Entrepreneurial Discovery

Perseverance: A picture is worth a thousand words

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:16:00 +0000

define.babson.edu

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:27:00 +0000

Enter your definition under www.define.babson.edu

One day (or a short refection on kindness)

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:40:00 +0000

"all my life I've been waiting for
I've been praying for
for the people to say
that we don't wanna fight no more
they'll be no more wars
and our children will play"

This song video by Matisyahu is everytwhere in the social networks. When I finally opened it (sometimes I am skeptical about the quality of the stuff that is overly shared on Facebook) I understood the reason for such hype. It's beautiful.

Where the heck do you learn to be kind? How the heck to you teach to be kind? How do you scale simple acts of kindness as the ones seen on the video into a higher level of reality? And actually, would our world be better if ...?

First set of lessons from the first quarter of the Babson MB

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:38:00 +0000

25 % of my MBA time is over and few lessons have been learned. You can scale technology, operations, a business … but the toughest thing to scale is the human brain. BABSON offers you intelectual transformation, personal transformation, professional transformation.

One of three sections of the Babson MBA Class of 2013

Lesson 1: “Academic success is all about strategy”. Despite the overall satisfaction I have with my academic experience and performance (measured not just by a GPA but by the real skills and vision I’m gaining), I would be lying if I say that I prepared for each and every class the way that I would have wanted. When some of our professors told us that for every academic hour of class they are mandated to give approximately 3 hours of preparation in the form of readings or assignments I just could not believe it – considering that we had 4 hours of class a day! But it turned out to be true for most of the days.

Unlike the way it works in undergrad (at least in mine) at an MBA level preparation is not a “plus” or a “nice to have”. Many students might argue about this, but my personal opinion is that without preparing for class you are on one hand losing money (have you ever calculated how much you pay for a MBA hour of class?) and on the hand you just acquire extra stress and frustration resulting from accumulated material that you never managed to understand. With very few exceptions, if I wanted to be fully immersed in a class, it seemed that there was no option but preparing. So what do you do? It took me few months to realize that it is human not to have the time to cover every reading, every exercise, and that it is all about strategy: a strategy sustained on self-awareness and prioritization. Self-awareness to be objective enough to realize what you are good at and what not good at and thus, devote more time to the latter, replacing procrastination by strategic prioritization. Self-awareness to realize if you are better at participating “live” during classes or rather performing on exams. And so you build your strategy around all those variables.

Easier said than done … I know. I still do not master it, but I guess I still have ¾ of my MBA to do it. “At Babson you earn your degree the old-fashion way, you have to work hard for it” – said our Dean during orientation last August. He was very right.

Lesson 2: “Co-curricular experience is one of the strongest ways to really connect with fellow students”. I must confess that I freak out a bit when I think of all the co-curricular activities I am part of (specially after facing the time scarcity I talked about in Lesson 1!), to the point that I feel compromising my own sanity! I am in leadership team of 5 clubs/groups, plus I have a part time on campus job – and I won’t tell you how many opportunities I forced myself to ignore! Saying “no” has always been one of my top weaknesses. Yet feeling involved in leadership roles and creative initiatives does not only motivate me but also is a wonderful way to mingle with people beyond the classroom. Being part of such groups gives me a sense of legacy for the school and to me this is one of the strongest ways to give back to Babson.

One aspect that also I learned to cultivate and keep cultivating is spiritual life. I am so happy that I could find the service of catholic mass on campus and that (as picky as I am regarding the masses I attend) it meets my criteria for actually returning to a certain church: the priest is a good speaker and they have good music. It seems to me that the Babson multi-faith chapel shall offer the same to practitioners of other religions.

Lesson 3: “It’s never too early to start working systematically on career development”. I know this might sound like a “standard” or even obvious advice, but I just want to ratify it. Building a good relationship to the center of career development of your school as early as possible is crucial; I feel that I could have started earlier as a matter of fact. You might be overwhelmed with classes and exams, but in the end, one of the reasons you are doing an MBA is to find a way to impact society through a successful career, and thus, cultivating your career options also requires time since the very first months. By December 2011 however I have applied to 3 internships for the summer (I know many of my colleges have even applied for more) I totally fell in love with and I am excited to see how those selection processes evolve during early 2012. Babson’s Graduate Center for Career Development is there to help, always, and its personalized approach makes a total difference.

Lesson 4: “Getting proactively involved is the only way to discover opportunities, especially in the No. 1 business school for entrepreneurship”.Being an MBA student in the No. 1 school for entrepreneurship does not make you an entrepreneur by osmosis. Even if the Babson “Entrepreneurial Thought and Action in organizations of all kinds” is immersed in the majority of the academic streams, if you are an entrepreneur you have to proactively search and involve in all opportunities the school offers. I am happy to be part of three which are the Babson Venture Accelerator Program, but specially the CATALYZE CHANGE WORKSHOP SERIES and the Social Innovators’ Action Learning Network, the last two designed and lead by the BABSON LEWIS INSTITUE FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION. I love the experience with the LEWIS INSTITUTE since both of their programs I am part to are focused on myself, as a person, as an individual that plans to start an entrepreneurial venture and that needs to acknowledge her limitations in a genuine way. The cohort of like minded people involved in those programs is amazing and a great source of inspiration. I look forward to tell more about it in a subsequent post.

"Pitching" as KEY entrepreneurial skill

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000

I’ve been an MBA student at BABSON for less than three months. Time might look short, but if there is something that I have done much more often than what I believed I would do in just three months is “pitching”.

The “business pitch culture” at Babson is very strong. I heard once from a classmate that even when one is having a beer at the campus pub (specially during Rocket Pitch season), one could simply be approached by a fellow student, who invites you to do your pitch in front of him/her. And I’m not surprised. If we recall that Babson has been ranked as the No. School for Entrepreneurship for 18 years, such a culture is very consistent with the type of school we are.

Whether you like public speaking or not, business pitching becomes a skill we all develop and some of us master. Formal and informal spaces at the school allow us to do so. For instance, as part of my first Entrepreneurship class (which I had during Module 1, which is the first half of the Fall Semester) I was required to pitch twice. The experience was transformational. At first, you feel under pressure, you feel unprepared, you feel uncomfortable: max. 3 slides in max. 3 minutes is not an easy task (when Spanish is you native language, being succinct is not a particular strength!). But after couple of pitches you realize that the panic just vanished and that the connection between you and your idea is more powerful than anything else.

Babson Rocket Pitch 2011

Another special space at Babson to show your ideas to the world is the Babson Rocket Pitch, which is an annual event where Babson and Olin entrepreneurs (students and alumni) are invited to pitch their business ideas to a large audience of students, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers – also under the 3 slides/3 minutes format. As one of the students who pitched, I can say that this was a particularly special day. One could see how many people were pitching not because it was a class assignment (which as said, tends to be our first experience with doing an elevator pitch), but because they really wanted to do so.

