Blog • The Rebel Entrepreneur Series

ARTICLE 129: If you keep an open mind it will not only strengthen the judgements you make in business, but will make you happier as well.

ARTICLE 128: The world appears to be so divided. Leaders and entrepreneurs challenge their own perspectives, in business and life by looking at

ARTICLE 127: It only takes one person to make or break a brand. Rebel entrepreneurs understand this. They never underestimate the impact a single

ARTICLE 126: Rebel entrepreneurs stand by their integrity. They are unafraid to question conventional wisdom. Crucially, they ask the

ARTICLE 125: To survive, businesses have to change their plans all the time. In business, adaptability is crucial. If you don’t adapt you don’t

ARTICLE 124: Anxiety can follow an entrepreneur at every stage in business. Though they can take practical steps to avoid it, anxiety can rear its head

ARTICLE 123: Psychologists link uncertainty to anxiety. But focusing your attention on the things within your control can be beneficial for your

ARTICLE 122: The phone line went dead. Another no. I had just arrived in the US and the only job I could get was in sales. I was 21 years-old, sitting

ARTICLE 122: If you can offer a solution or a prescription to your customers’ problem, the sale will close itself. Selling is not jamming your foot in

ARTICLE 121: In New York City, there is no shortage of restaurants that serve just one meal. From mac and cheese places to peanut butter

ARTICLE 121: Rebel entrepreneurs live and work by a very straight-forward but effective philosophy: pick one thing and do it well. Rebel entrepreneurs

ARTICLE 120: Over 500 faces were staring up at me, waiting for me to say something. Anything. But I couldn’t even open my mouth. I had been invited

ARTICLE 120: If you know at least parts of your speech off by heart, especially the beginning, then even if you are nervous, you won’t have trouble

ARTICLE 119: A staggering majority of people are unhappy at work. It’s a world-wide epidemic. In the United States, 70% of people hate their jobs. In

ARTICLE 119: A rebel entrepreneur can make their staff feel like they are self-employed but still a vital part of the organisation. Then, together, they can

ARTICLE 118: Social media is an invaluable tool in business. The platform gives entrepreneurs an opportunity to quickly reach a targeted or global

ARTICLE 118: Face to face communication has been proven to be more productive, especially in terms of idea flow. Research shows that an in-

ARTICLE 116: Rebel entrepreneurs know that it all starts with desire! Our brains have been biologically optimised to help us achieve our goals,

ARTICLE 116: Desire plays a huge role in the realisation of a rebel entrepreneur’s path. That primal, all encompassing urge to succeed feeds

ARTICLE 117: The negative orientation of the mind is no longer effective as a survival instinct. It prevents us from achieving our full potential,

ARTICLE 117: Are we predisposed to think negatively? Our first ancestors were hunter-gatherers that were conditioned to yield to negative

ARTICLE 115: When George Nissen came up with the idea for the trampoline, he was 16 years-old. Nissen was watching the acrobats of a circus

ARTICLE 115: Without imagination, invention is impossible. W. Clement Stone famously said “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it

ARTICLE 114: From an evolutionary perspective, children are natural born risk-takers. In the past, they were exposed to more threats and had to

ARTICLE 113: Humans can live without food for three weeks. We can go without water for about three days. But without any air, we’ll die after just

ARTICLE 112: In recent times, anxiety has become an epidemic. According to the World Health Organization, 300 million people around the world

ARTICLE 111: Benjamin Franklin once said: “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.”In any arena in life, time is a precious

ARTICLE 110: In 1964, Norman Cousins was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a debilitating condition that left him in constant pain.

ARTICLE 109: Neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky trained a group of monkeys to know that if they pressed a button ten times they would receive a

ARTICLE 108: Acclaimed pianist Vladimir Horowitz once said that the worst thing for a musician to do was to think about the position of his fingers as he

ARTICLE 107: There was once a CEO who ran a hugely successful company out of a high-rise building in Manhattan. One day, a fuse blew at

ARTICLE 106: When I was a teenager, I had to clean the kitchen after dinner each night. I dreaded the chore until I found a way of making it work for

ARTICLE 105: Two days before his 88th birthday, Clint Eastwood played a round of golf with his friend Toby Keith. Eastwood was scheduled to start

