Age and Entrepreneurs

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These days in the startup world, the entrepreneur is imagined as young and fresh-faced, straight out of college with some brilliant idea and a hip new company.  However, that doesn’t mean that age really has anything to do with a successful company, and people have tried to figure out correlations between an entrepreneur’s age when they launched their startup and whether or not said startup was successful.  Studies have been done by numerous foundations, institutions and universities.  What they have discovered is that the average entrepreneur is 40 when they launch a startup.  People over the age of 55 are twice as likely as people under 35 to launch a high-growth startup, and the average age of a successful startup with over $1 million in revenues was 39.  Ultimately, age was less of a factor in entrepreneurial success than previous startup and industry experience.

The age that successful entrepreneurs launched their companies is wide indeed, ranging from 20 (Facebook and Microsoft) to 53 (McDonald’s).  While experience is a key factor to success, it’s not required; just look at Facebook, Microsoft and Apple (none of these founders were older than 21).  The most important factor for success seems to be how invested you are in the business and how passionate you are about it.  Nonetheless, many investors will be reluctant to invest in a first-time CEO, as they tend to make a lot of mistakes.  However, there are plenty of exceptions to this rule; the largest Harry Potter fan site, Mugglenet, was founded by a 12 year-old, yet has over 10 million unique visitors a month.

While age might not necessarily matter for entrepreneurial success, experience does, and that comes with age.  Smart entrepreneurs who might lack experience could benefit from surrounding themselves with experienced mentors.

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Success With Generation Z

George T. Wittman’s latest blog post

There’s been a lot of talk about millennials these days, as they graduate from college, go out into the workforce and make a name for themselves.  Businesses have been working to accommodate these millennials, but a truly mindful entrepreneur will be looking even more toward the future, to the so-called “Generation Z”.  I recently came across an article about how businesses can prepare to accommodate and profit from this new generation.  This is especially important, since many of them are starting to come of age as consumers.  One big thing that the article focused on was the importance of online shopping, but there were other points that they addressed.

One thing that the author pointed out was that Generation Z will most likely not have any brand loyalty.  They tend to lean toward companies with superior goods and services, and tend to rely more on their peers’ opinions and recommendations than ads.  While this is problematic for big companies with multi-million-dollar marketing budgets, it’s good news for smaller companies.  The article discusses some of the good business strategies for people trying to get Generation Z on their side.

More so than Millennials, Generation Z will be completely reliant on social media and mobile devices for content consumption, browsing, shopping and interaction with friends.  Because of this, your business strategy needs to focus on this market.  This will include having a mobile-friendly website and a good strategy that will consistently engage with customers through social media.

If you can create a value in your products through superior-quality design and manufacturing, this will elevate the reputation of your company, which is an important attribute to Generation Z.  It won’t be enough any more to create value just through branding, since they will see through this and ultimately call you out.

Generation Z will demand that companies be honest and transparent with them.  Between social media a peer reviews, companies won’t be able to hide from negative press or controversies.  Rather, they should be ready to face these challenges head-on with a well thought out, expedited strategy for dealing with the inevitable conflicts.

What’s unique about Generation Z is that they appreciate individuality while also placing a great emphasis on group acceptance.  It’s a complicated balance, that baffles plenty of people.  Nonetheless, you have to learn to use it.  Embrace new and unique tastes to help your company connect better with this generation.  Your company should think about hiring and listening to individuals from his generation as part of your marketing (when they’re old enough).

You should never assume that the same conveniences of your generation will be enough for Generation Z.  They’ll be demanding the convenience to browse, shop and receive customer service through mobile and social media channels, so that your strategy, whether it’s marketing, operations or human-resource management, needs to keep it in mind.

The collection and use of extensive data has been a big topic recently.  While plenty of companies regularly collect and use customer data to tailor shopping experiences, Generation Z will be a lot more tech-savvy, with a better understanding of how to control the data that they share.  Because of this, businesses will need to respect privacy to a greater extent, otherwise they could risk losing customers to other companies who will.

