UNCONVENTIONAL THINKING BLOG

Everyday, I see business people, real and wannabes, juggling the hand grenades of risk and reward that are fundamental elements of entrepreneurship, of commerce.

There are more questions than answers.

America is the oldest enduring republic in the world. And the finest. By a mile and a half.

Its greatness has been driven by many, sung and unsung, rich and poor, black and white, men and women. But by none more so than by its soldiers of war and its army of entrepreneurs.

Every time I meet someone whose business has or is about to implode, they have this dumb founded look on their faces, as if the disaster rode in under cover of night, without a scintilla of a warning.

The reality is, they had box seats at the gathering storm but preferred to bury their heads in a book called “Denial.”

Right this moment, this very scenario is playing out at thousands, likely millions of companies– including, perhaps, the one that has your name on the door. The impending disaster can be blamed on all manner of straw men, but the culprit is always leadership. Or rather, a lack of it. Yours.

I have always believed that there is a tight connection, a powerful and uncanny analogy, between business and personal relationships. They appear from a distance to be two different worlds but they are actually mirror images of one another.

The camouflage occurs because the settings are so different: one takes place in a conference room; the other in a bed.

Against the backdrop of Egypt in revolt, Iran eager to fire missiles at democracies everywhere and North Korea playing chicken with nukes, my thoughts turn to economics, to entrepreneurialism, to what made America the shining beacon for the world and what will– what must– keep us there.