The scenario is this, you're on your death bed and the question is presented to you, "What were your biggest regrets?".  So what do you say? That's the question that was answered recently in, Top 5 Regrets of the Dying. As I read through each of them I reflected on those areas in my own life.  Just look at the first one... 1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people have had not honored even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made Wow, a powerful one for sure.  The commentary on it really gets to the heart of the issue.  I just wrote about our dreams here and how important it is to go after them. Some other interesting things to me were two of the other items..

In the middle of entrepreneur are two little letters...PR. Two letters that immediatley bring to mind, press release, marketing, telling the story.  So why is it the PR in entrepreneur seems to be missing? Quick name five entrepreneurs. Now name five athletes. Im sure the latter was easier for you. Today we hear more about politicians, more about athletes and more about Hollywood stars than we do about entrepreneurs.  Its a shame because the reality is that entrepreneurs are the most important ones of the bunch. Instead of ESPN, where's EPN - Entrepreneurial Programing Network. Just imagine, on draft day we could watch the best young entrepreneurs get funded to develop their ideas.  The X games would be a series of ideas put the tests to determine who's invention faired best. Now I know its crazy to think about this and I'm well aware of the many media channels that cover business as it stands. The thing is the entrepreneur is not being celebrated enough and marketed correctly.  Not only is the entrepreneur responsible for the success of so many different industries  (sports, politics and Hollywood included) they are responsible for the success of America.

Since the 90's the number of start-ups has hovered at about the 500,000 a year mark, according to a Kaufman survey. What's happened to the American Dream? A special report in Inc Magazine entitled Revitalizing the American Dream looked at various ways America could implement a more entrepreneurial friendly environment.  In all there are 16 ideas, everything from schools to banking to government are addressed.  Its a very good article and something we should pay attention to. Revitalizing the American Dream couldn't be more appropriate.  It's whats sorely needed not only in the business world but the world at large.  The "American Dream" is an idea that's ironically infusing passion into many entrepreneurs around the world.  It's what fuels the youth in India or the business in China.

What is the most resilient parasite? An idea.  An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.." a quote from this summers hit movie Inception. Inception is all about the concept of planting ideas in other peoples minds and is a great lesson for entrepreneurs. The concept was for the main character, Cobb, to plant an idea in someone else's subconscious thus changing the reality for that person.  The idea wasn't true but none the less would manifest itself as if it was. The idea is different than reality. A single idea has rocked Apple's world this summer.  With the advent of "antennagate" the idea that a "perfect" company could have made such a huge mistake was much to big of an idea not to take root.  It's blossomed into a full blown debate for years to come. The reality is that "antenaegate" will more than likely have very little negative affect on Apples market share or stock price.

In 1989 our company had a great idea for a completely new product.  Not only did we have an idea for a completely new product, but also a new business model that was going to allow us to build at a quality higher than anything on the market. We introduced both...and got nothing. No support. We had designed and engineered a completely new way of yachting in a product unlike anything else.  We took that new design to several dealers assuming they would be as excited about the new product as we were.  They weren't. In fact they said it would never sell. Faced with a product we were confident in and without a sales channel to sell it through we decided to create our own distribution network.  So that's what we did and in the process ushered in direct selling from manufacturer to customer. Now selling direct surely isn't something we invented there were even other boat companies doing it at the time.  However it was a business model that we had not initially wanted to explore.  We never thought we would be selling direct and be successful. That's the reality of being an entrepreneur.  Where you start isn't where you end up.  That's the beauty of creating something and having the courage to change it as you move along. Look at flickr, originally developed as a way to share screenshots for a game, now it's one of the largest consumer photo sharing sites. Look at Twitter, originally developed as an texting tool only, now a computer integrated communication platform. Look at Post It notes, originally a failed experiment by 3M researchers to find a stronger glue turned into one of their most successful products ever. It's not where you start that matters, its the fact you start. Speaking of start, download "10 Reasons Why Now Is The Best Time To Start Your Business" photo credit