Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business? Are you thinking about or planning a new business right now? Here are some really inspirational messages from celebrity entrepreneurs that you should take on board.
To practice your listening comprehension at the same time, listen to the video just one time to get the gist of the discussions. Then, have a look at the vocabulary below to help you with some of the language that might be new to you. Finally, listen to the video again and paraphrase (say it again in different words) what you hear.
Paraphrasing is a great way to show that you understand what you hear and also to use a variety of vocabulary and structures similar in meaning but different to the ones that you hear.
Some useful vocabulary
- start-up- a new company, a company that is just starting up
- lo and behold- say this before a startling or important point. It is used to emphasize the next part.
- come off the rails- to go in the wrong direction, to start on a bad course
- love it to bits- to really love something
- get to grips with something- to get used to it, to understand it
- tenacity- the strength of purpose, to be tenacious means that you will fight hard and not give up
- soak it all in- to absorb the information, to accept and understand the information completely
- a filter system- this lets the good in but stops the bad
- a scalable business- a business that will grow into a bigger business
I have paraphrased the speakers as well but to get the most benefit out of this exercise, don’t read this until you have tried it for yourself.
- Jacqueline Gold, Chief Executive, Ann Summers
- Focus and don’t let negative people affect your work.
- Miles Templeman, Director General, Institute of Directors
- Just do it. Learn from the process of starting a business so that even if you fail, you have learnt and you are more likely to succeed the next time. Be confident.
- Tim Smit, Co-founder, Eden Project
- Do what you love so that you do it well. Don’t just do something because it is a good idea or it will make a lot of money, find the good idea that you are passionate about.
- Julien Metcalfe, Founder, Pret
- Look at the your experience and honestly judge what you have done well and what you have not done well. Don’t try to blame external factors but know that it is in your power to do it right next time.
- And do what you love.
- Simon Woodroffe, Founder, Yo! company
- Get the advice of the people who know. They might seem unapproachable but everyone likes to talk about their company so try contacting them. Listen a lot but don’t take in the negative words that come from fear. Don’t be afraid of criticism as you learn a lot more from criticism than from mindless praise.
- Sahar Hashemi, Founder, Coffee Republic
- Do your homework first, believe that it will work, get the money together, then do it and don’t stop. Hard work and persistence will take you to success.
- Steve Mills, MRI Network
- You need to get the right people together as you cannot make a large successful business by yourself. Try to get people with different ideas and different skills to you.
- John Madejski, Chairman, Reading FC
- Business is difficult but the only way to do it is to be brave and never give up.
