Is this company worth investing in?

Thought I’ll just pen this down before I fly off to JAK this afternoon.
I get introduced to entreprenuers every now and then, aspiring people who are looking for someone to finance their startup. I have great respect for them. Its not easy to jump into the great blue unknown with little more than an idea [...]

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Reasons to give away your fortune

Warren Buffet does it. Bill Gates does it. Do you do it?
I’m talking about giving a healthy chunk of your fortunes away to charity. But why you’ll ask? Especially when like the rest of us, you’re trying very hard to make ends meet. And I think its a valid question.
People are philanthropic for many reasons, [...]

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How does your CEO rate

 
When I first arrived from the US, one of things I notice about Asian CEOs is their level of technical competence. By this I mean that while a typical American CEO will stand up and passionately talk about his company’s products in great detail, the Asian CEO would often let his lieutenant speak about a [...]

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Customer service, Part 1 (or how a company gets AIDS)

I had the privilege yesterday of giving some ideas to a friend of my dad who was thinking of replacing his customer help line with a more responsive system. His current system is an answering machine. No kidding. Its very cheap, never misses a call and is completely useless because the tape hasn’t been replaced [...]

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How to raise capital

The rich don’t work for money. I can’t remember who said that but I think there’s a lot of truth to it. The rich lets their money do all the work, mainly through investments. The question is how do you raise the money for this.
I can think of 3 ways – debt, equity or savings.
Debt [...]

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OPM-OPR Principle

OPM – Other People’s Money.
OPR – Other People’s Resources.
When I was in college a friend of mine whispered to me about his secret to making a million dollars.
He said he why use our own money to set up a business when we can get a free ride with OPM-OPR, the assumption being he could magically [...]

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Somebody dropped some money

I found a 10 cent piece on the sidewalk today. Yay!!

See this whiskey glass? That’s where I keep the orphaned coins I meet. I must have picked up at least ten 1-cent coins the last 2 months alone. I’d spot them on mall floors, sidewalks, bank counters, everywhere.
They’re not very popular are they, [...]

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Perfectionism and success

Does perfectionism bring you success?
For me the first clue of perfectionism is the fastidious use of language.

SpecializED in mobile sales. Its a statement of history. It tells the customer what they did yesterday but not today.
Never mind. If you wanna see something really interesting check this out.

Perfectionism schmerfectionism.
You can be as perfect as you like, [...]

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The value of your degree

We hear it every year. Someone who never went to school makes it to the list of top 10 richest men in the country. And then you look at your miserable degree on the wall, the stack of overdue bills and wonder what went wrong.
From young we’re trained to study hard, get a job, secure [...]

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Would you set up a business with a friend?

Your best friend has a great idea to make money. Because you two have such great chemistry he invites you to become a partner in business. Would you? Should you?
All the business people I know tell me the same thing, “Don’t do it,” citing one bad experience or another. All had parted ways with their [...]

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