The title refers to a very good book about what it takes to be an entrepreneur and build a great business. The authors of the book are Anthony Tjian, Richard Harrington and Tsun-Yan Hsieh and the book is called Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck published by Harvard Business Review Press, Boston, Mass, 2012. The authors tried to figure out the basic components of what it means to be an entrepreneur.

The letter in the title refers to luck. Luck matters, it is necessary and the harder you work, the more luck you will have. The reason for this saying is luck is often brought about by the interaction with other people. You are working on something, you talk to other people, you watch internet videos or you are at a conference and listen to other people. Something you heard, makes a connection to your what you are working on. The connection allows you to see forward to a solution. If you had not been working, you would have missed it. In order to be open to luck you needed the right attitude and the right relationships. To have the right attitude you need a mixture of humility, intellectual curiosity and optimism.

Being people we go through a range of emotions daily, we are not always curious or optimistic, there are pressures on us from a variety of sources. Business goes through cycles, sometimes everything we touch is great, sometimes no so great. To staying open to ideas from all sources is a challenge, most of us tend to limit what we read and who we associate with, it is a normal thing. The challenge is to be open to ideas.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when a company is profitable and has been paying dividends for a number of years, its senior people should have a wide number of relationships into the community and business. Most dividend paying companies have a venture capital fund to invest in new ideas, many senior executives serve on boards or committees to broaden their networks, one method is check their social network site. Who are they connected to? If the people at the company are very isolated, unless the company has a monopoly and high barrier entry you might want to find other alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions