Mr. Hanberg presented an insider’s look at how versatile an entrepreneur must be in order to be successful. He explained how a person must be abreast of new technology and must be always looking for better ways to do things as well as having more than one project going on at a time. Diversity in finding sources of revenue seemed to be an essential part of being successful as a self-employed person. He also emphasized the need for multiplier skills that would help someone to be able to achieve their goals. He said that basic soft skills were essential, like writing, design, marketing, persuasion, multiple languages, psychology, etc. Success or failure can be dependent on one’s ability to communicate effectively.
His work as an author also showed that even beyond being a good writer, a person had to be competent in the technology available with respect to the process of publishing. From profit to non-profit publishing, a writer had to know all the available paths to getting their work published in print or electronically and the costs associated with getting a book published. Finding cheap methods of getting one’s work into the hands of the public are necessary because you could incur a lot of debt without even selling anything. He mentioned some of the downsides of working in the virtual world of the internet, the first being that the work never stops and it goes on regardless of where you are. The second, and most important, is that if you have an online presence, blog, etc., anything that you publish or say will always be there for someone to read. Comments you made in the past, that other people might find offensive when they read them now, in or out of context, could negatively affect what you are trying to accomplish in the present.
