Wednesday,Aug 4 2004, 05:56:40 AM7 signs of an entrepreneur

7 signs of an entrepreneur

1.	You come from a line of people who couldn't work for someone else. I don't mean that in a negative way. People who are successful at establishing their own business tend to have had parents who worked for themselves. It's usually easier to get a job with a company than to start your own business; people who strike out on their own often have the direct example of a parent to look to.
2.	You're a lousy employee. No need to sugar-coat this one. People who start their own businesses tend to have been fired from or quit more than one job. I'm not saying you were laid off for lack of work or transitioned from one job to a better-paying one — you were cut loose, or you quit before they could fire you. Think of it as the marketplace telling you that the only person who can effectively motivate and manage you is yourself.
3.	You see more than one definition of "job security." I'm truly envious of the few people I know who've stayed with one employer for 25 or 30 years. They look incredibly secure. But how many people do you know who are able to stay with one company for that long? In a rapidly changing economy, job security can be frighteningly fleeting. Here's how one self-employed person I know puts it: "If I work for someone and my boss screws up, or decides he doesn't like me, or runs the company into the ground or any number of other things, then I'm out of a job. My security is tied to that one guy, that one company. But if a client decides they don't like me, or they go out of business or whatever, I've still got the security of all the other customers I have." Or, to paraphrase one business observer (I think it was Dilbert), "It's way better to have 100 idiot clients than to have one idiot boss."
4.	You've gone as far as you can go, or you're not going anywhere at all. Sometimes the motivation to start a new venture comes from having reached the top of the pile where you are, looking around, and saying, "What's next?" Early success can be wonderful, but early retirement can sometimes drive energetic and motivated people totally batty. On the other hand, the drive to build something new can also come from deciding that you're stuck in the middle instead of at the top. Fear of stagnation can be a powerful motivator, especially if you have an idea for something that could be at least more interesting and potentially more lucrative. Speaking of which . . .
5.	You've done the market research already. Don't even talk to me about your great business idea if you haven't put the time into figuring out if there's a market for your product or service. As the people behind any number of failed Internet ventures will tell you, "cool" doesn't necessarily translate into "profitable." Don't bother building it if you haven't figured out whether there's a good chance the customers will come.
6.	You've got the support of your family. Starting a business is stressful under the best of circumstances. Trying to do it without the support of your spouse or other significant family members or friends would probably be unbearable.
7.	You know you cannot do it alone. You might excel at promoting a business. Maybe you love running the financial end of the enterprise. You could be someone who starts a business because you have unique creative or technical know-how to create a product.

Any of the above is possible, but it's unlikely that you are going to excel at all of these tasks — or at all of the tasks involved in running any business. Forget all that "lone wolf" stuff. No matter how "go-it-alone" your philosophy is, you're going to need some help sometime.

The willingness to get that help — having employees, partners or consultants for those areas in which you are not an expert — is one indicator of likely future success. As development consultant Ernesto Sirolli writes in "Ripples from the Zambezi," "No successful entrepreneur has ever succeeded alone. . . . The person who is most capable of enlisting the support of others is the most likely to succeed

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Tuesday,Aug 3 2004, 02:20:09 AMLibra 3 AuGUst 2004 You are a social...

Libra

3 AuGUst 2004

You are a social creature, dear Libra, and today you can expect to attract a lot of attention. You are feeling good and looking even better, and don't think that people don't notice. They do! Make it a point to get out and mingle with other people. You are a talented and capable person in your own right, but you really shine when you are with others - and this is especially true today.

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Wednesday,Jun 23 2004, 03:41:16 AM幸福要自己去感受，不是别人看到

幸福要自己去感受，不是别人看到的样子。
了解自己是什么样的人，比别人怎么看你重要。

Don't be afraid to be different，没有自信之前，先
用你的勇气。

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