Ambiance of Well-Being: Entrepreneurship & Web 2.0

Above is a collage of my recent visit to a class at Neumann College. The course is titled:"STLDR 560 PUBLIC POLICY AND LEGAL ISSUES", however, I was asked to speak on my life experience, my adventures navigating through the M.S. in Strategic Leadership program, and my part-time venture into Entrepreneurship & Web 2.0. Great fun was had by all. It was an energizing and humbling experience. I would like to thank Dr. Frederick D. Loomis, Program Director of the Strategic Leadership program, and the course Professor Seth Williams J.D., who I substituted for because he had to host an event that evening. You see, the Honorable Mr. Williams is also running for District Attorney for the City of Philadelphia. He is not only a great professor, but a dedicated public servant too.

We covered many aspects of the challenges of Leadership, and the fact that the economic crisis we are living through now demonstrates that there is a desperate need for Ethical Leadership. I discussed why I am optimistic about the future. We are going through a transition, and, painful as it seems, we are watching a cleansing of the greed and avarice along with a restructuring of how business is done, and the birth of new industries and paradigms.

You don't have to be in management to be a leader. It is becoming more cumbersome for large corporations to stay at the cutting edge of technology, therefore small businesses and Entrepreneurs are at a technological advantage. So, you may find a leadership position in a large corporation or you can exercise leadership in other ways, such as, being an Entrepreneur.

This is where Web 2.0 comes in. Entrepreneurs will have the advantage over large enterprises when they find the technology gap. When they can offer the intellectual distribution of products and services that people are not aware of yet. Today we are seeing the seeds of two new industries which have explosive potential. The Green economy and the Health and Wellness Industry. I briefly touched on my efforts on doing and learning about a Direct Selling Business and using Network Marketing to promote myself and this business. We talked about the importance of 'List Building', and how to do this with Social Networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. The role of Social Bookmarking sites like De.licio.us, Diigo and StumbleUpon, and how to tie these in with new technologies enriching communication, such as, videos on sites like YouTube, Metacafe and Dailymotion, along with podcasting at sites like PodcastAlley.com and iBizRadio. We finally discussed blogging and how that can be a business in and of itself. As you can see, we covered a lot of information, and created an opportunity to start many threads of discussion going forward.