Magic Johnson went from running the point and winning five rings to running Corporate America. Magic Johnson Developme

• “Business is business-you have to understand that and have that attitude.  If it were about charity, the business side wouldn’t last long.” 
• “You have to be persistent in business, especially for me because, like I said, doors didn’t just open right away. I almost had to kick them down.”
• “If you’re a competitive person, that stays with you.  You don’t stop.”
• “Research your ideas. See if there’s a demand. A lot of people have great ideas, but they don’t know if there’s a need for it. You have to research your competition.
• “But that is what the balance is. I understand when to give my time just to family, and when to give my time to business.”

Before his passing Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas was one of the most recognizable faces in the world.  Over a 10 year period he made more than 800 commercials in one of the most successful marketing campaigns ever.  Dave has always known what he was going to do with his life, from his first restaurant job at the age of 12 in Knoxville, TN to his duties as a mess hall sargent in the army where he created menus and managed the grill.  After an introduction to Col. Harland Sanders in 1962, Dave was offered a chance to turn around four KFCs in exchange for part ownership.  Six years later he walked away with $1.5 million when the restaurants were sold using the proceeds to launch Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers in Columbus, OH in 1969.  He began franchising Wendy’s in 1973.  To think all of this from a highschool dropout.  I always loved seeing Dave in those Wendy’s spot . . . it was like running into your Granpa (who just always happened to have burngers).  Dave left us with some words of wisdom for life and business:

• “Learn something from everyone and build on it; take what you have learned and make it better.”
• “It’s important to pay people a decent wage and always tell everyone the truth.”
• “People overextend themselve, they do stupid things they can’t afford.  They make money, but they spend more than they make.”
• “I value honesty and integrity, taking responsibility.  I believe in giving back.”
• What brings you joy? “My family (wife Lorraine), five children and 14 grandchildren.  Business.  Profit’s not a dirty word for me.  Giving back doesn’t trouble me they go hand in hand.”
• Success?  “When you’re happy, your successful. . . you’ve got to be happy.”

In 1994 at the age of the 30, Jeff Bezoz came across a report that projected annual web growth fo 2,300 percent.  Within three months the electrical engineering and computer science grad quit his job executive position at a Wall Street hedge-fund and set out cross country with his wife (destination unknown at this point).  Half way through his east to west trip he settled on Seattle, WA as the choice for Amazon.com and also wrote the company’s business plan along the way.  Since its humble internet beginnings in 1995, Amazon has developed into a monstrous cybermall, offering millions of products and accumulating a market capitalization of $34 billion while it peddles everything from music, movies, to video games and gardening tools.  Along the way Jeff has found time to transform the book publishing industry introducing the Kindle, the first wireless e-reader capable of holding some 1,500 books.  With the Kindle Bezoz is looking to do for e-books what Steve Jobs of Apple did to the music industry.  Check out some of Jeff Bezos’s keys to business success:

• Research thorough evaluating the market-which is what he did when looking to choose a location for Amazon.com.  He was looking for a city w/favorable sales-tax climate, a large high-tech workforce, proximity to a major book distribution center.  He thought Portland, OR; Lake Tahoe, NV; Boulder, CO and the winner Seattle, WA.
• Hire very carefully, bringing together a talented and diverse group of individuals.  “Cultures aren’t so much planned as they evolve from the early set of people.  New employees either dislike or like the culture and leave or feel comfortable and stay.  So the culture becomes “self-reinforcing and very stable.
• Be stubborn and flexible.  “If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon.  And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you have been trying to solve.”
• Get good advice-and ignore it.  “Every well intentioned, high judgement person we asked told us not to do it.  We got some good advice, we ignored it, and it was a mistake.  But that mistake turned out to be one of the best things that happened to the company.”
• “A third key component is prioritizing.  Once you have the big vision, you’ll see that there are hundreds of smaller ones, and you need the ability to do brutal triage, to be able to say ‘No, we don’t do this and that and that; we’re going to focus exclusively on these three things.’
• “What's very dangerous, is not to evolve.” 

Russell Simmonsis considered by many as the inventor of hip-hop entrepreneurialism.  His business empire seems to know no bounds.  From Run Athletics, to Def-Jam Enterprises, Phat Farm, Global Grind, UniRush Financial Services and the list goes on.  Everything that Russell has done has been true to his individuality.  He set the paradigm that many have followed including Diddy and Jay-Z.

• As a Soc. student in 1978, Simmons begins promoting rap acts and managing Curtis Walker (aka Kurtis  Blow) and 'those were the breaks'.  A year later he would quit school and launch his parent company Rush Productions.
• In 1982 Russell signs his little brother Joey (aka Rev. Run) and unleashes on the rest of the musical world Run DMC dropping “It’s Like That” in 1983.  Two years later a distribution deal w/CBS makes Def Jam the largest rap label in history.
• In 1991, Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam debuts on HBO launching the comic careers of Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, Chris Tucker, Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Bernie Mac and Cedric the Entertainer among countless others.
• In 1993, Russell unveils men’s clothing line Phat Farm and later women’s lone Baby Phat which he sells for $114 million in 2004.
• Russell produces Eddie Murphy's 'Nutty Professor' in 96 grossing $230 mil. worldwide-he sells his last shares in Def Jam for $100 mil. in 99.
• In 2005, Russell teams up w/ Unifund Corp. to launch UniRush Financial Services and the Rush Visa card.  UniRush now has revenues of more than $1 bil. a year.