Catarina's World

Can’t help wondering why so many people on social media are just parroting others? Copying and pasting. And what’s worse that seems to account for part of what’s called creativity today.

A copy is never as good as the original. No parroting in the world will turn you into Marilyn Monroe. So be yourself.

What happened to creativity?

Have a section of humanity stopped being creative? Or is it just that too many people are lazy and hence just copy others? Don’t they realize that they will not impress the people they are trying to impress? Only ignorant people will buy what the parrots are doing. If you don’t have anything new to contribute, to say a discussion, don’t just re-write what someone else has already said. Coping and pasting from say, Harvard Business Review to make you look intellectual is not a great idea either. What’s wrong with saying that you agree or disagree?

Original ideas

If imitating others were just a social media phenomena it would be one thing. But unfortunately you have an abundance of people selling services online that haven’t got any ideas of their own. They just copy what others have done and charge for doing so. And we should not forget the copy and paste that’s becoming a problem in academia. A prominent European policician was recently caught having copied and pasted into his thesis.

But a copy is never as good as the original. No parroting in the world will change that. It may work short term but long term it will work against you. The European politician is a good example. He had to step down. Doubt that his future is as bright as it would have been if he hadn’t copied and pasted. Am sure he regrets what he did. But sincerely he should have thought of it before he cheated. Can’t help wondering if parrots, like him, have really stopped thinking for themselves?

Hard sell on social media

The amount of parroting on social media most likely boils down to people believing they have to sell themselves aggressively online. Can understand that to some degree. But don’t they understand that it’s obvious to others what they are doing? Am active on social media and almost every day someone re-writes what someone has already written to make it appear to be their new idea. One interesting phenomena are the people who are experts on all issues relating to all countries in the world, regardless of the fact that they have never even visited the country in question. But copying and pasting they certainly know how to do. Nobody, including myself, knows everything so what’s the point in pretending you do? People only lose respect for you.

Current buzz words leader, expert, entrepreneurial & innovative

The fact that many people believe they have to portray themselves in what they consider to be the right way is a major reason for all the parroting. Wouldn’t it be much better to have an honest look at yourself and decide what your strengths are? If you are not say, innovative, describing yourself so will work against you since you will be found out. Read in The New York Times that 70% of high school graduates in the US believe they have more than average leadership skills. Only 2% considered themselves below average. Truly wish their assessments were correct, but unfortunately 70% of them are not leaders and will never be leading anything. If this applied to the United States only, i.e. approximately 5% of the world’s population, it wouldn’t be too bad. But unfortunately it applies to the remaining 95% of mankind as well.

Use social media to portray the real you

What’s wrong with having talents that are currently not in fashion? Whatever talents you have you can create a lucrative niche for yourself. Why does everyone feel they have to portray themselves as business tycoons? Looking at profiles on social media today you easily get the impression that the majority of people in this world are on par with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. It’s normal for children to imitate, but grown ups really should give up that habit.

Social media is a wonderful thing and I have met many fantastic people online, mainly thanks to my blog and Linkedin. If the parrots were just themselves and stopped pretending to be what they are not they would also start reaping positive benefits of social media. To start with they would gain respect. We are all unique and can contribute to society in different ways. That’s the beauty of humanity. Imagine how boring it would be if we were all parroting each other.

Photo: mseckington – Flickr

Why are some of us entrepreneurs and others not? Is it only the environment we grow up in that matters or do our genes have a part to play as well?

Professor Scott Shane of Case Western Reserve University, is one scientist who claims that people with parents with certain genetic components are more likely to become entrepreneurs.

To what extent do genes matter?

In his genetic research on identical twins, who share 100 percent of their genes, and fraternal twins, who share 50 percent of their genes, professor Shane concluded that identical twins were more likely to share the genetic factors that enable entrepreneurship. His conclusion is that 30-40% of entrepreneurship is inherited.

“But even when a person has the entrepreneurial innate makeup that makes him/her more likely to be an entrepreneur, genes interact with environmental stimuli”, professor Shane says.

Combination of nature & environment

In other words having proved that genes play a part it is still difficult to determine to what extent they shape an individual to become an entrepreneur. Without the right environment the same person may not have become an entrepreneur? Growing up in an atmosphere adverse to risk taking, creativity and innovation the same person would probably never have become an entrepreneur.

Childhood influences

My father was an entrepreneur and I don't know how many times my mother told me I'm just like him. But if they had raised me to believe new opportunities and developing projects was wrong would I still have had the mind of an entrepreneur? Or even worse if they had discouraged curiosity, vision and persistence.

According to Professor Shane genetic factors raise the odds of a person becoming an entrepreneur but environmental factors are more crucial, and I tend to agree with him. Not least since we are able to impact what and who we surround ourselves with. It is up to us to determine our future, regardless of what genes we have inherited. Entrepreneurial genes facilitate, but unless we really make an effort and are persistent we will never succeed no matter how excellent our genes are.

The difference between having an entrepreneurial mind and carrying out entrepreneurial activity

Anyone can learn how to carry out entrepreneurial activity.  But how do you learn to have an entrepreneurial mind? Is it really possible to learn to risk everything you have in order to achieve something you passionately believe in? Because that's what having an entrepreneurial mind entails. One headhunter I know once said to me that when someone tells them he is an entrepreneur he asks him if he is prepared to risk losing his house and everything he ownes in order to succeed? If the answer is no, which it is in most cases, he hasn't got an entrepreneurial mind but is carrying out entrepreneurial activity which is different.

