Best Business Moves from Breaking Bad

Walter White's 5 Most Badass Business Moves in 'Breaking Bad'

August 8, 2013

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227744

Slide 1 of 5

Walt intimidates Tuco

In the first season, Walt's partner in the meth business, Jesse Pinkman, has a line on a major buyer for their product who could take their business to the next level. Unfortunately, the buyer, Tuco Salamanca, is a psychopath who refuses to pay upfront for the product and beats Jesse so badly that he winds up in the hospital. Walt, who previously wanted nothing to do with the distribution side of the business, is forced to confront Tuco himself, adopting the pseudonym "Heisenberg."

When Tuco laughs off his demand, Walt detonates a chunk of fulminated mercury, which Tuco mistook for meth, blowing out the top floor of the drug dealer's headquarters. Impressed as much by Walt's "balls" as by his high-quality product, Tuco agrees to buy two pounds of meth a week from Walt and Jesse.

Lesson: Sometimes you have to do things yourself instead of delegating. And when pitching an important client, don't take no for an answer.
 

Slide 2 of 5

Walt delivers the goods

In the second season, Walt and Jesse's crooked lawyer, Saul Goodman, puts them in touch with a major distributor named Gustavo Fring. Fring has doubts about Jesse, who is in a downward spiral from drug use due to a friend's death at the hands of rival drug dealers. Nevertheless he offers to buy a few dozen pounds of Walt and Jesse's meth for $1.2 million, but gives them only one hour to deliver the goods.

Walt rushes to Jesse's house, where the drugs are stashed, only to receive no answer when he rings the doorbell and calls Jesse's phone. He breaks in and finds Jesse and his girlfriend catatonic from injecting heroin. He manages to rouse Jesse long enough to find out where the meth is hidden. While scrambling to meet Fring's deadline, Walt learns via text message that his wife, Skyler, is about to give birth. With no time to spare, he makes the hard choice, earning the $1.2 million and missing the birth of his daughter.

Lesson: Make sacrifices when necessary to meet your stretch goals -- although you should probably be present at the birth of your child.
 

Slide 3 of 5

Walt protects Jesse

In the third season, Jesse discovers that Tomás, the kid brother of his new girlfriend, is the one who killed his friend. The boy is being used by drug dealers who work for Gus Fring. Jesse announces a rash plan to murder the dealers in revenge. Walt advises against it, but is rebuffed.

He goes to Gus, and together they organize a reconciliation between Jesse and the dealers. Gus says he will stop using children in his criminal enterprise. But then Tomás is found dead, apparently murdered by the dealers. Jesse goes to confront them, gun in hand. Just as a shootout is about to begin in the middle of the street, Walt appears out of nowhere, smashing into the dealers with his car. He kills them both, one in the collision and the other with the dealer's own gun, while Jesse looks on, not believing his eyes.

Lesson: Have your partner's back. Be there when the strain of work gets to be too much for him or her.
 

Slide 4 of 5

Walt blows up Gus

Walt's relationship with Gus deteriorates in the fourth season following his murder of the dealers. Gus, however, is forced to keep him around as a chemist while he grooms Jesse, now clean and sober, to replace him.

Matters with Gus grow desperate when the drug lord informs Walt that he is going to eliminate Hank Schrader, Walt's brother-in-law who is an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration [DEA], and that he will kill the rest of Walt's family if Walt intervenes. Scared for their lives, Walt forges an unlikely alliance with the wheelchair-bound Hector Salamanca, Tuco's uncle and a once-powerful member of the Mexican cartel who is a blood enemy of Gus.

Together they trick Gus into believing that Hector is informing on him to the DEA. When Gus shows up at Hector's nursing home to kill him personally, he encounters Walt's surprise: a pipe bomb rigged to Hector's wheelchair. The resulting explosion kills both men, after which Walt storms into the meth lab where Gus's henchman are holding Jesse and frees his partner. They burn down the lab to destroy any evidence. When the dust settles, Walt stands alone as heir apparent to Gus's criminal empire.

Lesson: Think creatively and form alliances to stay ahead of the competition. Eliminate rivals before they eliminate you.
 

