What Inspired Colette Symanowitz as an Entrepreneur?
by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg on 09/06/10 at 1:34 pm
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We’re interviewing leading business minds and entrepreneurs to find out more about who inspired them to get to where they are today. We asked entrepreneur, managing director and founder of MBAconnect.net,Colette Symanowitz, about who inspires her most.
1. As an entrepreneur, who inspires / first inspired you?
There is no single business person that I admire; rather a combination of different traits in different people: Adrian Gore for his practical, down-to-earth, take-on-the-world attitude; my husband Gavin for his ability to balance family and work, and his ability to create innovative ideas where others are blind to these opportunities; and my ex-boss John Marais from my corporate days, for his ability to understand and relate to people. I am also inspired by my kids ages 4 and 5 for their fun-loving spirit, creativity and ability to spot new and exciting opportunities every day.
2. What is your best piece of business advice?
Network, network, network. The bigger your network, the more doors to opportunities it can open for you. In fact this is the premise behind the MBAconnect.net social network because it enables MBA students and graduates to expand their networks across all business schools in SA and worldwide.
I also believe in Suze Orman’s philosophy of open hands i.e. giving without expectation of return. So whenever I can, I try to help others, be it in a business or personal situation, without expectation of return. The simple act of helping others is very rewarding for me because it ties into my lifegoal of helping others get access to positive opportunities. You also never know when you’ll need to ask for help, and if you have helped others in the past, they will be more willing to help you when you need it.
Thanks for the positive thinking and great business advice! We love your humanistic touch on business!
Yolandi Janse van Rensburg writes about social media, marketing, life and, of course, cars. We say “of course” because Yolandi is nuts about anything on 4 wheels and runs Autofemme, a blog about cars. Our Ideate sub-editor is also the Heavy Chef girl at World Wide Creative. You can follow her on Twitter @Yolandi_JvR View more articles by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg.
Tags: business tip, entrepreneur