“Idea Live” is also an additional activity that students have available to hone our “pitching” skills, even if it is not an official rocket pitch or business plan competition. It is a less formal event where students can discuss their ideas and receive feedback in a fun and energized environment. Each presenter has 5 minutes to discuss his or her business idea. No Powerpoint slides, but a white board will be available if needed.

I believe it is very important to realize that even if traditionally a pitch is directed at anyone who might want to provide funding for an entrepreneur’s venture, you can pitch for many reasons beyond funding, like for example to find high level advisors, new partners or new employees. Or you simply pitch because you want to get feedback on your idea, being the latter probably the most powerful take away from any pitch you deliver.

BABSON MBA Alumni Entrepreneurs: "The things the way they are"

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:30:00 +0000

BABSON MBA Alumni Entrepreneurs and VCs

1st Year MBA class, Section 2

October 14/2011

Fresh highlights from today's Entrepreneurship class with BABSON MBA Alumni that came "home"... great stories of resilience, team work and of course, satisfaction... "the things the way they are".

"We have grown our venture through validation"
"Convertible debt"
"The 'stupidity' of what was offered at that time is what motivated our launch this product"
"He is the one that manages the finances, I take care of product development ... I'm not a finance guy"
"Nobody was willing to give us money ... we were 'unproven' Entrepreneurs"
"I have been a struggling entrepreneur since 2007 ...the struggle for us has been raising money" (Note: he has raised 4.5 million USD already)
"Professional investors are the nicest people you can even think of! The VCs are the first people to tell us: "you are not quite where you think you are ... they help us understand why we are a 2 Mio instead of a 6 Mio company, as entrepreneurs at times we have a lot of misunderstandings of the industry we are at"
"Boston is known for being a tough climate for a first time entrepreneur"
"We really liked the fact that they recognized the own limitations and hired a CEO and other smart people that had a lot of expertise" (said by the Venture Capital)
"We are not afraid to invest in first time Entrepreneurs, but we understand that they are companies that will need a lot of attention"(said by the Venture Capital)

Some questions done by the students and some pieces of the answers ...

On approaching FAMILY and (good) FRIENDS for initial investment

"For initial friends and family founding, YOU DO NOT APPROACH your poor family members!"
"It's the most 'expensive' money I have got, those investors were the ones that kept me awake at night"
"Forget the grandchildren .. how is the business?" (that's how the conversations with your father start after they invest in you!)
"Treat them carefully, as if they were institutional investors"
"Their exit strategy was important, but they were more proud of seeing our product in the TIME magazine ... they were really investing in us"

On RESILIENCE (How often do you ask yourself if you want to continue, if you are doing the right thing?)

"About 4 times a day!"
"I have a friend that calls me once in a while and what he always asks me is 'Are you still having fun?' And as long as I say yes, that's what matters. We do not feel pity. Those moments of success bring you to the next one ... and your need for success becomes larger ... those moments help you through the dark times ... it is like a roller coaster ... as your company grows, your highs get 'higher' and your lows get 'lower'"
"When your employees start getting married and having kids, and you realize how many kids the company is feeding ... that makes you go on"

On FINDING THE TECHNICAL PARTNERS/EMPLOYEES (I have the idea but, I do not know how to materialize it, I'm not an engineer!)

We were in our BCAP (BCAP is an experiential learning program at BABSON) room and sketched the first idea of our product ... the sketch was awful, it was clear that we needed real design talent.We decided to find a design school that WOULD HELP us. We just called the design schools and asked to speak with the deans ... nobody paid attention. But I got attention of ONE school, I do not know what happened that day, but the dean gave us an appointment. What called her attention was the STORY we could build around working together: we will have a design school and business school creating a company! They liked having a designers understanding how to bring a product to the market. 6 months, 30 students, a professors, and us ... it was a very interesting product development process ... and the result was a 100 USD play table. After that process we had almost 30 designers that were familiar with us and we leveraged on that network.
Recruiting software engineers was very difficult, what would drive them to do something WITH YOU, with a START UP? Are you able to give them the experience they are looking for? It was a sales process, it is about selling a person that at times is smarter than you, that has maybe at the time more opportunities that the one you can give that he/she, the idea that he/she should work with you.

On THINGS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE DIFFERENT

"There are too many things that we would have done different. But this is part of the learning curve, you will never have all the answers, what matters is your ability to react and that is what brings you to success"
"If you are not making mistakes, you must be doing something wrong"

Disclaimer: The past highlights do not necessarily reflect my personal opinions or the ones of BABSON. It is just a blog post to share an interesting class activity.

I am a TECHMARK survivor

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:56:00 +0000

R&D, Marketing & Finance dancing all together to meet the desired targets (our office board)

As an iconic closure to the MBA orientation at BABSON, we (160+ students) participated in a very intense business simulation. The so called "TECHMARK" simulation is suposed to be a tradition among BABSON MBA classes, to the point that the people that go through it join the group of "Techmark survivors".

As any simulation, the goal was to bring a company to meet certain levels of performance, which reflect a good overall strategic management of a manufacturing organization under the always present conditions of market uncertainty (ROA, ROE, Inventory/Assets, Debt levels, etc.). The exercise was divided into quarters (which in Techmark time were presented in 1 to 2 hour slots) where each of the 265 teams had to make decisions the would lead to a cumulative final result.

I must admit that participating in the simulation ratified that I need an MBA! The first two quarters of the exercise I was completely lost. Frustration was obvious. I kept thinking for myself: do I really have a business degree? It was really a challenge to make decisions based on so many variables at a time ... expected market growth, competition, production costs, customer preferences, debt management ... even understanding where to start was an issue! Every time we came back to the plenary and partial performance results were revealed based on our quarterly decisions, I felt however I strong relief as the professor reinforced the fact that "this" and "that" business topic was going to be thought to us in details during the program.

As you know - I am into quotes these days -, so here are some key highlights of the experience ...

"Our classrooms are laboratories. The cost of making mistakes is perhaps a bit of embarrassment bot nothing else ... dare to make the mistakes here!" :)

"Ambiguity, Complexity, Uncertainty, these things will never go away, the difference after BABSON is that you will feel more confortable dealing with them"

"Financial Impact of Business Decisions (...)"

"If winning is not important, then why are we keeping the score? You are in a business school, there is nothing wrong with making money (sustainably)" :)

"Disagree without being disagreeable"

"Do you want to be the first to move? The first to succeed? The first to sustain?"

"We have near term plans for you, do you have a long term plan for yourself?" :)

"At some point, analysis HAS TO STOP and implementation should begin" :)

"We learn better when we are enjoying it"

"Screw it! we do not have time to do the number crunching at this point" :)

"Let's don't play it safe , let's take risks ... I have risk apetite"

"If forecasts would be facts, they would be called facts!" :)

With the TECHMARK simulation I felt that the MBA really started. So much to learn in the incoming 21 months!

My respect to all these savvy managers out there that day after day lead their real businesses to success! Not an easy task!

Team 4, Industry E

Ps. BTW, we did not win, but we were so close that I am just so proud of our team!

