Tag: entrepreneurship

Four Ways for Entrepreneurs to Defuse Anxiety

These points are extracted from my upcoming book The Anxious Entrepreneur. It was at about 3:35 pm. I felt I was about to faint or have a panic attack. The day was not going well. Over and above, I was overly tired. It had been weeks since I had any ‘win’. Therefore I needed to…

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Open letter to minister of Small Business Development: The other things frustrating entrepreneurship growth in South Africa

Good day minister Zulu. First congratulations on your appointment on the new department. This article has been in the writing even before it became known that the Department of Small Business Development would be. I’ve been chasing perfection with it, but I guess like entrepreneurship is about operating in ever ideal-less situations – it will…

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A Short Guide To Knowing An Entrepreneur

Over the past decade I’ve had countless conversations about being an entrepreneur, what the definition of an entrepreneur is and why the hell people like us keep doing what we do in the face of insane odds and statistically certain failure. Below is a list of 15 things that I’d like you to know about…

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Why I love being an entrepreneur

The other day I managed – unintentionally I’d like to add – scare quite a few people with my blog “From Employee to Entrepreneur: what I wish someone had told me before I quit my job at Goldman Sachs”. The intention wasn’t to scare anyone, but to slap aspiring entrepreneurs with the reality check hand…

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After Failure, What’s Next?

Recently, I wrote a post titled After Your First Big Success, What’s Next? The comment thread was powerful and fascinating, as was the direct email feedback I got, including the following note: “I think it would be interesting to hear your perspective on how an entrepreneur should approach “what’s next” after coming off a failed business. How should…

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What I wish someone had told me before quitting my job at Goldman Sachs to start my own business

Here is a letter I would have written to my old self with suggestions about what to think about before quitting my job at Goldman Sachs to start my own business. Johannesburg, 24 March 2014 My dear old employed York I understand you are thinking of quitting your job at ________ where you seem frustrated…

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