Raising Entrepreneurs

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I am writing this post in advance, because when it goes live I will be on a plane from Washington to San Francisco. I have had an amazing few days - I have lots of great new ideas for those of you who have businesses online, and just wait until you hear the stories of Shonika’s “renegade CEOs”!

Now, go make your competition entries, and I’ll talk to you again soon.

I’m back from a lovely relaxing tour of the Swedish country. It’s just like the picture books. Honestly, every single farmhouse is painted red-brown, with clean white eaves. Apparently, the government owns everything and tells people what colors they are allowed to paint their houses. Can you imagine if our government tried that?

Sweden is a democracy, but it is still basically a socialist state, and people don’t own the freehold to their homes - they only own the right to live there. You would think that might stifle initiative, but Sweden has always been a very inventive country - the home of IKEA, Volvo, and many consumer brands which are household names.

It’s fascinating how the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish in just about any circumstances.

I’m off to Washington in a couple of days - which should be a lot warmer than Stockholm! I’ll write to you from there.

Oh, and P.S. …. Get your entries in!

I’m still in Stockholm, with my work commitments over, and I am about to do some touring around the Swedish countryside. I must admit I overindulged a little in the food department this week - it’s incredible what the Swedes can do with cheese!

Basically, cheese and crackers makes up the foundation of both breakfast and lunch in Sweden, along with a bit of caviar. It’s really weird to see little kids eating caviar on crispbread every morning, but in Sweden, caviar is nto a luxury, it’s a staple. I’m a convert to the intially-appalling thought of squeezing caviar from a tube like toothpaste - it’s a bit like the Australian thing with Vegemite. Very salty, but oddly appealing …

Anyway, I’ll end with the usual - get your entries in! You know who you are ….

I am writing this post from sunny Stockholm - well, actually, Stockholm in summer isn’t necessarily sunny. The locals claim that there are three weeks of summer, spread across May, June, July, and August. The other 80% of the time it is overcast and cool, and often misting with light rain. What the Irish would call “a soft day”…

However, when the sun does come out, Stockholm is a magnificent city - one of the prettiest in the world, with all the water. The Old City is actually on an island - it’s all joined up by bridges now, but you can really get the feel of the fortified city which once stood here.

We haven’t had word from the publishers yet, so we are holding the competition open. I really want to see some of the great entries I have heard about via email. If making a video is too hard, pop over to HubPages and post an article with some photos instead.

And if even that seems too hard, just email me the story and the photos, and I’ll get the Hub made for you!

It’s a rushed week this week, as I am preparing to go overseas this weekend. I’ll be flying to Stockholm to speak at a conference, and then on to Washington to attend another conference.

In Washington, I’ll be catching up with Shonika Proctor, who is coaching those remarkable business kids from very underprivileged backgrounds. I am looking forward to hearing more of their stories, and I’ll share them with you soon.

I have had a press enquiry - if you are in the north-eastern part of Sydney, Australia, and you put an entry into the competition, your regional newspaper, The Manly Daily, will do a story on you and your business. Now, we don’t have an entry from that part of the world yet, so the field is wide open!

I don’t need to tell you what it can mean for your business to have a story in a paper with a readership of over a million people.

So, any Aussies ready to grab this opportunity?