First two weeks of the BABSON MBA in quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 23:40:00 +0000

As many of you know, I started two weeks ago my two Year MBA at Babson!
I am just H A P P Y - I can't wait for the show to go on. You know this good old feeling of knowing you took the right decision.

Processing high amounts of information in very short time becomes a major skill

The following is a compilation of the quotes that have called the most my attention during the past two weeks - in no particular order - ... at this point I am so full of feelings, thoughts, emotions, that if I write the conventional way, I will end up sharing a minute of each class and writing a 50-pages blog post (and well, I am doing my best to write "american style", short and to the point)!

You can scale technology, operations, a business ...but the toughest thing to scale is the human brain. BABSON offers you Intelectual Transformation, personal transformation, professional transformation (Orientation Welcome)
At Babson you earn your degree the "old fashion way": you have to work hard for it
This (BABSON) is an MBA for uncertain times (Orientation Welcome)
How many times in your life will you have so many people to partner with you tu succeed? (Orientation Welcome)
This is an MBA to understand and manage growth (Orientation Welcome)
BABSON IS A TUITION DEPENDENT INSTITUTION, everything we do, we do it because you do it with us (Orientation Welcome)
How many times in your life will you have so many people to partner with you tu succeed? (Orientation Welcome)
This is an MBA to understand and manage growth (Orientation Welcome)
BABSON IS A TUITION DEPENDENT INSTITUTION, everything we do, we do it because you do it with us (Orientation Welcome)
Have I ever thought what my message is “doing” to my reader in terms of our relationship? (Writing class, btw check this hilarious example of terribly bad writing, Exhibit 2!)
Find a job that you love and you will never work another day in your life (Center for Career Development session)
At BABSON you become a good learner and a good listener (Business Case Simulation)
They (professors) will push your thinking to places you never imagined, you will be challenged ... and they challenge you because they know that you can handle it (2nd Year MBA student panel)
Now I know how to connect education to the real world (2nd Year MBA student panel)
Ambiguity is your friend (as a manager) – as also complexity and uncertainty (Business Case Simulation)
There will NEVER be enough information to solve a case (Business Case Simulation)
XYZ students are competitive, on the other hand, BABSON Students and collaborative! Use this value (Business Case Simulation)
I used to be an engineer until I got educated (Business Case Simulation)
There are 3 levels of frustation during a business case discussion. First, when another student just other says what you wanted to say!!! Second, when you say something that was super important to you and the professor does not give a s%#t!!! Third, when the class and discussion goes in a completely other way than the one you developed your case for!!! (Business Case Simulation)
An MBA is a marathon and the judges are your peers! (Business Case Simulation)
GPA is b%$#*@^t! (Business Case Simulation)
It should be called IAD instead of MBA. IAD ... "it all depends" (Business Case Simulation)
To create something that otherwise would not exist if you had not done it (Business Case Simulation)
I do not believe in market research (Business Case Simulation)
How you make critical choices that drive strategic innovation (Business Case Simulation)
Remember the "Economy of words", go to the point (Business Case Simulation)
Do not use "empty" words ... "flexible", "innovation", "entrepreneurship" - what does that really mean? (Business Case Simulation)
Engaging with your class mates during a case is not only about attacking them (Business Case Simulation)
ENTREPRENEURS ARE LOUSY at managing an ongoing business (Business Case Simulation)
If the professor does not call you often, tell him!!! (Business Case Simulation)
Once you have been my student, you have the keys of my office (Prof. JB, Business Case Simulation)
Learning is the destination, a case is the vehicle (Business Case Simulation)
Please, no emotions (Business Case Simulation)

First module books

Ps. Sharing a quote does not mean endorsement :-)

In Colombia you do not have to give your 120%? - a propo Independence Day

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:28:00 +0000

I found the previous video one day - randomly - on Facebook.

As anything that is about Colombia, i went on to see what it was all about. Nice video, as usual, nice to hear foreigners praising your land, your culture.

Yet, there was a comment by one of the foreigners that absolutely called my attention: "In comparison with Europe, Colombia is much less stressful, you are not expected to give your 120% (...)"

I let it sink, even if it stayed in my head for couple of days. Until today, 20.07 ... Colombia`s remarkable Independence Day, where all the people swim in the pride of being colombian (including myself) .. today is a good day however to talk about this 120% ...

Before I go on, I want to clarify that having lived in Europe I (kind of) know what this person tries to express and by no means this post intends to challenge him or his perception. Perception is reality. Period. What I really would like to decode is what it means "not giving the 120%". As colombian, is this actually something to praise? If yes, from which angle?

What does it mean not to give the 120%?

The first thing that came to my mind was "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral" - in german ("Anecdote to the Decline of the Work Ethic" - english translation). It is a famous short story by Heinrich Böll that I actually learned at school and I never, ever will forget (I graduated from a german school, in my home city, Barranquilla). The story is about an encounter between an enterprising tourist and a small fisherman, in which the tourist suggests how the fisherman can improve his life. It was written for a May Day programme on the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in 1963, and is considered one of the best stories written by Heinrich Böll. And hell it is.

The Tale of the fisherman and the Tourist: A tourist looks on a most idyllic picture: a fisherman dozing in the sun in his rowing boat that he has pulled out of the waves which come rolling up the sandy beach. The tourist's camera clicks and the fisherman wakes. The tourist asks: “The weather is great and there's plenty of fish, so why are you lying around instead of going out and catching more?”
The fisherman replies: “Because I caught enough this morning.” “But just imagine,” the tourist says, “you could go out there three or four times a day and bring home three or four times as much fish! And then you know what could happen?” The fisherman shakes his head. “After a year you could buy yourself a motorboat,” says the tourist. “After two years you could buy a second one, and after three years you could have a cutter or two. And just think! One day you might be able to build a freezing plant or a smoke house. You might eventually even get your own helicopter for tracing shoals of fish and guiding your fleet of cutters, or you could buy your own trucks to ship your fish to the capital, and then . . .” “And then?” asks the fisherman. “And then”, the tourist continues triumphantly, “you'd could spend time sitting at the beachside, dozing in the sun and looking at the beautiful ocean!” The fisherman looks at the tourist: “But that is exactly what I was doing before you came along!” The fisherman replies: “Because I caught enough this morning.” “But just imagine,” the tourist says, “you could go out there three or four times a day and bring home three or four times as much fish! And then you know what could happen?” The fisherman shakes his head. “After a year you could buy yourself a motorboat,” says the tourist. “After two years you could buy a second one, and after three years you could have a cutter or two. And just think! One day you might be able to build a freezing plant or a smoke house. You might eventually even get your own helicopter for tracing shoals of fish and guiding your fleet of cutters, or you could buy your own trucks to ship your fish to the capital, and then . . .” “And then?” asks the fisherman. “And then”, the tourist continues triumphantly, “you'd could spend time sitting at the beachside, dozing in the sun and looking at the beautiful ocean!” The fisherman looks at the tourist: “But that is exactly what I was doing before you came along!”

