Middle Market Deals and how to buy, sell and raise capital from $5 to $500 million

The Know More Media team (note that this is a Know More Media blog) provided me with a video of the team discussing their business, its challenges and successes to date.  The KMM founders are Hal Halladay (who authors LeaderNotes), Tim Stay and Rich Christiansen.

I love these videos of entrepreneurs.  Great entrepreneurs tend to want to share their thoughts and ideas, their vision for the future and their plans.  Other people are attracted naturally to their entrepreneurial spirit.

Take a look at this video and let me know what you think!

Tim Stay posted today at LeaderNotes (usually authored by Know More Media CEO Hal Halladay) on his recent interaction with David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue.  I hate to share the punch line, but Tim felt compelled to give millionaire CEO David Neeleman a five spot.

Please read the post to find out why.  What I love about Tim's story is that in Tim's classic, modest way he demonstrates a personal characteristic that makes me admire him as much as--or more--than his counterpart in the story.

To be clear, what I admire about Neeleman is his integrity.  What I admire about Tim, includes his integrity, but also includes his generosity of spirit that makes it so easy for him to praise others.  Tim would much rather find something you're doing right than wrong!  Who wouldn't want to work for him! 

Hal, and Rich Christiansen, too, exemplify the same values.

A discussion is raging on the web among bloggers who have an opinion about Advisory Capitalists.

First, let me tell you what I think is meant by this new term.  I believe it is intended to represent a group of people who have become powerful (my word) in the web 2.0 economy by being early adopters of new technologies, specifically by blogging and networking on-line.   They have developed genuine expertise and influence in an emerging industry--expertise and influence that previously was found primarily among venture capitalists whose money garnered them their power.  Advisory capitalists do not contribute capital, but provide that power and influence that venture capitalists traditionally do.

By extension, the label of "advisory capitalist" can be applied to any advisor, consultant, guru or guide who provides, under any basis of compensation, assistance or advice to early stage businesses.

As I think about what it takes to be a Power Player, or without the alliteration, a successful entrepreneur or executive, I think there are some key things to keep in mind.

Great entrepreneurs and executives aren't always charismatic, good looking or particularly well spoken.  They don't all fit neatly on the cover of BusinessWeek.  Although I find a correlation between great education and success, it isn't the education that creates the talent.  The education, when it exists in an entrepreneur's resume, is a product of the same key trait that makes an entrepreneur great.

The trait can be described in lots of ways, but I think the number one thing is a results orientation.  Entrepreneurs get stuff done.  When an entrepreneur is missing from the office you can tell.  Things move more slowly.  The focus shifts from action to analysis.  The real entrepreneur is a self starter who knows when she wakes up in the morning just exactly what needs to be done and she starts doing it.  No one has to tell her.

The rest of us need to be told.  Some of us just don't think we do.

Hal Halladay at Leader Notes made a great observation about Seth Godin's commentary on leadership in an entrepreneurial setting.  The point seems to be that even a great entrepreneur may not be the right person to lead the business as it matures.

All entrepreneurs want to believe that they are the next Steve Jobs, able to launch a new venture in the garage and lead a Fortune 500 company.  It is important to remember that Steve didn't stay in the saddle from start to finish at Apple.  Do you remember NeXT, Steve Jobs venture between stretches at Apple?  A Wikipedia entry notes that "NeXT as a whole gained a reputation for failure that would never rub off."

The conclusion I draw from Steve Jobs's NeXT experience, is that the lessons learned by that "failure" helped prepare him for the successes he's had since at Apple and Pixar.

Do you have a "failure" in your history that prepared you for a later, greater success?