Ted Leonsis, Vice Chairman of AOL on Entrepreneurship
The latest issue of Knowledge at Wharton talks about Ted Leonsis, the keynote speaker at the recent Wharton Entrepreneurship conference. Leonsis started his first successful company at age 24 and later sold it for $60,000,000 and later he realized money was not the metric to measure success with, but rather how much good you are […]
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Last year I read the book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. More than a year later I keep thinking about this idea. Here is an excerpt that explains this concept better than I could:
“Why are these things fun? Strangely enough, when we try to answer that question, it turns out that […]
20 Minutes: What Every City (and everyone online) Needs
Network news demands an hour of your time to get up to speed on the latest happenings, and the local paper takes at a minimum half of that. I don’t usually have that much time, which is exactly why I like the idea of 20 minutes so much. Here is what the company is all about:
“20 minutes is […]
Profile of Sam Zell in the New Yorker
There is a great article of Sam Zell in the New Yorker. Zell, who built and later sold the giant office REIT Equity Office Properties Trust shares many insights into his life. One of my favorites is his humor:
“Sam was the rainmaker, and Bob was the one that took care of all the messes Sam made,’ […]
Kiva.org Microloans
A couple of months ago I made two $25 loans on kiva.org. This week I received notice that both of the entrepreneurs have repaid 10% of the total loan commitment.
I am excited about this for a number of reasons. First, I have become convinced that micro credit is the best way to bring the third […]
Capitalism Cafe: Where there’s no such thing as a free lunch
When I was in college I had a great idea for a supply and demand based restaurant concept. I’m sure I’m not the first one to come up with the idea, but I haven’t ever seen or heard of anything like this.
Imagine this:
You’re an investment banker in New York City or London and you need […]
Economists Don’t Predict Recession, Which Is Why We Are Headed For One
Most economists aren’t predicting a recession for the American economy in 2008, which is exactly why we are going to have one.
According to the Economist’s briefing on the American economy, it is very likely the US will see a recession in 2008, but even if it doesn’t it will still feel like one. This is […]
How to Borrower $50,000,000: The Commercial Mortgage Underwriting Process
When applied to commercial real estate debt, underwriting is a term used to describe the process a mortgage originator goes through when deciding whether or not to issue credit to a borrower. Financing commercial real estate is a completely different game than residential mortgage financing, and knowing how the process works will most certainly work […]
Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life.
I just finished the book Thinking Strategically: the competitive edge in business, politics, and everyday life by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff. It is the single best narrative (non-math) introduction to game theory that I have ever read. Here is the epilogue from part I, which paints the big picture incredibly well:
“A game […]