There’s an Entrepreneurial Thinker in everyone from da Vinci and Mozart to a barista in a coffee shop or a snowboard sensei. So when I sat down to write The 4 Essentials of Entrepreneurial Thinking, it was never meant to be a book about business startups per se.
The original title was merely The 4 Essentials – A Path to Success & Happiness (Your Master’s in Basic Abilities)
The primary objective of The 4 Essentials was to share lessons from many mentors who had a creative mindset, passionate spirit, and profound impact on my life. The common thread was their willingness to ask “What if?” As a result, they not only had the courage to think different but to be different.
Equally important was to propose a paradigm shift in real-world education and dispel the myth of born entrepreneur, higher intelligence, or socio-ecomonic privilege as proxies for success. Research has proven time and again that when there’s a void in The 4 Essentials (life skills, action strategies, core values, or purpose principles), there’s a void for health, wealth, and happiness.
Many Missions, Many Mentors
We all have favorite teachers (poet, coach, athlete, author, business brain). But our smartest peers may be experts in one field and amateurs in another. We also carry the bias and baggage of mentors as well as their wisdom. So choose wisely. From friends and family to iconic billionaires, some are worth emulating, others are not.
Below are over 100 famous people featured in The 4 Essentials of Entrepreneurial Thinking. From life lessons, business strategies, and humanitarian ideas, I picked up something special from each that inspired my passion, purpose, and principles. I’m confident you will too.
Study one, Study them all. Mirror the Masters …
Artists, Leaders, Writers, Scientists, Teachers, Philosophers
- Maya Angelou, Aristotle, The Beatles, Warren Bennis, Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson, Buddha, Warren Buffett, Dale Carnegie, Charlie Chaplin, Confucius, Stephen Covey, Charles Darwin, Leonardo da Vinci, Ellen DeGeneres, Charles Dickens, Walt Disney, Peter Drucker, Amelia Earhart, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Aretha Franklin, Benjamin Franklin, Galileo Galilei, Mohandas Gandhi, Howard Gardner, Bill and Melinda Gates, Kahlil Gibran, Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Jane Goodall, Daniel Goleman, Stephen Hawking, Napoleon Hill, Helen Keller, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Steve Jobs, Bruce Lee, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, A.A. Milne, Margaret Mead, Wolfgang Mozart, Pablo Picasso, Friedrich Nietzsche, Tony Robbins, Sir Ken Robinson, Charlie Rose, J.K. Rowling, J.D. Salinger, Howard Schultz, William Shakespeare, Will Smith, Socrates, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Henry David Thoreau, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sun Tzu, Kurt Vonnegut, Oscar Wilde, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, 14th Dalai Lama.
Comedians, Satirists, Cartoonists
- Woody Allen, Lucille Ball, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, George Carlin, Stephen Colbert, Bill Cosby, Billy Crystal, Ellen DeGeneres, Tina Fey, Matt Groening, David Letterman, Steve Martin, The Marx Brothers, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Charles M. Schulz, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Dr. Seuss, Robin Williams, Steven Wright.
Sports Legends
- Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, Wayne Gretzky, Mia Hamm, Tony Hawk, Magic Johnson, Pelé, Jackie Robinson, Vin Scully, John Wooden, Tiger Woods, 1980 Men’s Olympic Hockey Team.
The 4 Essentials of Entrepreneurial Thinking
The 4 Essentials of Entrepreneurial Thinking
In his New York Times Bestseller, Cliff Michaels dispels the myth of born entrepreneurs and proposes a paradigm shift in global education. Taking readers on an inspiring personal journey, Michaels shares his foibles, triumphs, and tribulations as a young entrepreneur, then unleashes a dynamic system of timeless lessons
anyone can follow.
On the cutting edge of success training for over 20 years, Michaels draws on classic and modern mentors from da Vinci, Edison, Mozart, and Einstein to Jobs, Oprah, Branson, Spielberg, and more. Street-smart & thought provoking, The 4 Essentials isn’t just for entrepreneurs. It challenges all of us to earn a real-world MBA – your Master’s in Basic Abilities.