What your opinion? Do our genes have a part to play or can we learn to develop an entrepreneurial mind anyway? Learn to have the strength and courage to take risks which is crucial for an entrepreneur. What role do our genes play in this? Does a person need to be programed genetically to have the strength and courage to risk everything they have?

Photo: Flickr – Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

“My wife loved George Clooney’s suggestion”, said Richard Branson and smiled.

Are you ready to follow in Richard Branson's footsteps?

Richard, as you know, is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. His Virgin Group today consist of 200 companies with 50,000 employees in more than 30 countries. Their combined revenue in 2008 was around 17 billion dollars. Not bad for a man who started out selling Six Pistols records at car boot sales in the 70s.

Richard’s advice to future entrepreneurs is, point one excluded, different from the usual advice about how to succeed as in building up a company:

1) Take calculated risks.”You have to really believe in what you are doing because if you start a project believing that it may fail, nine times out of ten it will”. “Cautious people don’t live life to the full”, Richard says and adds that he always tries to figure out what could go wrong and try to balance that out.

2) Challenge the big players “Make jokes at the big established companies expense and use humour and sex in your marketing. Launch yourself as a Robin Hood in ways that make the big players look silly”. How many of you would actually dare to do so? It’s not enough that the idea appeals to you, would you actually have the guts to go ahead with what he advices?

3) Failure doesn’t exist Act swiftly when something goes wrong. “Our capacity to promptly adapt to changes have enabled us to overcome most mistakes”, Richard says. “You have to quickly take responsibility for a venture that’s not working, change direction or wind it up”.

4) Be casual and easy going. Have fun and make sure your colleagues have as much fun as you do. Develop equanimity.

5) Don’t regret – move on. “People spend to much time thinking about what mistakes they have made instead of using their time and energy to start new projects. Failures are useful tools that enable success”.

6) Don’t employ yes sayers. “Find people who dare to stick out and have a mind of their own. They are much more value for money”.

7) Be a live advertisement for your company. Be a bit of a clown, have fun or you will not succeed. That’s the advise Richard Branson was given when he started Virgin Airlines with no money to spend on marketing. Someone added that he should make sure his name was on the front page of newspapers and not in the adverts.

Psychologists claim Richard Branson has the F factor – fame, fortune and fun. Many people want to identify with him, not least since he’s regarded as down to earth, honest and simple.

He is a person who does things his own way and not how “they teach you at Harvard business school”. Richard Branson is actually a high school drop out. His way of doing things goes against all the advice about how to become an entrepreneur you can find. So who’s right and who’s wrong? None of the people advising you how to succeed as an entrepreneur are as successful as Richard Branson is. Need I say more?

Have you got what it takes to go your own way as an entrepreneur, build up your company and succeed? Do you employ people you cannot control that have a mind of their own? Could you turn yourself into a live advertisement? What new and interesting fields have you found where you could become a new Richard Branson? Are you, after reading Richard Branson’s advice, ready to trade places with him? Or will you opt for a less challenging way of succeeding?

(Photo: nrkbeta – Flickr)

Seems to me that most political ideologies are on the shelf at the moment. Or maybe they have just gone on leave? Many social scientists currently consider political ideologies dead, but I wouldn’t go that far because it would imply the end of innovative and creative development in the intellectual world. And that wouldn’t only be an unlikely but also disastrous development.

My father was an international entrepreneur already in the 1950's, leading his life and businesses in global ways that were unusual then.

Capitalism and individualism, for instance, are alive and kicking, but then again, they have been since time immemorial, and always will be.

But sure, communism is dead in all but name and socialism today lacks innovative, new ideas. Its proponents keep on repeating the same old slogans that are no longer relevant. And where can you find true conservatism today?

Liberalism or center right politics has been the name of the game for quite some time. But even those ideologies are now being questioned after the global crisis hit and leading economists couldn’t agree on how it could have happened, why it wasn’t spotted and, worse, can’t agree on how to fix it.

Ideologies make politics lively and exciting so it’s most likely just a question of how long it will take before new ideologies take shape. Actually if we don’t, politics will be even more of a status quo than it is, so some new political ideologies would be most welcome.

Maybe it would be an idea to concentrate on globalism for the time being instead? The original use of the word in business context goes back to Harvard Business Review in the 1940′s. The idea signified the freer movement of goods, services, ideas and people around the world. My father was an international entrepreneur already in the 1950′s, leading his life and businesses in global ways that were unusual then. In those days airports were like small clubs where they all knew each other, unlike today when everybody’s flying. How often do we meet people we know at an airport nowadays? Unusual, even in first class lounges. With a father like that it probably makes sense that I’m as international as I am.

In some ways politics is actually getting more and more global. Look at the G20, ASEAN and the EU, for instance. We are more and more taking part in multinational, multicultural alliances attempting to align national politics with international aims for the greater good. The problem is that there are, and has been for a long time, far to many vested interests resulting in agreements only benefitting one group. And as we all know, agreements, or business deals for that matter, that don’t benefit all interests don’t last. So maybe it’s time to try and find long lasting solutions that will increasingly create better terms of living for more people on a global scale?

It is in everybodys interest that we elaborate the global perspective even further and work towards a world where everybody can eat three meals a day, have basic schooling and access to health care. That doesn’t mean that we should leave free markets and the ability to earn a lot of money behind. Cultural and national differences will always be there thankfully, since it would be seriously boring if all human being were all the same.

International issues should be a more important part of new political ideologies. We are just one big integrated global market. Even Coca Cola nowadays considers themselves an international and not just an American company. So why shouldn’t politics follow suit? After all where would Coca Cola be today if they had concentrated on only the US?

(Re-published on request)