Thanks to my job at Endeavor for the past 4 years there is a term that has become part of my lexicon: THINK BIG. When I reflect on the 120% thing and the short story of Böll, I can´t help recalling of the term.

I think as Colombians we are "lazy" to think big, many times. To think big does not mean "stopping spending time sitting at the beachside dozing" as the fisherman in the previous story does. The two things are not mutually exclusive. This "trade-off" scenario is WAY OVERRATED, please! One thing is valuing and living the PRESENT and another one is excusing ourselves for not giving the extra mile in a nation where so many things need to be done: this is an emerging economy folks! lots of stuff needs to be still created and forward thinking, big thinking is fundamental to that.

I am proud to be colombian NOT BECAUSE OF THE SUPERFICIAL elements that you read in newspapers or over social networks: "WE ARE ONE OF THE HAPPIEST NATIONS IN THE WORLD". What does that mean? What`s happiness actually? What`s the underlying structure from which we self-portrait ourseves as happy?

I am proud to be colombian because I feel like the butterfly that struggles to squeeze its body through the tiny hole of the cocoon (read the story) and this excersice made me strong. Anf I feel lucky to be citizen in this environment, because it makes me better and enables me to give my 120% while changing a reality.

I am proud to be colombian because there is a new generation of citizens raising, a new generation that is waking up and that repulses curruption, crime, hate, envy, injustice and is creating concrete initiatives to create a fair society for all. We are a generation that EMBRACES VULNERABILITY, BUT ALSO KNOWS THAT ITS VULNERABILITY IS THE SOURCE OF LOVE, OF IMPROVEMENT, OF CREATIVITY, OF BELONGING, as Brene Brown says.

I am proud to be colombian, because many of our efforts are starting to show results, because clear numbers make us be part of the CIVETS, given our reasonably sophisticated financial systems, controlled inflation, and a soaring young population.

I am proud to be colombian because back in the 1800s there was a group of patriots corageous enough to raise their voices and proclaim this nation as independent. They dared to CHANGE.

I am proud to be colombian because we are WHOLE-HEARTED, and let ourselves be seen.

I am proud to be colombian because we KNOW how to freaking give our 120%, and if not all of us do that, there is hell a big part of us that is doing it. Without cliches, withour paradigms, without lame excuses.

Happy independence day.

Wayra Week Colombia 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:42:00 +0000

It`s slowly getting late to write this post!

Last week I had the chance to represent Endeavor as a jury of Wayra Colombia.

To explain what Wayra is, I will invite you to read this post of Martin Varsavsky (I could not explain better the program, so I`ll leverage of that!) and of course the Wayra Web Site - in spanish.

"Wayra is a program that will support the creation of high-tech IT companies in Latin America and Spain. Basically, Wayra is a business incubator, although it wants to be more than that and calls itself a business “accelerator”. (Future) entrepreneurs can submit their projects, even if they’re only at an idea stage, and the 30 teams with the most promising ideas will be given the opportunity to present in front of a jury which will then narrow the selection down to 10 projects (this occurs on a country level). The first three countries are Colombia, Mexico and Spain, and the goal is to have this initiative running in eight countries by the end of this year. This will bring the number of supported projects to 80 by the end of 2011."

I learned too much, from the participant entrepreneurs obviously but also from the jury, which were key executives from Telefonica and other local experts of the IT industry... e-commerce, "freemium businessmodels", M2M, mobile apps, e-Health, were not very touched terms (by me!!!) ... and the most revealing - Power Point is dead, PREZI rules (well, this I knew before, it truly rules)! And well, I also got even more exited recalling that from this class on the new BABSON MBA curriculum will have a strong Technology component! The new Babson M.B.A. focuses on three elements: preparing students to be entrepreneurial leaders, teaching them to be leaders in a collaborative workgroup, and helping students understand the role of technology in today's business landscape.

But as sensitive as I am, what moved me the most was the Final Ceremony, where the top 10 projects for Colombia were announced. On statement that called my attention was: "I many times believed that happiness was not for me" - said by one of the winning Entrepreneurs. Wow! You could see people speechless, because the strong emotion did not allow them to speak. There was an Entrepreneur that simply said that now his daughter could be born in Colombia, since now he does not have to go to the States to try to get funding and realize his dream there (many of them do have the Silicon Valley dream). Many of them recalled in their thank-you speeches all the nights whithout sleep, all the sacrifices that had to be made.

It might sound like the romatic "cliches" of being an entrepreneur, but I loved them. That plays a fundamental part: loving what you do and finding joy and pride in what you have achieved, and being GENUINE about sharing it. Thumbs up for TELEFONICA and WAYRA!

Stolen "Quotes" from the Endeavor Entrepreneur Summit in San Francisco - DAY 2(#eSummitSF)

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 11:27:00 +0000

Courtesy of the wonderful Twitter hashtag #eSummitSF, here are some great quotes of the second day of the Endeavor Global Entrepreneur Summit in San Francisco!!! Not being able to attend is one of the things that I don`t like of leaving Endeavor in one month :( But if this Summit is like the past two, what an awesome learning experience for all the attendees!

Follow the hastag on Twitter!

Ps. The affirmations shared below do not always reflect my personal opinion nor are suggested ways of acting or thinking. They`re just interesting pieces to reflect about!

It's not about the ceiling wall but the sticky floor #eSummitSF

"Some things can be made perfect. Your job as the ceo is to perfect the perfectable." #eSummitSF

"Great people want a lot demanded of them." - Bing Gordon #eSummitSF

Quality of the people reflects the quality of successful, fast growth. Be dilligent about your team quality #eSummitSF

oyrsen Joy Sen

Every employee in a 25% growing organization has to double their capacity every 18 months #eSummitSF .R you increasing their capacity too?

"Your job as CEO is to be the fastest person of the company." Bing Gordon #eSummitSF

"As CEO is to tell people to be ok" - build confidence #eSummitSFfrom Bing Gordon

Focus on your top 25% of your team and expand from there. These people can bring similar people into game, makes you succeed #eSummitSF

"missionary not mercenary" - @bingfish #eSummitSF true - that is what keep us on every up and downs - resilience.

#eSummitSF the new ceo's role is to coach not to dictate ...

"Hire ahead of your needs" - Gina Bianchini #eSummitSF”

Biggest risk for high growth company -not hiring right person. Focus on best not average. - J Housenbold @shutterfly #eSummitSF

Lessons learned from #eSummitSF. 3) On HR - It comes down to making sure ther right people are ALLOWED to do a great job!

@OmidyarNetwork mission statement gets it right: "people are inherently capable but lack equal opportunity" #eSummitSF

John hamm leadership is a practice, like Medical, is a life journy It always matters.. entrepeural leadership matters even more #eSummitSF

So far Carl Schroeder's key note has been my favorite at the #esummitsf. Biased wisdom of experts vs getting out and seeing new stuff.