Slide 5 of 5

Walt gets away

In the fifth season, Mike Ehrmantraut, formerly Gus's right-hand man, becomes an equal partner in Walt and Jesse's meth business following Gus's death and the freezing of Mike's assets. But he and Jesse, alarmed by Walt's growing volatility and callousness, soon decide they want out. Mike sets up a meeting with a distributor who is willing to buy them out of the meth trade for $5 million apiece. But Walt refuses the deal, preferring to continue cooking.

Mike takes matters into his own hands; he zipties Walt to a radiator so that he can sell their entire supply of raw materials for $15 million without the other man's permission. But Walt frees himself, stripping electrical cord with his teeth and sparking the wires to burn through the ziptie, badly scorching his flesh in the process. Earlier in the episode, after Jesse asks, "Are we in the meth business or the money business?" Walt answers: "Neither. I'm in the empire business." Only now do his partners see just how far he is willing to go to keep his throne.

Lesson: Decide what business you want to be in. And don't let anyone stand in your way as you move forward.
 

8 Cardinal Rules to Succeed as an Entrepreneur

8 Cardinal Rules to Succeed as an Entrepreneur

by Linda Descano

Over the past two years, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with 100+ business owners from different industries and at different stages of growth about what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur. I first shared what I learned at a National Association of Women Business Owners Leadership Conference in Philadelphia last year, and recently dusted off my take-aways, in the form of eight cardinal rules, for a presentation last week. So, here goes in no particular order:

1.      Work on your business, not just in your business. Time and time again, I heard stories from entrepreneurs about how they were so focused on their product or service that they overlooked something important in their finances, in the fine print in legal documents, or in the marketplace. Their lesson learned? Make sure you understand the “business of being in business,” which means to invest your time and energy on the management side of running a business. And, while you definitely should tap experts in accounting, finance, and the law, you need to educate yourself on those issues so that you can provide appropriate oversight.

2.      Keep your personal and business wallets separate. The old adage that business and pleasure don’t mix also holds true when it comes to your business finances. Make sure you set up separate accounts for your business, and handle your business finances in an organized ― not haphazard ― way. When it comes to money, have some in savings and a credit line available to get you through the tough times.

3.      Form an advisory board. Most of the business owners that I spoke with view an advisory board as essential to their success. They use their board compliment their “weak areas” and provide an ongoing, structured means of soliciting feedback. To be effective, make sure your advisory board is made up on people who have different disciplines, backgrounds and life experiences.

4.      Network with intent. Networking is an important activity whether you are a business owner or corporate executive. However, it is particularly relevant for entrepreneurs. Successful business owners view attending functions and joining business organizations as part of the job — it helps you build awareness for your business. And the stronger your personal and professional networks, the easier it will be to deal with decisions and challenges.

5.      Find your “business Iowa”. One of the people I spoke with is Betsy Myers, a successful entrepreneur who today is the Founding Director of Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business. In her book Take the Lead, Betsy shared how a relentless focus on "winning Iowa" by the 2008 Obama for President campaign brought clarity to an organization "under siege" and provided a strategic "filter" for deciding what to do as well as what not to do. So try having a focusing question to create clarity. For the Obama campaign, it was “Will this help us win Iowa?” Then, it becomes easier to make trade-offs. Keep distractions at bay and keep your eye on the ball.

6.      Remember that not all money is created equal. You need to know when and how to raise capital, (both equity and debt), and how to wisely put your money to work on things that adds value. You should be spending as much time researching what investors and lenders want as you spend understanding what your customers want. Understand the approach that angel investors take versus mezzanine debt investors. The more you know, the better positioned you will be to tap the capital markets and make the appropriate asks.

7.      Plan, plan, and then plan some more. Most business owners spend a lot of time planning before they take the plunge and start a business. That makes sense. But, the need to plan doesn't stop when your business is up and running. You need to still need to plan for business cycles, life events, retirement, and more.

8.      Evolve and adapt to thrive. The business owners I spoke with were always doing research and speaking to customers, partners, and more. They leverage all types of resources to stay inspired and bring a fresh perspective to their work. A great business starts with a solid business plan and a clear picture of what you bring to the market and what problem you are solving for your client or customer. Then, a great business keeps evolving and adapting.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130520135600-34334392-8-cardinal-rules-to-succeed-as-an-entrepreneur

9 Career Tips You Need to Know in Your 20's

Here are some great tips on how to get your career started off on the right foot while you are young. If you like these check out the full article on Forbes.com!

