• Rules from the BABY’s Book on Becoming a Billionaire
  
  

  • Rule #122: Trust your gut especially when it lines up with your brain. Otherwise, check the barrel twice, and if it is filled with alligators, sting rays and piranha, then maybe finding a rational way to get off that barrel is a really good idea.

  • Rule #31: Embrace Tom Friedman. “The World is Flat” and getting flatter.

• Guts, genes and genius: Certain aspects of entrepreneurship can be taught, contends Babson College Professor Jeffry Timmons, but the key is for entrepreneurs to be convincing and creative enough to partner with technical geniuses.

• Get to the point. Convey your enthusiasm, but keep your business plan short and direct, advises Mike Kucha, founder and managing director of Timeline Advisers.

• Employer benefits: During our “Ask the Expert” segment, attorney Amy Wintersheimer, a partner with Allen Matkins, describes instances where hiring consultants rather than employees may help keep your burn-rate down.

• Get ‘em over a barrel... And hope they realize they’re on it. Neil offers his theory to successful negotiation.

• Inside out: Entrepreneurship is often the inside track to success for “outsiders.”

Professor Jeffry Timmons, often called the “Johnny Appleseed” of entrepreneurship education, currently teaches entrepreneurship at Babson College, which has one of the top-ranked entrepreneurship programs in the world. In his career, he has held joint appointments at Babson and Harvard Business School, he has authored some of the most popular entrepreneurship text books, and for nearly 40 years has been immersed in the field of entrepreneurship as an investor, director or advisor in private companies and investment funds. In 1971, when he received his Ph.D., entrepreneurship was not taught in most business schools, and his dissertation—“Entrepreneurial and Leadership Development in an Inner City Ghetto and a Rural Depressed Area”—was the first use of the word “entrepreneurial” in a dissertation. At Babson, Timmons has started a number of innovative programs including the Native American Initiative and the Price-Babson College Fellows Program, aimed at improving teaching and research by teaming faculty with highly successful entrepreneurs wishing to teach entrepreneurship.

Mike Kucha, the founder and managing director of Timeline Advisers, has over 30 years of business experience with both public and private companies as a CEO, board member, corporate lawyer, venture capital investor, and operator of his own company. Recently he founded Timeline Advisers, which provides pre-funding advisory assessments to CEOs and other members of management. These assessments include needs and requirements reviews, operations audits, business plan reviews, risk and priority assessments, issue identification, financing needs assessments, reviews of staffing requirements and board structure, among others, all as related to corporate fund-raising plans.

Amy Wintersheimer, an employment litigation partner at the law firm of Allen Matkins, specializes in employment issues including wage disputes, wrongful termination, harassment and discrimination lawsuits. She also frequently handles matters involving the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title 24 Access. She is a member of the board of directors of the San Diego Blood Bank, Big Brothers and the Big Sisters of San Diego County, and actively participates in the San Diego Volunteer Lawyers Program and the American Board of Trial Lawyers.