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Entrepreneurs Don’t Have Special Gene For Risk – They Come From Families With Money

We’re in an era of the cult of the entrepreneur. We analyze the Tory Burches and Evan Spiegels of the world looking for a magic formula orset of personality traits that lead to success. Entrepreneurship is on the rise, and more students coming out of business schools are choosing startup life over Wall Street.

But what often gets lost in these conversations is that the most common shared trait among entrepreneurs is access to financial capital—family money, an inheritance, or a pedigree and connections that allow for access to financial stability. While it seems that entrepreneurs tend to have an admirable penchant for risk, it’s usually that access to money which allows them to take risks.

And this is a key advantage: When basic needs are met, it’s easier to be creative; when you know you have a safety net, you are more willing to take risks. “Many other researchers have replicated the finding that entrepreneurship is more about cash than dash,” University of Warwick professor Andrew Oswald tells Quartz. “Genes probably matter, as in most things in life, but not much.”

University of California, Berkeley economists Ross Levine and Rona Rubenstein analyzed the shared traits of entrepreneurs in a 2013 paper, and found that most were white, male, and highly educated. “If one does not have money in the form of a family with money, the chances of becoming an entrepreneur drop quite a bit,” Levine tells Quartz.

New research out this week from the National Bureau of Economic Research (paywall) looked at risk-taking in the stock market and found that environmental factors (not genetic) most influenced behavior, pointing to the fact that risk tolerance is conditioned over time (dispelling the myth of an elusive “entrepreneurship gene“).

Resilience is undoubtably a necessary trait for success; many notable entrepreneurs experienced success only after leading failed ventures. But the barrier to entry is very high.

For creative professions, starting a new venture is the ultimate privilege. Many startup founders do not take a salary for some time. The average cost to launch a startup is around $30,000, according to the Kauffman Foundation. Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor show that more than 80% of funding for new businesses comes from personal savings and friends and family.

“Following your dreams is dangerous,” a 31-year-old woman who runs in social entrepreneurship circles in New York, and asked not to be named, told Quartz. “This whole bulk of the population is being seduced into thinking that they can just go out and pursue their dream anytime, but it’s not true.”

So while yes, there’s certainly a lot of hard work that goes into building something, there’s also a lot of privilege involved—a factor that is often underestimated.

Source: http://qz.com

July 23, 2015
Atuk-Atuk ‘Miang’ Cuci Mata Tonton Penari Bogel Di Betong Thailand

Betong: Kubur kata mari rumah kata nanti, namun jiwa muda segelintir lelaki tua rakyat Malaysia yang purata umur menjangkau 70-an menyebabkan ‘kelab tarian bogel’ di pekan Betong, Thailand di sini, tidak pernah sunyi daripada dikunjungi golongan ini.

Lebih memalukan, kewujudan Masjid Jamek Al Mahadi yang terletak kurang 200 meter dari pusat maksiat ini tidak sedikitpun mencetuskan rasa malu dalam kalangan pengunjung beragama Islam ini.

Kumpulan lelaki warga emas yang datang berlibur ini didapati kerap memenuhi pusat hiburan sekitar Jalan Chayachawalit, Jalan Mongkolprachak dan Jalan Grandvilla 2 di sini, yang menawarkan tarian bogel serta joget tiang kepada pengunjung.

Pusat hiburan mendapat jolokan ‘kelab atuk nakal’ ini berbeza dari pusat tarian bogel di Hatyai atau Bangkok, Thailand, berikutan ia membenarkan pelanggan menyaksikan tarian bogel pada jarak dekat dengan pentas atau tiang persembahan.

Suasana ini, sekali gus dianggap istimewa berikutan pengunjung lelaki boleh menyentuh penari atau melihat persembahan maksiat daripada dekat.

Ini menyebabkan lokasi pusat hiburan pernah dijadikan sasaran bom jangka puak pemisah Islam di Selatan Thailand pada 25 Julai lalu terus dikunjungi lelaki warga Malaysia tanpa rasa gusar.

Tinjauan wartawan Metro Ahad selama tiga hari mendapati rata-rata pusat hiburan maksiat ini dipenuhi lelaki Malaysia seawal jam 3 petang saban hari.

Antara pusat maksiat popular dalam kalangan pengunjung warga Malaysia di sini adalah Jockey Club, Gala, Sexy Dance dan Disko 008.

Kebanyakan kelab tarian berahi ini didapati menyediakan sehingga 30 penari bogel pada satu-satu masa.

Wanita terbabit akan menari secara bergilir-gilir di atas pentas sambil diiringi muzik rancak manakala sebahagian lagi rakan mereka melayan pelanggan yang mengerumuni pusat hiburan itu.