"Rookie entrepreneurs maximize value rather than control and get the wrong advisors." - Marc Pincus via #bingfish #eSummitSF

To be top ranked...your goal is to become the authority on your issue, Matt Ackley Google VP #eSummitSF

Get high page rank with: good content, lists, tutorials, frequent updates, controversy #eSummitSF #SEO

Gina Bianchini: Focus on the current phase, but always plan thenext two #eSummitSF

Fail cheap, fail at low prototyping. This way you can try again and again very fast and easily. #eSummitSF #designthinking

Chris Schroeder: entrepreneurs are/should be free of echochambers. They can ask the greatest question of all: why? #esummitsf

Excited for Global Connections at Endeavor's Summit - speed dating format between entrepreneurs and mentors. #eSummitSF

Stolen "Quotes" from the Endeavor Entrepreneur Summit in San Francisco (#eSummitSF)

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 01:59:00 +0000

Courtesy of the wonderful Twitter hashtag #eSummitSF, here are some great quotes of the first day of the Endeavor Global Entrepreneur Summit in San Francisco!!! Not being able to attend is one of the things that I don`t like of leaving Endeavor in one month :( But if this Summit is like the past two, what an awesome learning experience for all the attendees!

Follow the hastag on Twitter!

Ps. The affirmations shared below do not always reflect my personal opinion nor are suggested ways of acting or thinking. They`re just interesting pieces to reflect about!

"Talented people can from strange places." - Guibert Englebienne, cofounder Globant #eSummitSF

The dynamic of VC industry has changed in the last two years. Build trust with people has become key for entrepreneurs. #esummitsf

Dan Senor: winning entrepreneurs in high risk markets are the ones who go global from day one. #esummitsf

The entrepreneur summit is the perfect therapy for people called crazy" @lindarottenberg #esummitsf

Use someone else money to start up companies. When you get good at it use your own. Nothing bad in that. Scott McNealy at the #esummitsf

If everyone thinks you're doing the right thing - then everyone would be doing it. Have a controversial strategy. #esummitSF Scott McNealy

Scott Mc Nealy, Sun: "Forget about privacy! Most of the startups here in the Valley r about invading your privacy" #eSummitSF

"Be controversial. But the thing about being controversial, is you better be correct!" - @scottmcNealy #eSummitSF

Invitation for all VCs thinking about going global, please think about settling in & building ecosystem #eSummitSF - not all money is green

Top 15 IT firms in the US have $250 billion in excess cash. That is almost 1% of the worlds GDP. Hope they use it wisely! #esummitsf

”Four trends in technology: cloud computing, mobile, social platforms, massive adoption of IT products”. Marc Benioff #esummitsf

Marc Benioff (salesforce) at the #esummitsf: NOT concerned about web ownership by a few. Dominant players constantly shift.

My personal opinion: while facebook is eating the web, twitter is saving it. #esummitsf

"Innovation is a baton being tossed between intemporal entrepreneurial paradigms." - @beinoff #eSummitSF

USA,Uk,France,Germany,Canada Aus&Benelux make95% of enterprise software.Benioff mentions not location rather than where you sell!#eSummitSF

Marc Benioff says Salesforce could not get VCs interested in early days, despite performance and connections #esummitsf

Benioff: building one successful company is more exciting than serial entrepreneurship. Must stay focused. #esummitsf

”If you are an entrepreneur you have to overcommunicate” M Benioff, CEO Salesforce #esummitsf

Most things he learned in b-school are not applicable today. On the job learnings are key. Marc Benioff #eSummitSF

'Start ups by definition are the exceptions to the rule, if they are successful' Matt Cohler #esummitsf

The give back rule: Donate 1% of your profits, 1% of your equity and 1% of your time. M Benito, CEO Salesforce. #esummitsf

Education for kids is a good market opportunity #esummitsf (I love this one in particular)

"A decisão mais estratégica que um empreendedor toma na sua trajetória é a escolha da mulher com quem terá seus filhos" McNearly #esummitsf

Raise $ when you can, not when you need, do due diligence on investors, make ur startup connected to community w global mindset #eSummitSF

Today I found out what "looping effects" are and through it that "In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king"

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:29:00 +0000

Coming from an extremely conservative country like Colombia, but also having had the blessing to interact with a wide array of people from different backgrounds (not only while living abroad, but inside Colombia itself), DIVERSITY has always been an striking topic to me.

..."In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king"...

- and this is how I feel about my capacity to embrace diversity.

I am absolutely sure that my understanding of it is surely way above the average of my closest circle of influence (of course my elders, my husband, some of my friends) - and I remind you, coming from a highly conservative, narrow minded society this is nothing to be proud of. Yet in terms what it takes to understand that those "labels" (woman, man, entrepreneur, employee, poor, rich, gay, straight, smart, gorgeous, Latin, African, young, old ...) literally do no exist and that they are a mere creation and reinforcement of our human nature, totally implies a deeper level of consciousness that at time I (we) do not have.

Recently I read this article that shows through sharing the findings of a series of researches that there is something called "LOOPING EFFECTS", nothing else that all those categories that we use to believe, accept and put ourselves in, and what it`s scariest, categories that because we believe we belong to them, define our behavior. Here is also a sense of the in a nutshell:

"You won't find a legitimation of our self-categories in neurobiology. If biology is the measure of all things, then many of the categories we use to group ourselves into kinds of person — man, woman, gay, straight, black, white, professor, cheerleader — are, in fact, unreal. You don't find them in nature as it is apart from our attitudes and beliefs about that nature. At the same time, what could be more real than the way we experience ourselves as being?"

Next time you believe that you perform very good in diversity management, because you "accept" someone "different", please consider yourself a complete mediocre. Are you conscious enough to see that there are NO differences?

Also, have you realized how many things you have or have not done just because you are from the country you are, from the profession you are, from the gender you are, from the skin color you are? I did a quick refection for myself and results where scary. My motivation and highest challenge/goal at this point though is how to be a mother capable enough to transmit to her kids such a vision.

BIG PSs.

Ps. Today 26th of July national marches for gay rights (sadly, not yet for gay "pride"). Being consequent with what I just wrote, I wish homosexual activism would turn to pass a message of awareness to "LOOPING EFFECTS" rather than an "ACCEPT ME" speech.

(for Colombians, aren´t these "city" posters just too cool? specially from such highly conservative cities as Manizales, Pasto and Barranquilla)

Ps2. I love Benetton ads, even if being again consequent with what I just wrote does ass do not exist at all, since they rather stress even more the categories.

Why Peter Thiel Is Wrong To Pay Students to Drop Out (and Babson College’s alumni entrepreneurs)

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:49:00 +0000

Waking up this morning, I found this very, very interesting piece, shared by BABSON (did I already tell how exited I am to start my MBA there in 60 days!!!!?), written by professor Peter Cohan. It called a lot my attention, since couple of days ago I actually wrote some thoughts on the Thiel Experiment on this blog - rather "supporting" what he did. And still believe it`s worth seeing this. Yet, I want to invite you to check the article by Prof. Cohan and see the other side of the coin, leveraging on a comprehensive study of Babson College’s alumni entrepreneurs ran by another BABSON Professor, Bill Bygrave.

