doesn’t work out it will be death.”

 

I’m not suggesting this level of sacrifice is required in your business, but extreme sportspeople do provide the best example of passion in action.

 

Also – kudos to Redbull for having the courage to sponsor an event in which the free PR could really have went either way.

Crazy John

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Yesterday a great Australian entrepreneur ‘Crazy’ John Ilhan passed away. I won’t replicate the many newspaper articles about his life or fortune. You can Google him to see all of that. What I will point out is the many personal qualities he was documented as having:

 

Self belief

Highly motivated

Family man

Big ideas

Philanthropic

Risk taker

Failed quick, failed often

Bootstrapper

Game changer

PR machine

Knew how to dance with gorillas

– Telstra in his case. (topic of coming blog entry)

crazy-john.jpg

At the age of 41, it reminds us of the most important thing of all – our health.

Risk – repost

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

The post below is from the early days of startup blog. For those who’ve already read it, it’s a good reminder. For those who haven’t it’s worth considering. 

 

If you’re reading this blog and not involved in your own business, stop for a second and ask your self why?

You’re obviously interested in entrepreneurship, marketing and small ‘start up’ business. You’re smart and capable.

But we’re Risk Averse. All of us. But isn’t risk relative? Isn’t risk relative to what we have to lose? Maybe we should reconsider what we ‘could’ lose.

Are we risking:

  • Our Health?

  • Going Hungry?

  • Shelter?

  • Access to medical services?

  • Our Education?

The fact that we’re on the internet tells us it’s none of the above.

Maybe we’re only risking ‘Status’. Maybe we’re only risking ‘Title’ and ‘Conspicuous Consumption’.

What is our true assessment of the risk? Is starting a business really that risky?