0816_TOEFL-Test-and-Score-Manual-1997

278 ● 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business
her success relies on new strategies. “The biggest driver of success is talent,”
said Tilton. “You are only as good as the people around you.”
She also believes “you absolutely cannot fix what you cannot face.”
“When you buy a broken company, you are in the abyss, in the darkness,”
Tilton explained. “You need to create the force that levitates you from
the dark abyss into the light.”
As you can imagine, it takes an enormous amount of work to turn
about troubled companies. Her schedule is so demanding, her assistants
have to work in shifts. Most days, she begins with a workout in one of her
four homes. Tilton owns homes in southern New Jersey, South Florida,
Arizona, and Lake Como, Italy. She has a home in Italy to be close to her
Italian company, a 156-year-old maker of large industrial motors and
equipment. It has about 1,500 employees in Italy, France, and Germany.
When she’s working to improve operations, she studies mystical teachings.
“I come from a long line of mystics and scholars,” said Tilton, who has
studied with Mayan Indians, among other spiritual leaders.
So what is her personal recipe for entrepreneurial success?
“It’s a confluence of cash and creativity,” she told me. “Companies die
because they lack innovation.”
GREAT
Mike Bloomberg—Keep It Simple
Michael Bloomberg is a plain-spoken genius whose
IDEA
success inspires all entrepreneurs. He personifies
the American dream. He grew up in a middle-class family in Massachusetts.
He is very close to his mother and a devoted father to two grown daughters.
Bloomberg left a Wall Street job to start a technology business, and
became a billionaire. Oh, did I forget to mention he’s also served three
terms as mayor of New York City, making big improvements in education
and the quality of life in the city?
A very smart man, Bloomberg developed pioneering back-office systems
for a Wall Street brokerage. In 1981, Bloomberg left Salomon Brothers
with about $10 million in hand. He used that money to start his own company,
Bloomberg LP.