8 Ways to Sunday

I bring these up to highlight a key point — you don’t get investment for just an idea. It’s extremely rare. If you want to be an entrepreneur, stop believing that ideas matter. That isn’t what entrepreneurship is about. Entrepreneurs aren’t idea people, everybody and their brother has ideas. Entrepreneurs are people that exploit ideas by matching them to market needs, executing them despite scarce resources and designing a business model that makes the idea profitable.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, stop waiting. Start doing something. That is how you learn. Make entrepreneurship your hobby, until you can make it your career. And stop reading garbage about these companies that go from idea to a billion dollar valuation in two years. That requires as much luck and timing as it does vision and execution. You will have much more success if you get these crazy ideas out of your head, and if you put the kool-aid down.

Read the rest at BusinessPundit

(Props: Photo Matt)

Here’s a few news stories to help refuel your rage against the Bush administration:

• Reuters: Firms with Bush Ties Snag Katrina Deals — “Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration’s first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.”
• Associated Press: U.S. Envisions Using Nukes on Terrorists — “A Pentagon planning document being updated to reflect the doctrine of pre-emption declared by President Bush in 2002 envisions the use of nuclear weapons to deter terrorists from using weapons of mass destruction against the United States or its allies.”
• Associated Press: President’s Approval Rating Dips Below 40 — The title is pretty self-explanatory. All I can say is that it’s about freaking time. Where was that extra 12% of dissenters when we needed them, last November. Are they actually surprised at what they’re getting from the man they voted for?
• Associated Press: Republicans Still Plan to Cut Spending — “Republicans are going ahead with long-standing plans to trim Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits, even though party moderates are balking at cutting programs that aid the poor while hundreds of thousands are homeless from Hurricane Katrina.”