Heisenberg Compensators - On Sale NOW!

"The future is uncertain... but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity."

    Ilya Prigogine

Three common traits of successful entrepreneurs are: 1) the ability to accept uncertainty; 2) a voracious appetite for additional information; and 3) creativity.  Business winners are seldom rigid, except in their tight focus on their vision.  They are generally committed to action, but seldom to a particular action.  Instead, they devise and select actions that are appropriate to each new situation as the world evolves about them.  And they learn from their mistakes.

My friend Matt told me that we would save a lot of time and trouble if we simply told all fresh entrepreneurs just to go out and buy Heisenberg Compensators.  That would remove all the risk from their startup ventures, he said.  They would all get rich, and fast.

I agreed with Matt, then ran to my computer to find out what in the world he was talking about.

In case you are uninitiated, like me, it turns out that a Heisenberg Compensator is a critical component of the Star Trek transporter system.  It adjusts for the fact that we cannot know both the location and the momentum of a sub-atomic particle simultaneously (Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle). Without the compensator, the objects or people being transported would arrive scrambled at best, and more likely not at all. 

From my point of view, a successful entrepreneur is, in fact, a walking, talking Heisenberg Compensator, constantly assessing the locations and directions of the various components of his business world and making tiny, but regular, adjustments to his action plans.  There's no need to buy one, after all, if you can be one.  Besides, late model compensators are definitely in short supply, which makes them absurdly expensive.  (I checked on Craig's List - couldn't find one anywhere.)

Learn to bend and you won't break.  Bend in just the right direction, and you'll be a huge success.

Besides, there is seldom a way simply to force a positive solution anyway.  Turning up the power on the transporter cannot remove the need for the compensator.

So, as my other friend, the Earl of Chesterfield, once said,

"Prepare yourself for the world, as the athletes used to do for their exercise; oil your mind and your manners, to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility; strength alone will not do."
 

Comments

[Small Business]

Theres a great quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes - Mans mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. Bending is like that, I think. Its a mark of growth, not weakness.

[Jim Flowers]

Theres a great quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes - Mans mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.  Bending is like that, I think.  Its a mark of growth, not weakness.

[e-business suite]

I really liked your post, and the emphasis you have laid on bending - something people take as a sign of weakness. I believe, bending is like accepting change - you need your wits about you!

[Jim Flowers]

Thanks.

[Betonherstel bedrijf]

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[Jim Flowers]

Thank you for your very kind remarks.  Ill certainly try to keep doing useful work.

[Nooit meer betonschade]

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[Jim Flowers]

I agree that initiative and drive are additional common traits of successful entrepreneurs.  In this short post, I was by no means attempting to do a complete profile.  Initiative and drive boil down to start, then keep going.  The keep going is what I like to call MOXIE, the single most important trait, in my opinion.  But I'm not willing to surrender creativity, curiosity, and an above-average ability to live with risk as important to entrepreneurial success.

[study in uk]

i'd re-phrase the top 3 traits you mentioned and club them into just 2: (a) initiative and (b) drive.

[Jim Flowers]

If you find a source for Heisenberg Compensators, be sure to let me know.

Regards,

Jim

[Beton reparatie garantie]

Resources like the one you mentioned here will be very useful to me! I will post a link to this page on my blog. I am sure my visitors will find that very useful

[Jim Flowers]

There is just one, and it's in my basement.

Don't I wish...

[Fred McDavid]

The amatuer economist in me thinks maybe the Heisenberg compensator would spell the end of the entreprenuer who profits from the uncertainty in the market economy that the compensator would remove. It'd be better maybe if there were just one. Nice Star Trek reference! :)