Damir Perge's Blog: Entrepreneur Insights from the Trenches

If you've ever played sports seriously, you understand the power of rhythm and timing. When I played soccer, my trademark was in the art of dribbling. One of fundamentals of dribbling is to develop a rhythm and pace with the ball at your feet. Brazilians of old, such as Pele and Garrincha, were masters of bringing rhythm to their dribbling style.

Today's top rhythm player is Lionel Messithe best football (soccer) player in the world. When Barcelona lost to Bayern Munich a few years ago, Messi...

From the upcoming book Soccerpreneur by Damir Perge (Download a PDF of this Chapter)

Chapter 17: Never Give Up

Dont stop playing until the final whistle blows

Living in America the first few years was difficult for our family. My parents worked hard, but we were not getting even a sliver of the American Dream. Hard work, by itself, just wasnt paying off. Returning to our parents, after living with our Uncle Lili and Aunt Nada in their luxury apartment in the beautiful city of Austin, my broth...

From the upcoming book Soccerpreneur by Damir Perge (Download a PDF of This Chapter)

Chapter 4: Shine Your Own Shoes

The importance of mental preparationa must for any game you play

When I was in high school I worked repairing roofs, during the hot Texas summers alongside my father and my brother Danny. Wed lived in America for five years and our family was still struggling financially. The American Dream seemed so far away. Danny and I worked with our dad in construction, hoping to eventuall...

From the upcoming book Soccerpreneur by Damir Perge (Download a PDF of this Chapter)

Chapter 3: The Mexican Messi

Nothing can stop a passionate heart when you make your mind up

Our family departed Belgrade, Yugoslavia on November 14, 1974 from the Nikola Tesla Airport. I was eleven years old. Twenty hours later, we landed at Chicago O���Hare airport via Dublin, Ireland. Each of us clutched a small carry-on bag. My parents had packed five large suitcases. One bag contained our family���s Yugos...

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When I was younger, quickness and speed were important in my soccer game. Speed was not my forte but quickness more then compensated. I used quickness and technical skill to get around defenders. I was not the fastest athlete in a 100-yard sprint, nor even a 40-yard sprint, but the first 5, 10, 15 or even 30 yardsI owned those yards. Applying quickness and speed to your business is a game changer.

The cheetah, my favorite animal, displays both quickness and speed. But although a cheetah can g...

In a message to his partners, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said, Its been said that the the best way to create the future is to invent it, which is why we [Starbucks] must continue to push for innovations that reflect and support our core values.

Being a complexity scientist, Shultzs inventing the future quote triggered me to think hard about various ways of looking at the future. The future is unpredictable. Like any natural ecosystemor a marketplace created by humans, such as Wall Streetthe...

As an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and complexity scientist, I have been trying to determine what factors enable some startups to become billion dollar startups almost overnight. I have written more than 220 articles on startups and entrepreneurship over the last eight months. But if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million words, so we decided to put my ideas into a video series.

First of all, I say almost overnight because building a billion dollar startup go...

During Chelseas soccer tour in Asia, Jose Mourinhotheir coach, commonly known by his self-proclaimed nickname The Chosen Onewas impressed with the work ethic of some of the teams older players. He complimented John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole for training extremely hard, even during their preseason.

Calling the old-timers inspirational animals, Jose told the younger players to become inspired by their professional attitude. He said something even more interesting that can trigger and...

Many busy people like to say, Time is money. But the difference between regular time and entrepreneur time is substantial.

When I ran my first venture capital fund, I invested into a young entrepreneur who had great visions of being the next major high-tech player in Silicon Valley. Despite his inexperience as an entrepreneur, I funded him for $250,000 to get him going. He was developing groundbreaking technology in an emerging, dynamic and rapidly changing marketplaceand being a complexity s...