You’re Talented, But Talent is Overrated - Congratulations, you may be the most capable, creative, knowledgeable & multi-tasking generation yet. As my father says, “I’ll Give You a Sh-t Medal.” Unrefined raw materials (no matter how valuable) are simply wasted potential. There’s no prize for talent, just results. Even the most seemingly gifted folks methodically and painfully worked their way to success.
Pick Up the Phone – Stop hiding behind your computer. Business gets done on the phone and in person. It should be your first instinct, not last, to talk to a real person and source business opportunities. And when the Internet goes down… stop looking so befuddled and don’t ask to go home. Don’t be a pansy, pick up the phone.
Don’t Wait to Be Told What to Do – You can’t have a sense of entitlement without a sense of responsibility. You’ll never get ahead by waiting for someone to tell you what to do. Saying “nobody asked me to do this” is a guaranteed recipe for failure. Err on the side of doing too much, not too little.
You Should Be Getting Your Butt Kicked –Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” would be the most valuable boss you could possibly have. This is the most impressionable, malleable and formative stage of your professional career. Working for someone that demands excellence and pushes your limits every day will build the most solid foundation for your ongoing professional success.
People Matter More Than Perks – It’s so trendy to pick the company that offers the most flex time, unlimited meals, company massages, game rooms and team outings. Those should all matter, but not as much as the character of your founders and managers. Great leaders will mentor you and will be a loyal source of employment long after you’ve left. Make a conscious bet on the folks you’re going to work for and your commitment to them will pay off much more than those fluffy perks.
Map Effort to Your Professional Gain – You’re going to be asked to do things you don’t like to do. Keep your eye on the prize. Connect what you’re doing today, with where you want to be tomorrow. That should be all the incentive you need. If you can’t map your future success to your current responsibilities, then it’s time to find a new opportunity.
You Need At Least 3 Professional Mentors – The most guaranteed path to success is to emulate those who’ve achieved what you seek. You should always have at least 3 people you call mentors who are where you want to be. Their free guidance and counsel will be the most priceless gift you can receive.
Pick an Idol & Act “As If” – You may not know what to do, but your professional idol does. I often coach my employees to pick the businessperson they most admire, and act “as if.” If you were (fill in the blank) how would he or she carry themselves, make decisions, organize his/her day, accomplish goals? You’ve got to fake it until you make it, so it’s better to fake it as the most accomplished person you could imagine
Read More Books, Fewer Tweets/Texts – Your generation consumes information in headlines and 140 characters: all breadth and no depth. Creativity, thoughtfulness and thinking skills are freed when you’re forced to read a full book cover to cover. All the keys to your future success, lay in the past experience of others. Make sure to read a book a month (fiction or non-fiction) and your career will blossom.

Check out the full article here

What Inspires Richard Branson?

My professional inspiration has no separation from my personal inspiration: it is people who will stop at nothing to make a positive difference to other people’s lives. I am fortunate to come across quite a few of these game-changing people, and the desire to help (and keep up with them!) is what drives me.

As Steve Jobs famously said: The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” There are lots of these crazy ones hard at work today trying to make the world a better place, but there is always room for more!

Nowadays I spend most of my time working with our not-for-profit foundation, Virgin Unite, and am honoured to work alongside inspirational people taking on challenges from climate change with the Carbon War Room to conflict-resolution with The Elders. In The B Team, we are stimulated by the desire to ensure business has a purpose beyond profit, also focusing upon people and the planet. I think it is all of our responsibility to try and leave the planet in a better condition than we found it.

A good way to find inspiration — and to have a positive impact — is to think about your grandchildren (whether you have any yet or not). What type of world do you want them to inherit? Elsewhere within the Virgin Group, there are countless people who provide endless inspiration, not least the pioneers at Virgin Galactic. The whole area of space exploration can be held up as an example of what can be achieved with action and ambition. I have looked to the stars for inspiration since I was a child, and hope to be inspired by looking back at earth from space one day soon. Back on this planet, there is always another exciting new idea to get my teeth stuck into and find inspiration.

I get a lot of business proposals and they are usually fascinating to hear, as you never know where the next game-changing idea will come from. Yet it is the personal tales of people I meet that are most inspiring. Thanks to social media, I hear plenty more stirring stories from people all around the globe. Often I am more struck by the potential of an individual than their idea. As I said recently, if you find the right people to work with, you can’t go wrong.

