Business Lessons from sucessful entrepreneurs and business leaders: LunchLearning.com

Reading time: 2 - 2 minutes

Video Time: 20 minutes 47 seconds

On the heels of yesterday’s chat with John Chambers of Cisco, I thought we’d spend another day on collaboration. Clay Shirky (@cshirky on Twitter), author of “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations,” presents a short and sweet case study about how social media and Internet sites like Flicr and mobile applicaitons enable the type of collaboration that just was not available even two years ago.

This is a great eye-opener for small and medium businesses looking to maintain and/or trim costs, but STILL enable the collaboration that makes businesses and projects hum. There’s also a good look at the 80/20 rule as it applies to collaboration as well.

Enjoy Clay Shirky’s TED Talk, and ask yourself should you be reinventing the institution instead of hiring the “right” staff?

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 56 minutes 17 seconds
****Q&A starts at about 25 minutes (some good ones in there too…)****

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, is a giant ball of fire. Just watch the first video to get a mere glimpse of what I’m talking about. I’ve heard a lot about Steve, as perhaps many of you have as well. . .some of it glowing, some of it not so. If you’ve read “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World,” by John Wood, founder of Room to Read, you’ve no doubt read about a side of Steve you don’t know. Read that book. . .it’s a wonderful read and worth your time.

I enjoyed this short talk by Steve as he’s talking about maximizing downturns to turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality.

He sheds a little light on his own entreprenurial adventures early on after leaving Stanford as he talks with a Standford entrepreneurship group.

Short and sweet, but a good chat that just might getcha’ thinking about starting your own business today.

Neat thing about Steve’s presentation style. . .to me, at least, he always seems like he’s on the edge of a joke, which makes listening to him really fun.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll benefit from checking out Microsoft’s BizSpark program, that allows for a host of opportunities, among them free software for some qualified companies.