During the holidays, our family went on a road trip out west to ski. One of my sons introduced me to a great podcast series on NPR titled: How I Built This. This is an interview series with innovators and entrepreneurs such as the founders of Patagonia and Clif bar. The driving went quickly because we were able to listen for hours to these interesting interviews.
In my courses, I stress the value of thinking as an entrepreneur within the organization often referred to as an intrapreneur. It is more important than ever to think creatively and to find better ways to do things in this competitive environment. All organizations need to continuously improve. We should all be thinking as if we are self-employed so that we take control of our destiny.
One of my favorite interviews in this series is with Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx. I saw her speak this fall at a conference and she is smart, witty, creative, funny, and extremely charismatic. In fact, I blogged about Sara in this post. You can also listen to a portion of her interview by clicking here.
You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to learn something from these interviews. It is fascinating to learn how they came up with the idea, the obstacles they had to overcome, and the challenges and rewards along the way. So much can be learned from their life experiences.
If you listen to some of these podcasts, let me know what you think.