If you are creative, then inspiration can come from anywhere. Creators are never fully satisfied. They can always be better. They are determined to change the game for good. I would love to hear what motivates you, too. Where do you find inspiration?

Check out the full article on LinkedIn Today here!

Pittsburgh Conference Video!

Check out our other videos and subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

 

Working in the Post-Recession Economy

Looking to thrive in our new, post-recession economy? Then it’s essential to focus on doing work that it would be near-impossible to program a computer or robot to do.

A fascinating study, published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics in 2012, found that Americans in the creative class — those in jobs such as engineers, artists, scientists, educators and entrepreneurs—  had a lower chance of being unemployed from 2006 to 2011 than those employed in the service sector or working class jobs, such as construction or manufacturing.

Other research has already showed that those with college degrees fared better than those who lack them in the last recession. This study looked beyond education levels alone and drilled down into how the jobs people do and the skills required to do them affected their employment rates.

Having a college degree alone isn’t a vaccine against unemployment, as many recent graduates know all too well. As the study shows, those who are most valued in today’s economy are applying whatever education they have–whether it’s a high school diploma or a graduate degree — to fields that require a high degree of knowledge, creativity and human judgement. The work they do can’t easily be automated.

The study, “The Creative Class and the crisis,” was written by Todd Gabe at the University of Maine, Richard Florida at the University of Toronto and Charlotta Mellander of Jönköping International Business School in Sweden.

Even if you’re self-employed, the conclusions are fascinating and offer a road map to economic relevance in the years to come.

Florida, an expert on urban studies, has called the Great Recession the “Great Reset,” in which the economy made a profound shift toward favoring “knowledge-based creative activities.” The study suggests that many of us need to reset our career planning to reflect this dramatic change.

About 8.4 million jobs in the U.S. disappeared from January 2008 to December 2009, the study notes.
While unemployment rose among all major classes of jobs in the recession, those in the creative class fared the best. They had an unemployment rate of 4.1% in 2010 and 2011, after the recession officially ended, according to the researchers’ analysis of data from the U.S. Current Population Survey. Before the recession, in 2006 and 2007, their unemployment rate was 1.9%, and during the crisis, in 2008 and 2009, their jobless rate was 3%.

In contrast, those in service class jobs, in fields like retail, had an unemployment rate of 9.3% in the post-recession years. They had a 5% unemployment rate before the recession and 6.9% during the recession.

Those in working class jobs in fields such as construction and manufacturing had an unemployment rate of 14.6% after the recession. Before the crisis hit, their unemployment rate was 6.5%. During the recession, it was 11.1%.

Interestingly, those in the creative class had lower likelihood of unemployment than those with the same level of education who worked in service and working class jobs.

For instance, unemployment among college-educated members of the creative classes was 3.2% after the recession, compared to a 5.9% unemployment rate among college grads in service class careers and 8.7% among college grads in working class careers.

Among members of the creative class with no college degree, the post-recession unemployment rate was 5.7%, compared to 10% among service sector workers and 15.1% among counterparts who also had no college degree and had previously been employed in working class jobs.

Some of the hardest hit workers, the authors noted, were employed in fields like construction that suffered severe downturns during the economic crisis or were based in cities that were disproportionately affected by the housing bust.

The authors also pointed out that, prior to the Great Recession, growth of residential and commercial construction fueled expansion of service sector businesses. When the housing market collapsed, that also affected service sector jobs that had taken shape in the housing boom.

But they also point to a structural change in the workplace that will affect many Americans. While companies’ investments in technology in recent years have complemented the work done by problem-solving creative workers, tools like computers did not replace what they do. Technology expanded their reach. However, that was not the case for workers doing routine jobs that entail following rigid corporate instructions repeatedly. Computers and other tech tools began replacing some of the work they do.
The creative class also benefited from another trend that showed up in the worldwide economic crisis: Their work was not as heavily affected by export-related conditions as, say, manufacturing workers’ jobs are. It is more tied to local consumption.

Studies like this have profound implications not just for workers but for both educators and employers.
Many schools still follow an old model focused on preparing workers for an industrial economy. While well-financed private schools and wealthy public school districts have for years offered students classes in disciplines like web design and robotics, many poorly financed schools lag behind them and miss opportunities to ignite students’ interest in fields like this.

