An Entrepreneur’s Dream Turns 40

Many people dream of becoming an entrepreneur and never succeed. Why? Because successful entrepreneurs are very rare, and they are just “wired” differently. This week on April Fool’s Day in 1982, Joe Leddy, a New Hampshire native, left a comfortable, salaried position in government and created Work Opportunities Unlimited. Forty years later his creation has helped over 70,000 people find successful employment and this number grows daily. In this article I will use Joe’s launch of Work Opportunities Unlimited to explore five common ways entrepreneurs are just “wired” differently.  To give you context I will often share Joe’s direct quotes [...]

By |2022-04-07T09:41:31-04:00March 30th, 2022|Business, Entrepreneurship / Innovation|
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Walt Disney Never Saw Obstacles Only Opportunities

I think it is a good time to celebrate entrepreneurs because without them the world would be a far darker and undeveloped place. Since this month The Walt Disney Company will celebrate both Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday and Disney World’s 55th anniversary, I thought it would be a perfect time to revisit the life of Walt Disney, arguably the world’s most creative entrepreneur. Mickey Mouse continues to be one of the top one or two best known characters in the world and is the image most closely connected to Disney. What many people don’t know is that Disney is the [...]

By |2018-11-08T11:35:37-05:00November 8th, 2018|Entrepreneurship / Innovation|
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Step Out Into the Darkness

When I was 15 years old I had to really step out into the darkness. As faithful readers know I was Boy Scout and in 1968 I was “tapped” to enter the Order of the Arrow, a Boy Scout honor society. At a campfire at Goshen Scout Camps in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia someone tapped my shoulder. I was told to go get my sleeping bag and return. When I returned I was blindfolded and my hand put on the shoulder of another Scout. Then we were led out into the dark George Washington National forest. For about [...]

By |2017-09-28T09:24:53-04:00September 28th, 2017|Change Leadership, Leadership|
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Learning from the Pivots Around Us

I find stories interesting about how entrepreneurs and businesses pivot and change directions. Later in this article I’ll share four of my favorite “pivot” stories from brands you will likely recognize. But first let me tell you about Barry Sansoucie. Barry Sansoucie was one of the most interesting entrepreneurs I knew in my early banking days. He was a person who saw every glass as half full. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War, where his job was to parachute solo behind enemy lines and clear areas of jungle vegetation for helicopter landings. After the war Barry joined his father’s [...]

By |2017-05-19T19:54:47-04:00December 1st, 2016|Entrepreneurship / Innovation|
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Seeds of Entrepreneurship

Source: www.robertishere.com I am a sucker for entrepreneurial stories, especially ones with interesting seeds. By “seeds” I mean how they got started. Here are three stories with seeds from childhood, immigration, and an inspirational mom. Robert is Here. My colleague, Susannah, passed along a story about a terrific farm stand in Homestead, Florida called Robert is Here. This successful business, known for its key lime milkshakes, got started in the 1950’s when a young man named Robert sat beside the road selling his father’s cucumbers. Since six-year old Robert had to go to school, the cucumbers were sold [...]

By |2017-05-19T19:54:50-04:00February 5th, 2016|Business, Entrepreneurship / Innovation|
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Communicating Lincoln’s Assassination Overseas

Today we will be reminded that Lincoln was assassinated 150 years ago by John Wilkes Booth on April 14th. When today’s stories are published they will be viewed around the world in just seconds. But what they won’t report is that in 1865 reports of Lincoln’s assassination would take weeks to move around the world.  England and France, for example, would wait 11 days to hear the news. Barbara Rimkunas, an historian in Exeter, recently wrote about when a young Exeter man and friend to the Lincolns, Edward Tuck, learned of Lincoln’s death while serving in France. He wrote his [...]

By |2017-05-19T19:54:53-04:00April 14th, 2015|Business, Entrepreneurship / Innovation|
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