Ideas don’t move mountains, people move mountains. People make it happen.

I learnt in life that you would rather invest in a bad business with good people than in a good business with bad people. You can take the best business plans in the world, or the best software, and give it to a bunch of arrogant and lazy know-it-alls, and nothing will happen, or worse. But you can take an average plan, or even no plan at all, and put a bunch of enthusiastic, humble and hungry people together and magic will happen.

One of the biggest myths in business is that it takes a good idea to start a company. Most great ventures start off with no idea. They are labours of love with a strong sense of purpose. What they all have at their core is good people. This is what the fundamentals are all about. Good people and a lot of imagination. As Einstein once said “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. – Winston Churchill

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. – Henry Ford

Let’s just think for a minute about the connection between being smart and making money. The short conclusion, from my perspective, is that there is no connection between being smart and making money. I know many really clever people that are seriously broke, and I am know many dumb clowns that have made fortunes. Of course, I also know many smart people too that have made a lot of money.

Last Christmas I was very far away in some cold parts of the world. I met a lot of different people there and they challenged my ways of thinking and gave me a lot of food for thought. This one person I met, for example, looked so full of life and so intelligent. And I said to him “You could do anything in this world.” And he looked at me and said “But I have no real talents. So what if I am intelligent.”

Yes, there is no connection between being clever and making money. Having something unique for the world, a talent, a gift, an inspired business proposition, a special offering, now that can make money. But being clever means babkas; many stupid people make money and many clever people are dirt poor!

Maybe that is what luck is; maybe luck is about talent. Yes, being born with a talent is indeed lucky! But as I have always said, we can change our luck. Perhaps recognizing your own unique gifts and talents is the first step in becoming luckier. And then, focusing on where you are strong and getting other people to help you where you are weak will also change your luck for the better.

Everyone, in my view, is born with some kind of gift or talent. Use your talents to your advantage; that will indeed make you luckier!

The proper function of man is to live – not to exist. – Jack London

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land. –  Bishop Desmond Tutu

This was an inspired journey with Gus Silber … excited about the next one “Bottled at Source”.

October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. Other dangerous months are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February. – Mark Twain

This is a classic … !