The MBET Experience

I’m trying to remember if I have ever blogged about an Entre-Nous session. An Entre-Nous is a guest speaker session, where local entrepreneurs and business leaders visit our class and spend a couple hours sharing their stories and discussing their experiences.

On Thursday last week, we had Rick Baker of Baker Investment Group in to talk with us. Baker Investment Group is a holding company for a number of other companies that Rick is involved with. He has successfully built a number of energy companies, and now is working to pass on his knowledge and experience to local businesses in the KW area.

Rick opened his talk with the following six tips for success:

1. Develop your self-confidence.
2. Develop your creativity.
3. Develop your intuition.
4. Listen with a non-judgemental attitude.
5. Plan the work and work the plan.
6. Lead with revenue.

Of these items, two stand out with me. The first is: develop your self confidence. I think that having a belief in yourself is one of the most important things you need to be successful. How are you ever going to succeed if you don’t believe that you can do something? Having confidence that you can accomplish what you set out to do is fundamental to success.

The second item on the list that I liked was lead with revenue. One of the best things I have learned in the last couple years is that there is nothing like having customers and sales to build your business. There’s no better way to validate your business idea than having customers fork over cold, hard cash for your product or service.

Rick went on to share many of his tips and experiences, and we had some great discussions. He even shared a part of the unpublished book he has written based on his business experiences. In my opinion, it was one of the best Entre-Nous sessions that we have had this year, and I look forward to seeing more of Rick around CBET.