We all need to look at what is being taught in the schools in our community and make sure it reflects what students need to know today, not just what mattered 40 years ago. You don’t necessarily need a college degree to excel in a field like web design, yet we do little to promote careers like this among high school graduates who aren’t college bound.

We also need to do more to spread entrepreneurship education, which is ignored in many schools. Many in the creative classes are self-employed or run small businesses, from marketing shops to architecture firms. However, most of us graduate from high school without a clue as to how to run a business, unless we happened to be part of a family that owned one.

Entrepreneurs and other employers also need to keep pace with the changes. The customers of the future will either want products and services that can be purchased at the rock-bottom prices automation allows–or offer something special, that only humans can bring. What types of highly customized service, unique expertise or cutting-edge skills do you have to offer? Many of us need to be able to answer questions like these, or we’ll find ourselves sidelined.

Original article from Forbes.com can be found HERE

3 Signs You're Meant to Be a Leader

Hey Everyone, 

Found this article on Inc.com and thought it made some interesting points on leadership. What do you think?

Not everyone is cut out to be a leader. But if you have these three traits, you might be a natural born leader.

Reading leadership literature (including this column), you'd sometimes think that it was written in the stars that everyone has the potential to be an effective leader. I don't believe that to be true.

In fact, I see way fewer truly effective leaders than I see people stuck in positions of leadership who are woefully incompetent at worst and seriously misguided about their own abilities at best. Part of the reason this happens is a lack of honest self-assessment by those who aspire to leadership in the first place. And so, in the interest of increasing the quality of next-generation leadership, I give you this simple three-point self-assessment tool. To paraphrase a certain comedian, "you might be a potential leader if..."

1) You lead only when you have to, not all the time. We've all met the type of individual who simply must take charge. Whether it's a strategic brainstorming session, a pick-up basketball game, or a family outing, they can't help grabbing the lead dog position and clinging on to it for dear life. Always opinionated, usually impatient and frequently brusque, these gotta-be-in-fronters get so used to other people describing them as natural born leaders that sooner or later--to their own and everyone else's detriment--they begin to believe it. Truth is, they're most always nothing of the sort. True leaders don't presume that it's their divine right to take charge every time two or more people get together. Quite the opposite. A great leader will assess each situation on it's merits, and will only take charge when their position, the situation, and/or the needs of the moment demand it. Oh, and if you read that last paragraph with a sneaking belief that in most situations you are the right person to take charge, you're most likely a gotta-be-in-fronter, not a leader.

2) You see much more than you do. Many business executives confuse leadership with action. These Tasmanian Devils believe that constant motion somehow generates leadership as a byproduct. Consequently, the more ambitious they are for a leadership role, the more furious their momentum becomes. Leaving us mere mortals in their wake, the Tasmanian Devil works harder, faster, longer than everyone else. Faced with any situation that can't be solved by the sheer brute force of activity, they generate a dust cloud of impatience. Their one leadership tool is volume: if they think you aren't working as hard as they are--or as hard as they think you should--their demands become increasingly louder and more strident. You'd think that such a blunt, one-club-fits-all mentality would preclude our action-at-all-costs executive from attaining any degree of seniority in a mature organization, but you'd be wrong. Sadly, many organizations, some of them Fortune 100 companies, encourage just such a chest-beating, fire-aim-ready definition of leadership. True leaders understand the value of action, of course, but it isn't their only tool. In fact, it isn't even their primary tool. Great leaders see more than everyone else: answers, solutions, patterns, problems, opportunities, threats. They know it's vitally important to do, but they also know that thinking, understanding, contemplation and interpretation are equally important.

3) You change people. They achieve outcomes. Executive A hits his targets and burns out his team in the process. Executive B builds a great team, but they miss their goal. Which is the better leader? It's a false dichotomy, and sadly, one that I see in organizations all the time. A true leader is option C: someone who develops his or her team so that they can and do hit their targets, achieve their goals. If you're fixated on outcomes to the extent that you manipulate and bully others to achieve those outcomes (I know, you call it motivation--it isn't), then you aren't leading at all, you're dictating. And don't think this means that being a door mat is leadership either (we talked about the destructive nature of needing to be liked here). True leadership means building strong, capable teams that are goal- achievement-oriented.