Go to the original article at Forbes

Jun. 15 2011 - 7:19 am | 140 views | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

Image via CrunchBase

Stanford Law School grad, Peter Thiel, wants to pay college students to drop out. If typical venture capital odds apply, about 22 of the 24 people who took his $100,000 inducement to drop out and spend two years working in a start-up will fail to build a successful company. For their sake, let’s hope the schools will let them back in.

And based on research from the country’s top-ranked school of entrepreneurship, the world will be better off if those whippersnappers stay in school and get 10 years of experience before launching their start-ups.

Peter Thiel has a mixed investment record but has come out ahead. Thiel made $55 million as a co-founder of online payment service PayPal when he sold his 3.7% stake in the company to eBay (EBAY) shortly after graduating from Stanford Law School. He then became the first major investor, putting $500,000 into Facebook.

But his Clarium Capital has stumbled. It had close to $8 billion in assets at its mid-2008 peak. By September 2010, roughly 90% of those assets were gone. Business Insider reported that by then, the fund’s assets under management were down to around $850 million – “and about half of that is Thiel’s.”

Nevertheless, Thiel’s still got enough left to make him comfortable with his oft-reported bargain with college youth. In 2011, Thiel paid 24 teenagers and 20-year-olds $100,000 each “to quit school and embark on their technology-based entrepreneurial ventures with the potential to change the world.” The presence of this prize must terrify the parents who have saved up to give their children the security of a college education.

Despite the media’s love of stories about the success of Harvard college dropouts Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, the compelling nature of their stories contributes to the delusion that more average people can suddenly gain the entrepreneurial ability of those two outliers.

Bill Bygrave has spent a career researching entrepreneurship as a professor at Babson College (where I teach). U.S. News & World Reportranked Babson the country’s leading undergraduate school for entrepreneurship for the last 14 years. In a June 13 interview with Bygrave, I learned about his research into the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.

In a recent paper, Human assets and entrepreneurial performance: A study of companies started by business school graduates, Bygrave and his colleagues reported the results of a comprehensive study of Babson College’s alumni entrepreneurs. A key finding was that the best performing new ventures were started by alumni with about 10 years of professional experience after graduation. Bygrave believes that this finding puts the lie to what he calls the “whippersnapper theory” — that in entrepreneurship youth trumps experience.

Not surprisingly Bygrave counts himself among those entrepreneurship educators and researchers who view as misguided schemes like Thiel’s to encourage teenagers to become entrepreneurs.

Bygrave in his paper noted that Vivek Wadhwa, director of research at Duke University’s Center for of Entrepreneurship, harshly criticized Thiel’s program for sending what he sees as the message that anyone can be Mark Zuckerberg.

According to Wadhwa’s interview with Daily Mail, “Silicon Valley lives in its own bubble. It sees the world through its own prism. It’s got a distorted view. All the people who are making a fuss are highly educated. They’re rich themselves. They’ve achieved success because of their education. There’s no way in hell we would have heard about Peter Thiel if he hadn’t graduated from Stanford.”

I asked Bygrave what students get by staying in school. At Babson, students get what he calls “the mechanics” — meaning techniques for evaluating opportunities and putting together a business plan. And while Bygrave is not suggesting that one causes the other, he points out that start-ups with business plans raised more money than those that did not.

Peter Thiel is free to spend his money the way he wants and those teenagers are free to accept the offer to drop out of school. But Bygrave’s research shows that the occasional entrepreneurial success of college dropouts is the exception that proves the rule — stay in college and get 10 years of experience — preferably in a fast growing organization — before launching a start-up.

Three Little Pigs | Global Entrepreneurship Week

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:44:00 +0000

The Global Entrepreneurship Week is coming!

Use it as a season to remember the DO`s & DON`ts of Entrepreneurship!

The pigs couldn`t tell it better ... so hillarious!

You can`t be what you can`t see - thoughts about the Thiel Experiment and more ...

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:58:00 +0000

I bet you have heard about the "Thiel Experiment", it`s been all over the news in the past months, particularly memorable for headlines such as "Thiel Pays Students To Drop Out Of School!" or "Thiel Pays Offers $100000 to Drop-Outs!".

In m opinion, the story is way more powerful and way less sensationalist than what the press showcases.

Peter Thiel, co-founder of Pay Pal (also known as as "the mentor of the PayPal mafia of entrepreneurs"), has set up a FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM, through which young entrepreneurs "will pursue innovative scientific and technical projects, learn entrepreneurship, and begin to build the technology companies of tomorrow. During their two-year tenure, each Fellow will receive $100,000 from the Thiel Foundation as well as mentorship from the Foundation’s network of tech entrepreneurs and innovators" ... and yes, to committ full time to the previous, they have to leave school.

I am a passionate for education, and specially for that one, which is not conventional. And I totally praise what Thiel is doing for the simple reason that YOU CAN`T BE WHAT YOU CAN`T SEE. You have to see stuff like this happening, as also you have to get inspiredby the stories of all the bunch of sucessful dropouts (not only Gates or Zuckerberg, but the many other close to you that I you know you know!!) to understand that there is not a "formula" to become an entrepreneur and specially not to be sucessful.

I want to steal a statement from a recent article I read from Max Kalehoff, which in my opinion totally embodies what really matters in life ... this matters, and not only to pursue a traditional education:

"Like many parents, I wish for my kids to be curious and passionate about the world around them. I wish for them to find purpose and embrace it, and to tackle important problems with creativity and drive. I also wish for them to enjoy what they’re doing along the way, and feel pride and fulfillment in the end — that what they’d done really mattered, and made the world a slightly better place. It doesn’t matter to me so much which path they pursue, but I hope it has these elements."

These past "elements" - as Kalehoff calls it - neither neglect nor invite to eschew formal education, BUT, you might agree with me, they also do not make formal education essential. I believe Thiel is just trying to offer to this exceptional group of fellows a platform free of "distractive prejudices" where just purpose and relevant skill trainning matter. Can`t wait to see what happens with this group ... (sad that there are only two girls!). We need to get more used to serendipity and this is for sure something that formal education certainly disencourages.

If you liked this post Tweet it!

When nobody is watching ...

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:38:00 +0000

Since some time I am subscribed to Seth`s Godin blog. I like it pretty much since he normally sends very concise (aprox. 5 minute reading) and powerful messages. Godin is author of ten books that have been bestsellers around the world, influencing the way people think about marketing, change and work.

One of his last post was called "Self directed effort is the best kind"

I encourage you to read it, as said, it is very fast to do it and I ensure you that after reading it, my present blog post will make much more sense.

From the moment I saw the post titel in my inbox, it totally called my attention. And the content totally matched my expectation.

How many things do we really do, just because they genuinely matter to us, because they mean something to us and not because we have (on purpose or not) a "police man" making us doing them? I did the excercise very quicky for myself and the balance was pretty good: there were a bunch of things that I do because I care and technically enjoy doing them, while there are others where the "police men" work, and pretty well.