ARTICLE 104: When it comes to getting into the sea, there are two types of people – jumpers and splashers. The splashers enter slowly. They stand

ARTICLE 103: When Michael Jordan was in high school, he didn’t make the basketball team. Instead of taking the rejection personally, he

ARTICLE 102: Amazon have built their brand on the understanding that modern consumers are willing to pay to get what they want as fast as

ARTICLE 101: In 2003, researchers Dholakia and Simonson used eBay to see how customers really respond to discounts. They sold the same album

ARTICLE 100: The average American makes up to 70 choices per day. Choice is a fundamental part of life. While freedom is all about having options

ARTICLE 099: Before the 1950s, athletes and medical experts shared the consensus that running a mile in less than four minutes was a biological

ARTICLE 098: In a feature with NPR, Majorn Bell talks about her time with a boss who micromanaged the company. Bell had to email her

ARTICLE 097: In 1993, Swedish psychologist Anders Ericcson set out to find what makes great performers tick. He was particularly interested in

ARTICLE 096: Stephen King was on a flight from New York to London when he awoke from a frightening nightmare in which he was being held

ARTICLE 095: When Facebook secured funding in 2004, they didn’t have a formal pitch. Instead, they had a media pack which demonstrated the

ARTICLE 094: Investors say no to entrepreneurs for a variety of reasons, and more often than not it’s simply a case of the fit not being right. After all

ARTICLE 093: Investment expert Alicia Syrett maintains that the average investor says no 98-99% of the time, although this figure fluctuates

ARTICLE 092: A recent study by Harvard Business School has found that companies generate more success when the workplace environment is one

ARTICLE 091: Before he studied the flow state, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi had originally set out to determine what makes people happy. He was

ARTICLE 090: When Steven Kotler was 30, he was diagnosed with Lyme disease. His symptoms were so excruciating he spent 90% of his day in

ARTICLE 089: In 2010, Cornell researcher Matthew Brashears set out to determine how human friendships have evolved since the internet

ARTICLE 088: For most, listening does not come easily – not because we’re unintelligent or callous – but because the mechanisms of our brain make

ARTICLE 087: The total length of the human face divided by the distance between the eyes and mouth approximates towards the number 1.618,

ARTICLE 086: Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, likened the figure of an entrepreneur to that of a pilot by stating “Starting a company is like

ARTICLE 085: In a 2012 interview, Malala Yousafzai speaks about the moment she stood up to the Taliban, the terrorist group who had

ARTICLE 084: When it comes to New Year’s Resolutions, only 72% of people continue to honour them after the first week. Six months in,

ARTICLE 083: In 2005, Jessica Witt studied athletes to assess how perceptions can shape reality. After a game, Witt showed them images of

ARTICLE 082: In the 1980s, Italian neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti was studying the brain functions of macaque monkeys when he

ARTICLE 081: In the 1890s, Ivan Pavlov conducted a number of experiments on dogs in which he studied their saliva secretion. Pavlov

ARTICLE 080: I’ve spoken in the past about how a rebel entrepreneur must be psychologically equipped to deal with the challenges presented to

ARTICLE 079: In 1984, John McEnroe exceeded expectations at his final match at Wimbledon, finishing the year with a match record of 82 wins

ARTICLE 078: Over the course of his career, Massaru Emoto was fascinated by the connection between water and human consciousness. Emoto

ARTICLE 077: Acknowledging gratitude is wholly beneficial to the rebel entrepreneur. I’ve spoken in the past about how the practice of giving thanks

ARTICLE 076: In 1957, a patient known to the media as ‘Mr Wright’ was diagnosed with cancer in a California hospital. His tumours were the size of

ARTICLE 075: In 2018, the furniture company Ikea brought two plants to a classroom in Dubai in order to raise awareness for Anti-Bullying Day. The two

ARTICLE 074: Our brains are capable of processing the world around us incredibly fast – faster than we can consciously realize. However,

ARTICLE 073: I was eating a meal recently and noticed tables of people celebrating. When the waiter brought out a cake with burning sparklers to

ARTICLE 072: In 1990, Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler set out to determine how our sense of possession is ingrained into our identity. The

ARTICLE 071: Happiness and control are intrinsically linked, but how does this knowledge play out in the business world? Does this mean

