Pursuing praxis

Thanks to Michael for the post and commentary.

 –

Forbes Advice to Young Entrepreneurs from self made billionaires

It is interesting to note that all workout 5 days a week, read at least two hours per day, and remember major failures they learned lessons from.  A few key concepts dominate this advice.  Be true to yourself and your own ideals and values, start small and grow, work very hard and intelligently toward your goals, focus only on areas you know, analyze and question common conceptions, and take failures as lessons giving you a more accurate description of reality.  Perseverance, dedication, integrity, and honesty to one’s self.  – Michael

– 

What is your advice to young entrepreneurs?

Arthur Blank - Find and follow your passions; develop a culture and live it. Positive financial results will flow from that.

Tim Blixseth - You are the next wave, and all of our shoes will be filled by someone. It may as well be YOU. Never give up trying.

Franklin Otis Booth Jr. - Identify where you have or can create an edge over the rest of the world and doing something you enjoy. Then push that advantage to extremes.

Mark Cuban  - Everyone has the will to succeed, only those with the will to prepare do.

Gerald Ford  - Never give up, and have a positive reaction to failure

Kenneth Hendricks  - Learn the business from the ground floor up – not from the top floor down.

Wayne Huizenga  - Have a passion for what you do, work hard, have great people with good personalities, enjoy the ride, but balance work and family

George Kaiser  - Identify and affiliate with creative talent. Brainstorm concepts and analyze constantly, but at the conceptual level, not the spreadsheet level

Michael Ilitch  - Ask lots of questions! And, when and if you get the chance to travel, always look for new ideas to bring home! Set your goals and never give up!

William Moncrief  - Accumulate a lot of singles and gradually get into the doubles and triples before you try for the home runs.

Phillip Ruffin  - To succeed, you have to put in the hours and when you think you are there, put in more

Jorge Perez  - Have great focus, set high but achievable goals and work EXTREMELY hard at achieving them. Be flexible and ready to adapt to change.

James Sorenson  - Listen to yourself. Be guided by your real passions and convictions, not just by what you think might get you ahead in life.

What motivates you?

Mark Cuban - Competition. I love to compete and business is the ultimate sport. The level of competition in the business world blows away anything I have seen in professional sports.
The competitive fire of successful businesspeople blows away anything I have seen from athletes.

Danny Gilbert  - Finding a better way to do just about anything. There’s nothing that can’t be improved. You just need to be curious, aware and go deep below the surface to find those 1,001 little things that can be the difference between mediocrity and greatness

George Kaiser  - Meeting up with an interesting, novel (for me at least) problem and generating an unconventional and successful solution. Making a difference.

What is "success" to you?

Danny Gilbert   - Create. Build. Give. Being able to effect positive change for the most people I possibly can at any given time. Growing our companies and the culture of "It’s about WHAT is right, not WHO is right" remains as strong as ever.

Kenneth Hendricks  - Success gives me the ability to continually pursue new ideas and opportunities and sleep well.

William Moncrief  - Making a successful trade where both parties are happy.