Calling all entrepreneurs - to leap or not to leap?

Jeff Bezos asked his boss at the hedge fund where he was Senior Vice President, whether he should give up his job to start up a business selling books on the internet.  His boss said "That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn't already have a good job."

This is a dilemma faced by many entrepreneurs who have a great idea and have to make the decision about whether to take the leap.  It took Jeff Bezos 48 hours after that feedback from his boss.  His company Amazon, now employs 56,200 people and is valued at about $80billion.

A graduate from the Young Entrepreneur 12 Steps to Success programme recently said " Going to two job interviews after learning about risks, turning down the first job in the hope of being offered the second one which I thought would have a better future - and it has - and thanks to that - I have.   It was the best decision  that I made in my life last year!"

What stands in your way of taking the leap are probably concerns around having the conviction that your idea will work, doubting that you have the ability to find clients, feeling that you 'ought' to be doing a regular job (especially if there are other people dependent on you) or just the fear of making the wrong decision.

A word of advice from someone who leaped "The key is to just get on the bike, and the key to getting on the bike… is to stop thinking about ‘there are a bunch of reasons I might fall off’ and just hop on and peddle the damned thing. You can pick up a map, a tire pump, and better footwear along the way.  - Dick Costolo, founder of Feedburner.com and CEO of Twitter.

For help with leaping big, take a small leap and talk about it.

Regrets

For those of you who missed this as it was reported a few weeks ago.....A recently published book written by a palliative care nurse has attracted huge interest in the press.  Bonnie Ware spoke to many dying patients and she wrote about the top 5 most commonly held regrets she heard:

    * I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
    * I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
    * I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
    * I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
    * I wish that I had let myself be happier.

We live in a world of shallowness and superficiality and yet we are worried about deep issues connected with making our lives meaningful and fulfilling.

"You are the only real obstacle in the path to a fulfilling life".  

Les Brown

"How soon 'not now' becomes 'never' "

Martin Luther

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass - it's about learning to dance in the rain.

Sex and Getting On

Throwing up a few interesting questions to provoke a bit of debate:

Is it okay for Laura Maggi to wear revealing clothes to attract customers into her bar in Italy - much to the chagrin of her male customers' womenfolk? Her business has done rather well since she introduced the new dress code. 

What about Putin using his pecs to attract (presumably) the female vote? And in Australia a lot of men are surprisingly interested in applying for the job to test brothels?

Confusing moral issues?  Or just humans doing what they've always done to get ahead or get pleasure from their work!