One example of a successful company working to take advantage of younger generations is Under Armor.  When they started, their goal was to overtake Nike as the top sporting goods company, which was no easy task.  Instead of trying to compete with them head-to-head, Under Armor instead went after youths who had not yet developed a brand loyalty to Nike.  By aggressively going after youth sports, then growing with their consumers to help supply college teams and eventually professional sports teams, they nurtured a large and loyal base of customers, while also making exceptional products.  Many businessmen are concerned about the challenges that Generation Z will pose, but companies with the patience to deal with them properly will benefit greatly from it.

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Argentina Welcomed Home

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Despite its loss on Sunday, the next day Argentina’s team was welcomed home the next day by thousands of fans celebrating their home country’s performance in the World Cup final.  The team arrived in Buenos Aires on a plane painted with images of the players and large sign reading: “Thank you Argentina”.  They were greeted by a horde of emotional fans wearing the white and sky-blue striped jerseys of their national team, who flooded the road leading from the airport to the football association complex.

The Argentine soccer team.

President Kirchner personally greeted the players, and praised them for “courage, passion and bringing everything you have and more to the field”.  While Lionel Messi seemed upset about the loss, he was appreciative of the positive feedback.  Messi, along with everybody else, still made some great strides in being able to bring their team to the finals.  It seems like every time Argentina plays in the finals, they’re up against the Germans.  The last time they made it to a final in 1990, they lost to West Germany.  Four years before that, they had beaten the Germans in the final.

After Sunday’s final, thousands of sad but proud Argentines gathered at the Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires to applaud their team’s exceptional World Cup performance.  While the gathering was originally peaceful, violence broke out later that night, forcing riot police to use tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse vandals that destroyed store fronts, tore down street lights, threw rocks and broke into buildings.  According to National Security secretary Sergio Berni, 120 people were arrested Sunday night.  The Buenos Aires emergency medical services reported on 70 people were treated for injuries on Monday, including 15 police officers.

Despite Argentina’s recent troubles, such as one of the highest inflation rates in the world, an encroaching debt crisis and a deep corruption scandal, the shot at the World Cup final was able to unite Argentines.  Kirchner, whose approval rating has been plummeting in recent months, kept a low profile during the tournament.  She declined an invitation to attend the final match, preferring instead to rest in anticipation of a Tuesday summit with leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Lionel Messi Disappointed

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As his final act in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Lionel Messi lifted a free kick over the bar, wasting his home country’s last chance to tie against Germany.  This was no good finish for the four-time world player of the year.  Much in the same way that the 1986 World Cup belonged to Argentina’s Diego Maradona, this was supposed to be Messi’s World Cup.  However, after carrying his team through the group stage with four goals, Messi seemed to have lost his touch.  In the final match on Sunday, he had some chances but lacked the finishing touch to turn the game for Argentina.  As he collected the trophy for the tournament’s best player in the aftermath of the 1-0 loss, his face screamed disappointment.

While Lionel Messi was strong at the beginning of the World Cup, his strength and power seemed to fade with time.

While Messi has won almost everything there is to win playing with club team Barcelona, many people think a World Cup title is what he needs to be considered one of soccer’s all-time greats.  Through the group stage, Messi stood out in a mostly mediocre Argentine team, garnering goals against Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran and Nigeria.  While his early playing was exceptional, his skill started to wane as the tournament went on.  His impact was minimal in the Swiss game until extra time.  Against Belgium, he helped Argentina maintain possession of the ball as the Belgians tried to level the score.  In semifinal against the Netherlands, however, he struggled to find any space, since Nigel de Jong kept him firmly in his sight.  Besides a few runs and skillful passes against Germany, he ultimately didn’t have a very big impact on the final.

