You Gotta Have Instinct

By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News (click here) You Gotta Have Instinct Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers, once said, “Most of entrepreneurship, for me, is about instinct and intuition. Many times I have been asked by someone considering a new venture if he should go for it. But an entrepreneur knows instinctively when to go for it.” Basically Dell was saying you don’t need to ask yourself whether you are cut out to be an entrepreneur. When the time is right, you will do it, and if you let the opportunity slip by, perhaps you were never meant to […]

Yöneticiler İş Aramada Sınıfta Kaldı

Onur Yüksel, Sabah Gazetesi Küresel ekonomik krizin yoğun olarak hissedildiği geçen sonbahardan bu yana hemen her sektörden pek çok çalışan koltuğundan oldu. Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu’nun (TÜİK) verilerine göre yalnızca son bir yılda işini kaybedenlerin sayısı, 1 milyonun üzerinde. Üstelik lokomotif sektörleri birbiri ardına vuran krizden yalnızca alt kademe çalışanlar ya da yeni mezunlar değil, üst kademe yöneticiler de olumsuz etkilendi. Danışmanlık şirketi Human Resources Management’ın kurucu ortağı Aylin Coşkunoğlu Nazlıaka, son krizde işsiz kalanların yüzde 13’ünün birinci kademe yönetici oldukları tahmininde bulunuyor. Bu da yaklaşık 150 bin civarında yöneticinin işinden olduğu anlamına geliyor. Ancak insan kaynakları danışmanlarına göre krizin ortalama […]

Think Well, Perform Well

By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hürriyet Daily News, Think Well Perform Well When I was a child, I loved ballet so much I could dance 24 hours a day.  It came naturally to me, like my body and spirit already knew exactly what to do.  When I danced ballet the world around me disappeared, and I got lost in the moment.  I didn’t think about anything else, I just went with the flow.  It was like second nature. I practiced hour after hour, month after month, year after year.  But my motivation didn’t come just from a desire for success.  My motivation […]

Entrepreneurship Isn’t Always About Money

By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News Richard Branson, the chairman of the Virgin Group, is known not only for the companies he has started, but also for the active and exciting life he leads. Martha Stewart is not just the founder of the Living Omnimedia Group, she also bakes in the kitchen and decorates her beautiful home.  Both of these hugely successful entrepreneurs have followed their passions and become rich because of it.  As leaders of large, global corporations, their responsibilities are huge, but they get to live the colorful and interesting life they set out to create for themselves. […]

If only I had a unique idea

By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hürriyet Daily News When was the last time you used AltaVista? Most people these days have never even heard of it, but AltaVista was the number one Internet search engine before Google burst onto the scene. Back in the day, when you needed to find something on the Web, you went to AltaVista. It was the dominant player. You had to be crazy to go up against it. The founders of Google, however, decided to do just that. They thought they could provide a more capable search technology, so they took something AltaVista had done well, and […]

Act First, Know Yourself Later

By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News These days the world is filled with so-called experts preaching the value of self-knowledge, or prodding us down the path of “personal development”. Whichever paper you read, whichever magazine you flip through, it seems someone is talking about the importance of “knowing yourself” to succeed in life.  Improving ourselves and understanding ourselves better will apparently unlock the secrets to a fuller life where our dreams can come true. I think these people are putting the cart before the horse, though. They are telling us to know ourselves, and then take action.  People are told […]