10 Questions for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

1. Are you willing and able to bear the great financial risk?

2. Are you willing to sacrifice your lifestyle for potentially many years?

3. Is your significant other on board?

4. Do you like all aspects of running a business?

5. Are you comfortable making decisions on the fly with no playbook?

6. What's your track record of executing your ideas?

7. How persuasive and well-spoken are you?

8. Do you have a concept you're passionate about?

9. Are you a self-starter?

10. Do you have a business partner?

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intution. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." --Steve Jobs

Hope is believing in tomorrow because we have learned to see with our hearts.

Courage is standing up and doing the right thing, speaking out on the behalf of others and making a committment to excellence in the face of adversity or the absence of support

High Expectations is believing others can be successful, then telling them so and praising their accomplishments.

Brotherhood/Sisterhood reaches beyond comfortable relationships to extend welcome to those who may be different from oneself.

Friendship binds people together when they take pleasure in each other's company, listen, laugh, and share in good and bad times.

Dependability/Responsibility is being there for others through all the times of their lives, a steady influence making tomorrow a welcome event - showing and encouraging a personal committment to each task.

Nurturing Attitude is characterized by unselfish caring, supportiveness and a willingness to share time.

The Values that Bind

The theme this week is: The Values that Bind Strong Families and Communities

Shine Your Light

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” --Marianne Williamson (often mis-credited to Nelson Mandela)

No Faith, No Substance?

"A spiritual renaissance is what is needed among young African-American people. Any attempt at building racial and cultural institutions in our communities without a spiritual renaissance - a vibrant embrace of faith - will produce symbols but not substance." --Anthony A. Parker

See What You Believe!

"Reality has changed chameleonlike before my eyes so many times that I have learned or am learning, to trust almost anything except what appears to be so."
--Maya Angelou

Full of Purpose

"In my life, if you have a purpose in which you can believe, there's no end to the amount of things you can accomplish." --Marian Anderson

Resources of Time

"In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines our success or failure." --Malcolm X