Pope Francis Interview

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Pope Francis has done a lot on “rebranding” the public perception of the Catholic Church, speaking out against frivolous spending and breaking down security protocols to be closer to his followers.  Just a day after hosting a peace talk with Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the Vatican, he granted an interview to the newspaper “La Vanguardia”, the first ever to a Spanish daily.  In the interview, he reaffirmed his criticism of the current economic system that he says worships the “God of Money” and “discards” men and women.  He acknowledged the risks he takes by breaking Vatican security protocol, but stresses that he doesn’t want to be separated from his followers by a “sardine can”.

Pope Francis waving at at followers

According to the Pope, violence in the name of God is a contradiction that simply “doesn’t belong” in our era.  This is interesting to hear from the head of the Catholic Church, an institution that previously sponsored such horrible actions as the Crusades, the Inquisition and Thirty Years’ War.  But Pope Francis acknowledged this, stating that such actions are “unthinkable” in the modern age.  Religion has caused us, according to Francis, to reach some serious contradictions, such as fundamentalism.  Francis has turned down the “revolutionary” title that many have given him since he’s taken office, claiming that his process has just been to go back to the “roots” of Catholicism and see how it’s relevant in the modern age.

In regards to breaking security protocols, Francis recognizes that his actions put him at risk, but also accepts that something like that is in God’s hands.  In Brazil, they arranged for Francis to greet people in a closed Pope Mobile, but reaching people behind a glass building isn’t a good way to tell them that he loves them.  True, it’s possible that something could happen to him, but the 77 year-old religious leader doesn’t have too much to lose at this age.

Seeing starving children in this day and age is a shock to many people, who find it hard to understand.  Francis has taken every chance possible to criticize the modern economic system, saying that people worship the “money god”.  More and more younger people are unemployed.  Francis has expressed his displeasure that the current economic system is “discarding” the younger generation to keep up.

The entire interview with Francis was published today both online and in print.  When the reporter asked Francis how he wanted to be remembered, Francis said that the had “not thought” about it, although being remembered as a “good guy”, who did what he could and wasn’t that bad at what he did would be just fine with him.

Situation Escalates in Iraq

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In the past couple years, there hasn’t been that much news about the situation in Iraq; indeed, it seemed like everything had stabilized.  However, in the past couple weeks, the region has once again turned into a battleground, as a militant Sunni group operating out of Syria, known as ISIL, has seized a large chunk of western Iraq in a lightning sweep south toward the capital of Baghdad.  Their ultimate goal is to recreate a medieval caliphate carved out of fragmenting Syria and Iraq.  In response, Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has urged his followers to take up arms and defend themselves against the advance of Sunni militants.  People who are capable of carrying arms, said al-Sistani, should volunteer, to join security forces and repel the terrorists from Iraqi soil.  Those killed while fighting ISIL militants would be hailed as martyrs.

ISIL miltants marching.

Yesterday Obama threatened military strikes against ISIL, highlighting the danger that this group, who have threatened to redraw borders in an oil-rich region, pose.  In the chaos, Kurdish forces have taken control of Kirkuk, an oil hub just outside of their enclave that they have long viewed as their traditional capital.  Just yesterday, after seizing Mosul and Tikrit, ISIL entered two towns in the province bordering Iran.  The two towns, Saadiyah and Jalawla, had fallen to the Sunni insurgents after government troops fled their positions.  In response, the Iraqi army fired artillery shells at Saadiyah and Jalawla from the nearby town of Muqdadiya, sending dozens of families fleeing towards Khaniqin, near the Iranian border.

Yesterday, Obama said that he was considering “all options” to support Iraq’s Shi’ite-dominated central government that took full control after the end of US occupation back in 2011, a full eight years after the Americans entered the region.  In response to a question about air strikes, Obama said he isn’t ruling out anything, due to the need to make sure that these jihadists don’t gain a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria.  Nonetheless, US officials said that US ground forces would not be returning to Iraq.  This incident marks a rapid escalation in a conflict that is threatening civil war and the potential break-up of Iraq.