ARTICLE 070: When were you happiest? Maybe when you landed your dream job, or when ‘the love of your life’ finally asked you out. Maybe it was a

ARTICLE 069: Most people are born with a powerful instrument that is completely unique to them – their voice. When our vocal cords vibrate

ARTICLE 068: A 2013 report by Gallup found that only 30% of employees feel inspired at work. It is estimated that this lack of engagement results in

ARTICLE 067: A study conducted by LinkedIn found that 85% of jobs are secured through networking as opposed to traditional application

ARTICLE 066: When Katharine Hepburn was a child she would take an ice bath every morning and swim regularly in the Long Island Sound. The

ARTICLE 065: “A goal should scare you a little and excite you a lot.” – Dr Joe Vitale. If your goal is too easy, it won’t excite you. Your goals have to

ARTICLE 064: For years, many have claimed that their success is due to the power of ‘manifestation’. In The Secret, Rhonda Byrne claimed that if you

ARTICLE 063: Can money buy happiness? In a study published in Psychological Science, Kathleen Vohs found that when people are

ARTICLE 062: When I finally got 3D4Medical off the ground, external investors and venture capitalists started showing interest. They’d get in

ARTICLE 061: When my business partner Niall Johnston and I got up and running, we visited many investors, to demonstrate the virtues of our

ARTICLE 060: I spent most of my adolescence in detention. From a young age – even though I was considered ‘clever’ – I was constantly getting in

ARTICLE 059: It is thought that the sauna was first invented by the Finns over 2,000 years ago before they travelled and brought it to the Americas in

ARTICLE 058: Navy SEALs get up at 04:30 AM every morning for a gruelling physical session. As the sun rises, a SEAL will complete a body-building

ARTICLE 057: Dr Seuss’ children’s book Green Eggs and Ham was brought to life following a bet between Seuss and his publisher Bennett Cerf.

ARTICLE 056: In 1964, Harvard psychologist Robert Rosenthal teamed up with school principal Lenore Jacobson in a study that would gauge the

ARTICLE 055: Sigmund Freud once said “Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier

ARTICLE 054: Money was my motivation in my early days as an entrepreneur. In hindsight, this was the single biggest mistake I made in my

ARTICLE 053: In 1920, psychologist John Watson wanted to test the extent to which humans can be conditioned to feel irrational fear. Watson had

ARTICLE 052: When I was in my early twenties, I worked as a salesman for a company that raised money for the Catholic Church in California. I didn’t

ARTICLE 051: Artificial intelligence is transforming the world we live in every day whether you are aware of it or not. As new strides in technology

ARTICLE 050: In a 2011 study, “Do Nice Guys – And Gals – Really Finish Last?” Notre Dame Professor Timothy Judge found that agreeable

ARTICLE 049: Elon Musk – who identifies as an “introverted engineer” – has spoken in the past about how he had no choice but to overcome his

ARTICLE 048: David Steindl-Rast once said “It is not happiness that makes us grateful, it is gratefulness that makes us happy.” Steindl-Rast is

ARTICLE 047: Great businesses sell products that solve their customers’ pain. The reasoning behind this model for success is psychological. Humans,

ARTICLE 047: In 1870, Josephine Cochran enjoyed a busy social life, and would host dinner parties for her friends from her home in Illinois.

ARTICLE 046: A lack of sleep wreaks havoc on our physical and mental well-being, and yet humans are the only mammals to deliberately

ARTICLE 046: Amnesty International lists deliberate sleep deprivation as a form of torture, and those who have been subjected to it support

ARTICLE 045: When realtors host open viewings they invite potential buyers to imagine themselves living in the house. They get rid of clutter, brew a

ARTICLE 045: Rebel entrepreneurs understand a fundamental truth about sales – the product itself doesn’t seal the deal but the experience that goes

ARTICLE 044: Rebel entrepreneurs must prove their viability if they want to maintain their potential investors’ interest, and secure the funding. In 1997

ARTICLE 044: When it comes to fundraising it is critical to not only communicate your adaptability and the viability of your product, but to prove the

ARTICLE 043: In 1956, researchers at Swathorne College set up a simple study to determine the extent to which humans are influenced by others.

ARTICLE 043: A rebel entrepreneur, on the other hand, will take opinions into consideration, but they will not override their own self belief. They are