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Misc Wisdom for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

Today I had lunch with Joel Peterson (wildly successful real estate and private equity investor) and later had a dinner with two more recent entrepreneurs and classmates: Jenny (owner of a wildly popular midwest desert chain) and Erik (founder of a series of popular - and profitable - e-commerce web sites ).

Some interesting tidbits from both events:

• Both Joel and Jenny listed "confidence" as the number one trait of a successful entrepreneur. Jenny went into some more detail, labeling herself as an "insecure egomaniac." She is confident she can do anything, but is always paranoid about what might go wrong. I thought that was a great phrase.
• Jenny's keys to hiring great retail salespeople: 1. Make sure your shop is the best place in town to work (her company is inundated with resumes every week). 2. When hiring high schoolers, find the ones who lead clubs, team, etc., at school. Also look to see what colleges they are applying to.
• Erik's unorthodox hiring tip: Take a look at the state of the inside of their car. If you are hiring for non-creative, execution-style positions don't hire someone who's interior is a mess.

For consideration when making your to-do list

"Regret for the things we did, can be tempered by time. It is regret for the things that we did not do that is inconsolable."

-  Sydney Harris

[via Mark Leslie in our final class of "Formation of New Ventures"]

More on the Multi-Touch Display

More on the multi-touch display. I want one.

[via Reemer]

From New York to LA in 2 Minutes

[via RGS]

The Potential of the iPhone's Multi-touch

So I'm sure you have all seen the iPhone and it's unique multi-touch interface. For those of you who haven't, check out this CBS News Video. But the demo there just scratches the surface. Check out the movie below for some of the very cool things you can do with a multi-touch system. Potential, perhaps, for a groundbreaking Mac multi-touch tablet?

My Spin on the iPhone Launch

It was the first day of school and I'm enrolled in a called "Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital". What's particularly cool about the class is that it's taught by Peter Wendell (Founder of Sierra Ventures), Andy Rachleff (founder of Benchmark Capital) and Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google). In class today, Peter apologized for Eric's absence, saying that Eric unfortunately had to miss class as he was Moscone Center making an announcement with Steve Jobs. An hour into the class, my neighbor, Meagan, got a message on her blackberry, and passed me a note that Steve had brought Eric on stage to help announce the iPhone. For a kid from Canada, it was a pretty cool Silicon Valley moment.

iPhone Concept

Well, the big Apple announcement is coming tomorrow. For those of you who just can't wait, here's an iPhone concept: Great production value, though I have no idea how you are supposed to practically use a double-flip phone.

Something Big Coming from Apple?

Steve Jobs is delivering a presentation at MacWorld Tuesday morning. There is a lot of buzz around that it could be something big. iPhone big. Check out the new graphic on Apple's homepage:

Apple is so cool. For more on the rumors, check out  Valleywag's coverage.

I-Banker Nightlife

Thought this would amuse all of my buddies who are current, former and prospective i-bankers.

An i-banker's night out

[via Gawker]