Intuition and Business

I've taught at Carnegie Mellon University (9 years) and San Francisco State University (2 years) in addition to my 25+ years in Business. The one thing that my students and employees still DON'T believe is how important INTUITION is in business decision making.

I'm not just talking about small decisions. I'm talking about multi-million dollar decisions.

So, why is Intuition and Going-with-your-gut so important? Actually it's scientifically proven (if that matters).
1. Your gut is correct over 90% of the time (really, it's scientifically proven)
2. You can make fast decisions (especially important in start-ups)
3. (most important) Intuition is actually the SUM TOTAL of ALL your experience put together, plus your native human instinct.

You don't have to believe me -- that's your decision. But trust me -- remember all those times you WISH you had gone with your gut? I don't mean only in business, I mean with choosing friends, lending people money, dating, etc. Well, remember them all?

So what's the real issue?
We all have intuition and gut feel. But the Great entrepreneurs TRUST their gut and intuition.

So how do you learn to trust your gut? First, start using your Right Brain (see other blog post) and your creative, and emotional side.
Then -- well -- just try it and see what happens. Even keep track of Intuitive decisions and logical decisions. Really -- keep score. I know Intuitive ones will win.

Successful Entrepreneur Traits

One of the most-asked questions is "what are the traits of a successful entrepreneur?" This question has been asked many times. Below is my list, compiled from both other lists and my own personal experience. Of course, it's a Top-Ten List...

1. Leadership, especially the ability to inspire

2. Fast, good decision-making with limited information (but also willing to change wrong decisions)

3. Positive attitude (but still realistic)

4. Sales skills

5. Good communicator

6. Ability to handle defeat, and the word "no"

7. Creative thinking and out-of-the-box thinking (my #1)

8. Drive, fortitude and the will to succeed

9. Being intuitive and trusting your gut (my #2)

10. Jack-of-all-trades (or the ability to understand all aspects of business somewhat -- from sales, marketing, finance, operations, engineering, negotiating, legal, etc. etc.). Yes, you can hire these skills, but you still need to understand each discipline somewhat (this is the hardest skill set to acquire)

Intro Blog Post

This is the introductory blog post for Mark Juliano's audio course Entrepreneurship and Business Planning taught in conjunction with the live course at Carnegie Mellon University in the Masters in Information Systems Management (MISM) program. It is a business-school type class about the formation of companies. Topics and lectures will include generating the idea, building the team, starting the company, writing a business plan, funding, sales & marketing, legal issues, and giving effective investor presentations, among other things. The audio course is not simply recorded lectures. It is optimized for audio listening online or via iTunes or other audio players. Blog posts will follow lectures as they are created.