Business Insight

Was asked the question, "How do you gain business insight?" At the risk of assuming that I have such insight, it is clear that the best way is to experience as many different business situations as possible. If you have a graduate degree in real life experiences, you will naturally develop this ability. Second, you should have the responsibility of money and investment--after all, if you are not in a position of losing (or gaining) on an investment for either yourself or your company, then there is not that much accountability to what you do, I think. But not all people who come out of school can gain this position advantage.

One other way is to continuously listen to the masters. This does not mean reading the newspaper to see what the "experts" are saying. We will discuss the newspaper as a filter to information (when putting money at stake, you should avoid filters). One way is to read directly interviews with people of accomplishment--this is one way to avoid the "filter" effect. Also online there is increasingly good access to great video. Want to see what Warren Buffet is like and how he thinks? Go to http://www.charlierose.com/ and in the video archive section, click business and then scroll to Buffet. You can see a number of notable business people talk about what they are thinking today. This week I invested 30 minutes of my time to see the interview with Richard Branson--one of the boldest entrpreneurs of this century. To think like a great one, it helps to understand how the great ones think.