Successes & failures: Invaluable lessons from entrepreneurs

Loving an elevator. Did Dermot's proposal work? Let what happened to my young friend, Dermot, be an object lesson to all who want to learn how to fuse love with business. Now, as Valentine’s Day looms on February 14, this is as good a time as any to tell his story... Read More

Showing vulnerability is good? Showing vulnerability is not something we associate with 'the successful ones' or 'the special ones'. Quite the opposite. Successful, special people strut their stuff with pomp and purpose. Think Trumped-up politics, sport or popular reality shows like 'The Apprentice'. And invariably, you find yourself bridling. They are the aspiring heroes who haughtily present themselves to their prospective boss or audience with glamour and gloss, slick ‘n’ snappy and wrapped in armadillo-like impermeable confidence... Read More

Can you teach entrepreneurship? The question "Can you teach entrepreneurship?" has received much attention over the last decade. People who teach entrepreneurship have an important job to do. However, much like the relationship between a 'product' and its life sustaining 'market', more consideration needs to be given to how people learn/engage with this subject. For me, academia stills over-emphases traditional didactic pedagogy. Insufficient thought is being applied to how learners learn and how entrepreneurial minds think. Read More

Cappadocia Ballooning at sunrise. We counted 92 balloons. Waking to the sound of  an alarm shouldn't be part of any holiday. But this morning, the family is Cappadocia ballooning. It's 4am. In 20 minutes, a minibus will collect us from our stunning cave hotel. In little over an hour, and before the sun has risen, we will be climbing towards Turkey's rich and loyal blue skies. The air will be warm, clear and still. The views breathtaking. And then the sun will rise... Read More

How Indonesian women are making a living on the road Recent visits to the Far East as well as African continent have demonstrated that hitchhiking remains a popular means of transport. But whilst dozens of people with outstretched thumbs lined my route from Uhmslanga to Durban, it was the mothers with babes on their backs, risking life and limb in the car-frenzied city of Jakarta, that really got my attention. I was to learn they were making a living on the road. Read More

Asfaw Yemiru: The educational entrepreneur making a difference Delight can quickly turn to frustration when an excellent new recruit, who is just settling into the post, decides to accept a job offer elsewhere. But occasionally, you know they’ve made the right decision... Read More

Is the US leading the entrepreneurial way? As storms brewed over southern England this October I boarded a Virgin Airbus & headed to the US. My destination was Kansas City and the GCEC Conference. Crossing the Atlantic I was keen to test out Mr Branson's latest in-seat multi-media technology. The hours passed quickly as I laughed at The Internship and cried with the Guilt Trip. As alcohol and altitude fuelled the emotions I got into the US spirit... Read More