Entrepreneur

This week the World Economic Forum is proud to announce the Young Global Leaders class of 2015. Primarily in their mid-30s, these 187 individuals are challenging traditional leadership paradigms and bringing about positive change in the world. Their organisations and approaches bring to mind a film of their youth (and mine) – the 1980s series Back to the Future, which predicted a futurist world in 2015 that blew our mind. In a time of Dictaphones, VHS tapes, the Sony Walkman, and the ground-breaking fax machine, the technology that Marty McFly confronted as he leapt 30 years into the future seemed…

We asked members of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) to share the lessons they learned after some of their biggest misses in business. Define Roles Clearly "After we hired our first employee in 2013 into a generalist role, I quickly realized that the position was not set up for success. There were no clearly defined metrics that this position would be held accountable for, and we were pulling this employee in multiple directions. We eventually shook hands and parted ways, and have since implemented clearer accountability standards while regularly meeting as a team to check in on how everyone is progressing."…

Do most great entrepreneurs focus on one idea or pursue many? A quick look at billionaire entrepreneurs reveals that most of them are serial entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are known for being able to focus on one thing to the point of making it a reality. Entrepreneurs are also known for their ability to recognize business opportunities when they come. These two qualities can be at odds with each other: focusing on one thing while looking around for more opportunities contradicts itself. For many new entrepreneurs there is a real dilemma here. Should you start a lot of companies, or should you focus…

It is no secret that some of Silicon Valley’s tech giants were founded by immigrants. Sergey Brin, a Russian emigrant, co-founded Google; Andrew Grove, originally from Hungary, co-founded Intel; both Steve Chen of YouTube and Jerry Yang of Yahoo came to the U.S. from Taiwan. Immigrants continue to become some of the most successful founders in United States. Brazilian-born Mike Krieger moved to California in 2004 where he met future partner and fellow co-founder of Instagram. Danish co-founders Jon Froda and Anders Pollas created Podio in early 2009. Indonesian-born Malcolm Ong met his fellow co-founder, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, co founded Skillshare while they both working at other startups.…

Not everyone has what it takes to run their own business. Becoming a successful entrepreneur requires not only a great business idea, but certain traits. Jenny Ta, founder and CEO of Sqeeqee.com — a social commerce platform that gives individuals, businesses, celebrities, politicians and non-profit organizations the ability to monetize their profiles — said that, for years, people have tried to identify what qualities make successful entrepreneurs, especially serial entrepreneurs, different from everyone else. "While there is no single answer to this question, certain traits pop up again and again when studying this class of person," Ta said. Based on her experience, Ta…