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Young Billionaires

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Amassing a multi-billion-dollar fortune is no easy task; it requires the perfect amount of skill, talent and sheer dumb luck to accomplish, and very few people have succeeded.  However, I recently came across an article discussing the 9 youngest billionaires.  One of the most well-known of these is Mark Zuckerberg, the 29 year-old founder and CEO of Facebook, whose net worth is approximately $28.5 billion.  That’s just a few billion shy of the net worths of Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both of whom are only in their early forties.  The number of young billionaires is growing, and while some of them inherited their fortunes, many of them are hard at work amassing their fortunes.

Mark Zuckerberg, whose astounding fortune only continues to grow.

Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook, sued Zuckerberg after not being given credit for it.  Thanks to a generous settlement, he is still a part owner of the company, and his wealth is estimated at around $4 billion.  Also tied in with the Facebook fortune is Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster who invested in Facebook, and Dustin Moskovitz, who worked on the site in its early stages with Zuckerberg before leaving to start the software company Asana.  Another tech billionaire is Robert Pera, who founded Ubiquiti Networks in 2011 after working at Apple.  Ubiquiti went public in October 2011 and made Pera a billionaire.  However, in the volatile stock market, Pera’s fortune rises and falls on a regular basis.

Fahd Hariri, with a net worth of $1.2 billion, is the son of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.  Taking a large inheritance left to him by his father, he expanded on it through construction, real estate and investments.  His brother, Ayman Hariri, also used his inheritance money to work in the construction division as a board member of a construction, telecom and real estate conglomerate known as Saudi Oger.  Another young billionaire who inherited his fortune is the German prince Albert von Thurn und Taxis, who used his sizable fortune to invest, and is worth around $3.8 billion.  Other inherited billionaires include Scott Duncan, the son of energy tycoon Dan Duncan, and Yang Huiyan, the daughter of real estate mogul Yeung Kwok Keung.

 

Ukraine Breakthrough?

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According to a recent article, Putin has called on pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine to postpone a vote on secession just five days before it was supposed to be held.  This could potentially pull Ukraine back from being dismembered.  This was the first sign that Putin has given that he would refuse to endorse a referendum planned for Sunday by pro-Russian rebels seeking independence for two provinces with 6.5 million people and roughly a third of the country’s industrial output.  This appears to be a major breakthrough in what many are calling the worst case of Russian/Western tension since the Cold War; Putin also announced that he was pulling troops back from the Ukrainian border.  Since fighting in Ukraine began, Moscow has assembled thousands of troops along the frontier, proclaiming the right to invade Ukraine in an effort to “protect” Russian speakers.

Earlier in the year, hordes of unmarked soldiers entered Ukraine. Many people think that they were secretly operating under the Russian government.

According to Putin, postponing the secession vote would create a chance for dialogue between the Ukrainian authorities and separatists, whose demands range between greater autonomy and outright secession.  He understands where the presence of so many troops on the Ukrainian border are a “concern” for the Ukrainian government, and this is why, according to him, they were relocated to where they traditionally conduct their regular training.  Putin spoke in Moscow yesterday after talks with the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who said the security and rights body was planning to propose a “road map” to defuse the drama in Ukraine.  One pro-Russian separatist leader said that his faction was “considering” Putin’s call to postpone their vote at a meeting of their self-proclaimed People’s Assembly tomorrow.

If what Putin is saying is true, then it could mean a major breakthrough in Russian-western relations.  It could also be a call back to Cold War politics, where the Soviet Union and NATO would be on the brink of war until one faction backed down.  I have lived through the Cold War in the past, and that is in no way something that I want to relive.  However, it looks like that’s what’s happening right here.  I’m also interested to see if the Ukrainian separatists heed Putin’s words, and what will happen if they choose not to.