I do not think that it is necessarily bad to count on such police men. It`s not ideal ... but it`s not really an issue as long as the quantity of the stuff you do self-directed exceeds the quantity of the stuff you need an extra stimulus to do. Anyways, I am not an expert in the topic and so far, what all I`ve done is just referring to Godin`s post.

So ...this is a blog about entrepreneurship and therefore, I could not help inferring couple of things for the entrepreneurial world. And the strongest example that came to my mind was Endeavor, the organization I currently work for.

First thing that came to my mind is that Endeavor (in the context of Seth`s post) is an army of police men that force Entrepreneurs to excel even more than what they already doing. I am aware that the word "force" is very strong, but after having worked as Entrepreneur Services Manager for more than 4 years at Endeavor Colombia, witnessing directly how Entrepreneurs receive and use our services, I feel confident when I say that the difference that we (Endeavor) make does not only have to do with the knowledge that we pass to them, the real difference relies in the capacity that we have to act as "accountability" agents for Entrepreneurs, that are always there to remind them of the commitments that they do to themselves. During the past 4 years such commitments have been things such as "doing a business plan to move to the next level", "stepping out of operative work and hiring a manager", "putting together a board of directors" or simple tasks as "analyzing their Financial Statements to look for possible red flags". I am 100 % sure that 90 % of our Entrepreneurs know how and want to do all of the previous, but for some reason, they are not used to put self-directed effort into that. It`s not only a matter of knowledge, it`s a matter of lack of self-directed drive. And what is behind this self-directed drive (not only for Entrepreneurs, but in general) remains a question mark for me.

Recently I debated with some team mates about the role of Endeavor in the execution of projects with the Entrepreneurs. The discussion automatically came down to the role of the ESM - Entrepreneur Services Manager - (also called Key Account Manager in our jargon) and how involved the ESM should get into the day-to-day activities of the entrepreneur in order to catalyze the execution of the tasks associated to the Endeavor projects. In the end, our model works only if the Entrepreneurs execute timely the advices that are given by our group of Mentors. Some people are more of the opinion that the "Self directed effort" of the Entrepreneurs shall be the one to drive the process and set the pace and other people (like me) even if not disagreeing with the past statement, are more of the opinion that we are actually there to provide any needed oversight that helps them to go beyond what "Self directed effort" allows, even if this implies an important investment of time and energy ... which in the end is the same time and energy that the personal trainer puts to make you burn 700 calories instead of 500, as Seth´s analogy suggests.

What do you do when no one is looking, what do you make when it's not an immediate part of your job... how many push ups do you do, just because you can?

If you liked this post, tweet it!

Casual thoughts about interacting wih the untouchable (and other Web 2.0 short reflections)

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Sat, 21 May 2011 14:15:00 +0000

Disclaimer: I am neither a social networks expert, nor even an empirical “knower” of the topic. I am just a user, that sees things from a user perspective, probably in a very naïve way.

So … I`ve been using Twitter since maybe around a year. Pretty late for the standards, I know. I started way earlier with Facebook and especially with blogging, since 2003 actually (and yes, I know blogging is not a network and not comparable to Facebook and/or Twitter, no worries, yet it`s for many part of the Web 2.0 trend).

Coming back to Twitter, I must say that I just love it and as much as one is emotionally attached to Facebook, for what my personal interests are …

a) following thought leaders
b) getting fast, sweet, short news of topics I care (the amount of relevant info I get over Twitter in let`s say 3 minutes, I would never get it sitting a whole morning watching newspapers) AND
c) INTERACTING WITH THE OTHERWISE UNTOUCHABLE in the physical world

… Twitter is simply a hit.

INTERACTING WITH THE OTHERWISE UNTOUCHABLE in the physical world. It`s my favorite. What do I mean with that? Well, even if nowadays lots of companies and celebrities (politicians, artists, governmental institutions, companies, leaders, whatsoever) hire someone to manage its digital presence (which in the case of individuals might seem everything but genuine) INTERACTING WITH THE OTHERWISE UNTOUCHABLE i means being able to address directly people, organizations or simply BRANDS and if lucky being able to get a response from them.

Two days ago I talked with @CoCaCola … I said over Twitter that a new can presentation seemed very cool to me. In seconds, they replied back. What do I win with this? Nothing probably, but @CoCaCola surely wins certain particular appreciation from my side, and it`s highly likely that next time I`ll order a Coke over a Pepsi.
What about interacting with your favorite book authors? I do it often. How faster would you be able to tell that his/her book sucked or not and why, and get an answer?
When a delivery service I order takes more that promised, or when any other of my providers suck (public services, telecom, airline, health, etc.) I instantly complain over Twitter. In minutes they apologize and if I`m lucky, they even compensate with a treat. That does not happen in the “physical world” or at least not with the same effect: x thousand followers wouldn`t hear (read) my claim. Now, I know the "public complain" might sounds unfair/evil, but it works. I guess -bottomline- it is helping companies to be better, to serve better, in a society like the Colombian where customer service is an inherited weakness.

Web 2.0 is not a technology, it`s an attitude.

As much as I praise it, I also know that if tomorrow a meteor falls over the Twitter, Blogger and Facebook offices and their systems collapse, the world will keep moving, for sure, we have been doing it for centuries. A break wouldn`t be bad, I guess.

Ps. A propo Twitter here are some cool lists to follow, especially if you are an Entrepreneur, the Endeavor Global Twitter lists:

What it takes to get an MBA [infographic]

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Thu, 12 May 2011 01:43:00 +0000

++ Click to Enlarge Image ++
Taken from http://holykaw.alltop.com/what-it-takes-to-get-an-mba-infographic?tu3=1

Via: Masters Degree Guide

Ask a Leader 2011 - Felipe Vergara

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:55:00 +0000

Felipe Vergara is the CEO of Lumni, one of the Endeavor Colombia companies and also an AShoka Fellow. Felipe was recently awarded as THE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS OF THE YEAR 2011 - LATIN AMERICA by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

Through my role at Endeavor Colombia, I had had the pleasure to meet Felipe and his team, mainly in the Colombia office, and Lumni has no doubt been a source of inspiration as a person and as a potential entrepreneur (Felipe is also from my home city, Barranquilla, so that makes the role modelling effect even more special).

Felipe has also been a supporter of my MBA cause :-) ... besides all the cheering when I took the decision and in all my GMAT "calvary", his short lines every now and then were key to keep going. In absence of resources to pay for an admissions consultant as many people do, I`ve leveraged on key entrepreneurs from the Endeavor Colombia network such as Felipe to help me facing different levels of the admimission process. Felipe for instance mocked my BABSON interview and it was fantastic to get his feedback, it was no doubt very useful and I`ll never forget how such a busy person took time on a weekend to sit down with me over Skype to help me on this. Last but not least Felipe has recently acted as one of my recommenders for a OAS Scholarship also to fund the MBA at BABSON, scholarship where I`m already in the last round of 8 finalists (out of more than 140) in Colombia.

