Editor's note: Bill Gross, the founder of idealab, gave a great presentation at LeWeb last week reflecting on his 30 years as a serial entrepreneur.
Over his amazing career, which began when he was 12, Bill has founded more than 100 companies in dozens of industries. It seems safe to say that he is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in history.
We asked him Bill if we could publish his slide deck. He kindly agreed and provided us with his commentary.
What follows is a look back at one of the most incredible, under-appreciated runs in the industry in the last 30 years.
Learning from Failure*
Bill Gross, founder of Idealab and more than 100 other companies and one of the world's most energetic, engaging and successful entrepreneurs, recently presented at LeWeb in Paris. He discussed the top dozen lessons he has learned over his exciting, ever-evolving, four-decade career of taking ideas and transforming them into businesses.
An Entrepreneurial Lifer – Starting at Age 12
At age 12, I started my first business: candy arbitrage. In my neighborhood, the candy store sold Snickers bars for 10 cents – but the drug store sold three for a quarter, or 8-1/3 cents for one. I bought lots of Snickers bars for 8-1/3 cents, sold them for 9 cents at the school bus stop, and my small business took off like crazy. It gave me my first great taste of interacting with customers, my first lesson in pricing.
Click here for an extended version of this slide →
The Engine of My Dreams
My high school had a machine shop. In 1973, there was a worldwide energy crisis. To buy gasoline, you had to line up on either odd- or even-numbered days, and you could buy only $5 at a time. I read in Popular Science and Scientific American magazines about how there was some hope to solve the energy problem through solar energy. I dropped out of English Lit and took Metal Shop.
Click here for an extended version of this slide →
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
See Also:
- The 15 Biggest Tech Flops In 2011
- Amazing Pictures Of Real People And Their Avatars
- Scientists May Have Found The 'God Particle' That Makes Physics Work