The Aging Farmer

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The America imagined by Thomas Jefferson was an America of small farmers.  And for a long time, it looked like he was right; the vast majority of Americans lived a rural existence as subsistence farmers well into the 19th century and long after Jefferson’s death.  However, that image has completely changed in the modern era, as America has since turned into a sprawling suburb, and fewer and fewer young people are turning to a profession as farmers.  I recently came across  an article that discusses the surprisingly low number of young farmers in America.

The Census of Agriculture, released every five years by the US Department of Agriculture, discovered that the average age of “principal operators” (the person most responsible for decision-making on farms and ranches) climbed from 57.1 in 2007 to 58.3.  Compare that to 1982, where the average age was 50.5.  Data released just this past week put the average even higher in six states at 60 or older.  Of course, the median age of all American workers, 42.4, is climbing across the board.  By 2020, an estimated 25% of the labor force will be 55 or older.  Nonetheless, the overall trend pales next to the rate that the age of farmers is increasing.  A surprising 10% of farmers and ranchers are currently 75 or older.  This is because farming is a tough business for young people to break into, due to the sky-high costs of prime farmland and necessary equipment such as combines and tractors.  From 2007 to 2012, the number of “beginning farmers” declined 20 percent.  Less than 120,000 of America’s 2.1 million principal operators were younger than 35, and just last month the Agriculture Department announced that $19 million will be set aside for a program designed to help younger farmers and ranchers.

The sad fact is that farming and ranching is hard, back-breaking work.  There are a lot of young people who would like to experience farming, but unless they have land that’s been in their family, then it’s nearly impossible to break into.  According to Michael Duffy, a longtime chronicler of farm demographics who recently retired, the agricultural numbers aren’t nearly as dire as they sound.  Many farms are passed down to younger family members, and many farms are absorbed by larger farms, a process of consolidation that’s been going on for decades.  Duffy also noted that due to advances in technology, there are fewer farmers needed.

There are also opportunities available for younger farmers, such as selling directly to consumers at farmers’ markets.  The operators of large farms are typically younger than those who tend smaller farms.  The average age of an operator with $1 million or more in sales is 55, compared to the average age of 61 for a farmer with $1,000 or less in sales.

Danish Minecraft Experiment Goes Awry

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People have been talking a lot about minecraft since its release some two and a half years earlier.  The independent computer game, developed by Swedish gamers, allows the players to build structures out of 3-D cubes, much like legos.  Despite the game’s minimal graphics, which look like something out of the 1980s, it has become wildly popular thanks to the creative freedom it gives players and its addictive gameplay; as of early February 2014, it has sold over 35 million copies across all platforms.  To give you an idea of how popular this game has become, the Danish Geodata Agency just created the entire country of Denmark in Minecraft at a 1:1 scale.  The painstaking task, one of the biggest Minecraft creations of all time, was made up of about 4 trillion bricks and a whole terabyte of data.  The replica was built using the agency’s 3D elevation model, and was meant to be used as a teaching tool.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark: A scene from the game, after American tanks rolled into “Denmark”.

Despite efforts to protect the structure from outside players, players soon started to blow up this virtual Denmark.  The Danish Geodata Agency had disabled the ability to use the “dynamite” item on their Denmark, but had forgotten to disable another explosive tool in the game, the minecart with the dynamite item.  Players discovered this, and started setting off explosives in several different Danish towns, building American tanks and flags on top of the ruins.  According to Chris Hammeken, spokesman for the Danish Geodata Agency, they have no intentions to reboot Minecraft’s virtual Denmark, since elements being broken down and replaced is a major aspect of the game.  However, if buildings are removed and nothing new is created, then they plan to “occasionally” rebuild minor areas of the map.  However, you can download Minecraft’s Denmark map from the Danish Geodata Agency’s website.  It’s so far gotten over 200,000 downloads.  Hammeken claims that The Danish Geodata Agency is actually “very happy” to see players from around the world “creating fancy nice things” and having fun.