Maybe on of the coolest experiences with Lumni has been the one when they opened the door to me to deliver a trainning on "Communications" for a group of students of one of its funds: VENTANAS. The story is very funny, originally Lumni requested me as its Endeavor Key Account Manager to get one of our (very senior) Entrepreneur Mentors to deliver this trainning. For some reasons, the Mentors we approached were not available at this date and I simply volunteered myself to do it with the surprise that they accepted. Here are some pictures of that day.

Something that not many people know, is that by that time I was also in the process to open my "already closed" restaurant Sizzlers (we opened from Jan 2010 to Dec 2011), in Bogota. I remember that I hired two guys that I met at this training that were studying culinary with support of Lumni. The two students worked couple of weeks with me to help us gather key information for the business plan of the restaurant. We did not work longer since in the end we came to the conclusion that their time was very limited (actually one of them worked at the Lumni Colombia office as well).

I really hope to keep in touch with Felipe and his incredible model despite my incoming move from Endeavor! And thanks again for everything!

The doors from hell and heaven

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:20:00 +0000

The Zen master Hakuin is one of the rare flowerings. A warrior came to him, a samurai, a great soldier, and he asked "Is there any hell, is there any heaven? If there is hell and heaven, where are the gates? Where do I enter from? How can I avoid hell and choose heaven?"

He was a simple warrior. A warrior is always simple; otherwise he cannot be a warrior. A warrior knows only two things, life and death--his life is always at stake, he is always gambling; He is a simple man. He had not come to learn any doctrine. He wanted to know where the gate was so he could avoid hell and enter heaven. And Hakuin replied in a way only a warrior could understand.

What did Hakuin do? He said, "Who are you?"
And the warrior replied, "I am a samurai."

It is a thing of much pride to be a samurai in Japan. It means being a perfect warrior, a man who will not hesitate a single moment to give his life. For him, life and death are just a game. He said, "I am a samurai, I am a leader of samurais. Even the emperor pays respect to me."

Hakuin laughed and said, " You, a samurai? You look like a beggar."

The samurai's pride was hurt, his ego hammered. He forgot what he had come for. He took out his sword and was just about to kill Hakuin. He forgot that he had come to this master to ask where is the gate of heaven, to ask where is the gate of hell.

Hakuin laughed and said, "This is the gate of hell. With this sword, this anger, this ego, here opens the gate." This is what a warrior can understand. Immediately he understood: This is the gate. He put his sword back in its sheath.

And Hakuin said, "Here opens the gate of heaven."

Hell and heaven are within you, both gates are within you. When you are behaving unconsciously there is the gate of hell; when you become alert and conscious, there is the gate of heaven.

SPANISH VERSION ...

Un guerrero samurai, fue a ver al Maestro Zen Hakuin y le preguntó:

"¿Existe el infierno? ¿Existe el cielo?
¿Dónde están las puertas que llevan a ellos?
¿Por dónde puedo entrar?

Era un guerrero sencillo. Los guerreros siempre son sencillos, sin astucia en sus mentes, sin matemáticas. Sólo conocen dos cosas: La vida y la muerte. Él no había venido a aprender ninguna doctrina; solo quería saber dónde estaban las puertas, para poder evitar el infierno y entrar en el cielo. Hauikin le respondió de una manera que sólo un guerrero podía haber entendido.

¿Quién eres?", le preguntó Hakuin.

"Soy un samurai, le respondió el guerrero, hasta el emperador me respeta".

Hakuin se rió y contestó "¿Un Samurai, tú? Pareces un mendigo".

El orgullo del samurai se sintió herido y olvidó para que había venido. Sacó su espada y ya estaba a punto de matar a Hakuin cuando éste dijo:

"Esta es la puerta del infierno. Esta espada, esta ira, este ego, te abren la puerta".

Esto es lo que un guerrero puede comprender. Inmediatamente el samurai entendió. Puso de nuevo la espada en su cinto, conmovido, se inclinó con humildad y con voz honesta y profunda dijo:

-Maestro, muchas gracias, tus palabras tocaron mi alma. La rabia, el miedo y la arrogancia son mi infierno.

El maestro lo miró fijamente y le dijo:

"Aquí se abren las puertas del cielo."

No son las palabras de los otros las que te envían al cielo o al infierno, es el significado que les das.

Las palabras pueden contener emociones, pero tú decides si las aceptas y cuanta importancia tienen para ti.

Cuando eliges la rabia, la arrogancia o el miedo, estas escogiendo el dolor, el juicio y el aislamiento, tanto para ti como para quienes te rodean.

Nuestros maestros y nuestras lecciones se encuentran con frecuencia en las personas o situaciones más inesperadas.

La persona más difícil o la situación más adversa pueden ser los maestros que te recuerden que en este instante puedes elegir estar en el cielo o en el infierno.

Babson students and entrepreneurship on the World Stage

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 02:34:00 +0000

Talking Metrics: Is Standardization a Dream? | Blog | NextBillion.net | Development through Enterprise

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:19:00 +0000

Talking Metrics: Is Standardization a Dream? | Blog | NextBillion.net | Development through Enterprise

One of the most inspiring thoughts ever

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:05:00 +0000

There are moments in time when we realize the untapped potential of those with whom we come in contact. Tapping their potential often releases our own.

Taken from The “Bad Boy” Poet
http://www.rdiconnect.com/blogs/rdi-community/archive/2011/02/28/competence-the-antidote-for-everything-the-quot-bad-boy-quot-poet-by-rachelle-sheely-phd.aspx

Documentray on IIT on an American TV Channel. MUST SEE FOR ALL IITIANS.avi

noreply@blogger.com (Oriana Torres) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 12:54:00 +0000

Thanks to a current BABSON MBA student I got access to this VERY REVEALING, SHORT video about IIT grads and IIT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institutes_of_Technology)

As a colombian who has lived in India, with very special indian friends, and passionate for not only education but also for the capacity to understand our own passions and turn them into dreams, I can`t deny that this video was a perfect food for thought. Specially last weekend we were talking with my husband about this ...

I won`t generate much personal opinion right now, I`ll rather want to share the video and key highlights that called my attention:

"IIT grads are INDIA`s most valuable export"
"Exam to get in is so hard, that school kids for the two last years of high school go to prep classes from 4 to 8 a.m."
"A good % of IIT grads become Entrepreneurs: students say it`s a matter of CONFIDENCE"
"The year (all costs) costs 700 USD - it`s subsidized by the government"
"The 2nd option or B Plans for some students who apply to IIT is a US IB league university, - and if they get in, they get scholarships"
"2/3 of grads go to the US"
"For India, rather than a problem, the previous fact is a stimulus to work harder to make them come back"

The air to me right now smells like discipline, excellence, resilience ... it`s just inspiring. I know this is not a black or white topic, I know that controversy is also in the air. I know there are deeper analysis to be done. Yet, what an example for countries like mine.

I promise i`ll write more.