A Brookings Institute report released in 2014 concluded that business dynamism, or the number of new businesses formed in the U.S. versus the number of closed businesses has slowed dramatically over the last few decades despite the record amount of money held by venture capital and banks for investments and loans to emerging growth business. The reasons are several fold but clearly one of the significant issues is the cost, both in terms of money and time in setting up a new business, including regulatory and compliance costs, labor, infrastructure and other costs. Costs for a startup business … [Read more...]
From Elementary to Extraordinary
Every day teacher Brenda Rico enters through the doorway of her fifth grade classroom and prepares for the arrival of her students. Child after child files into the room, each one a sponge; ready to absorb every bit of information their teacher has to offer them. During her 26 years of teaching, Brenda has developed a solid idea of the values she hopes to instill in her students and the knowledge she wants to impart on them. So,when she stumbled upon Ingredients of Outliers: A Recipe for Personal Achievement during the summer of 2013, Brenda knew the book would impact both her life and the … [Read more...]
Little Friends Making Large Strides
In “Ingredients of Outliers”, an outlier is defined as a person that is markedly different in value from other people in the sample. Mary Vallelonga, owner and teacher at Little Friends Montessori School is the quintessential example of an outlier. 6:30AM – Wake up. “I had always wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a little girl,” Vallelonga said. When she was a young mother of two at the age of 26, she reflected on the difficulties she faced during her school days with classwork and self-esteem. She decided that she wanted something better for her children. 7:30AM - Children … [Read more...]
The Takeaway
If you’ve kept up with our posts throughout the week, here is my take away message for you: Most things work out; if they don’t—it is hoped you will learn something, you often get a good story out of it, and possibly, you will never make the mistake again. So, what’s not to like? You have to be a risk taker to start a business and have the vision to see it through. Don’t just take it from me. Here are a few words from some famous successful risk takers: "We took risks. We knew we took them. Things have come out against us. We have no cause for complaint." — Robert Frost "Man cannot … [Read more...]
From Burgers To Billions
Ray Kroc dropped out of high school because he was eager to start earning money. He started his career working two jobs, one of them included selling ribbon novelties, door-to-door. By night, he would play the piano for pay. He later gave up his two jobs to sell paper cups. Kroc was a noted salesman and soon had 15 employees working underneath him. Eventually at age 35, Kroc left the paper cup business to go out on his own. He took a huge risk and borrowed profoundly to raise the money to start a company that sold milkshake mixers. Kroc’s next endeavor was exceedingly larger. On April 15, … [Read more...]