Seorang lelaki warga emas yang ditemui wartawan berkata, dia sering datang ke Betong bersama tiga rakan sekurang-kurangnya dua kali sebulan.

“Kami bukan buat dosa teguk arak macam orang lain. Datang cuci mata tengok perempuan seksi di sini…cuma dosa ringan.

“Tak mahal pun, tiada caj masuk kelab, cuma bayar air Coke segelas dengan harga Baht 100 (RM10) kemudian boleh duduk tengok show sampai puas,” katanya yang hanya mahu dikenali sebagai Mat, 71.

Peraih getah berasal dari Gerik, Perak itu berkata, pertunjukan tarian tiang atau ‘tiger show’ itu bermula seawal jam 3 petang hingga 11 malam.

“Jadi kami tak perlu tidur di Betong. Masuk sekejap untuk tengok show dan balik ke Malaysia sebelum pintu Kompleks Imigresen Bukit Berapit di Pengkalan Hulu ditutup,” katanya.

Seorang lagi warga emas yang hanya mahu dikenali sebagai Halim, 65, berkata, lokasi pusat hiburan di Betong kini kian meriah berbanding lima tahun lalu.

“Dulu (pusat hiburan) di Betong lengang dan terkawal, namun sekarang terlalu ramai pengunjung dari Kedah dan Kuala Lumpur terutama ketika hujung minggu.

“Terasa rimas sebab semua pusat hiburan dan tarian bogel berasak-asak dengan pelanggan lain,” katanya yang bekerja sebagai pemandu teksi.

Source: www.hmetro.com.my

July 23, 2015
Comfort Cabby Mocks Androgynous Man, Operator Apologises

This is what you do when you witness something disturbing — alert the authorities and write a formal complaint.

That is what actor and stuntman Hanz Monefiero Medina did when he was harassed by a Comfort taxi driver last Friday.

You might know Medina from a certain perfurmery on Arab Street (he is a perfume maker by day). “I am a man who happens to look androgynous and have my long wet hair out and I am not a transgender nor a transvestite,” he explains.

On his way to an afternoon martial arts class, he hailed a taxicab on Owen Street. The driver, upon seeing him, stopped his vehicle and made an offensive gesture (“a joke usually made on transvestites”) — a limp hand which he rocked back and forth.

And it didn’t stop there.

“The Indian man drove away but, to my surprise, he made a U-turn further down at Owen Road and passed me again,” recalls Medina. The driver mocked him again.

In his complaint letter to Comfort, Medina wrote: “I felt really disturbed. No one should go through this on how someone looks or even if someone is whoever they are as a person. This is a mental disease and outright bullying. I hope this man will be warned for judging potential customers in the future or I will bring this to the social media and make it viral to good journalist sources that I have.”

An executive from Comfort Delgro replied this afternoon with an apology and assurance “that we have spoken to this driver, and rebuked him for his disgraceful actions towards you on that afternoon…We have also issued him an official warning for failing to pick up a passenger despite his taxi being available for hire, which will now be filed in his performance record. Going forward, we will now monitor him closely and any similar transgressions committed by him can result in the termination of his hiring contract with us.”

Source: http://singapore.coconuts.co

July 23, 2015
‘Oldest’ Quran Fragments Found In Birmingham University

What may be the world’s oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham.

Radiocarbon dating found the manuscript to be at least 1,370 years old, making it among the earliest in existence.

The pages of the Muslim holy text had remained unrecognised in the university library for almost a century.

The British Library’s expert on such manuscripts, Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, said this “exciting discovery” would make Muslims “rejoice”.

The manuscript had been kept with a collection of other Middle Eastern books and documents, without being identified as one of the oldest fragments of the Koran in the world.

Oldest texts

When a PhD researcher looked more closely at these pages it was decided to carry out a radiocarbon dating test and the results were “startling”.

The university’s director of special collections, Susan Worrall, said researchers had not expected “in our wildest dreams” that it would be so old.

“Finding out we had one of the oldest fragments of the Koran in the whole world has been fantastically exciting.”

The University of Birmingham’s manuscript was in a collection brought back from the Middle East

The tests, carried out by the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, showed that the fragments, written on sheep or goat skin, were among the very oldest surviving texts of the Koran.

These tests provide a range of dates, showing that, with a probability of more than 95%, the parchment was from between 568 and 645.

“They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam,” said David Thomas, the university’s professor of Christianity and Islam.

“According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad received the revelations that form the Koran, the scripture of Islam, between the years 610 and 632, the year of his death.”

Prof Thomas says the dating of the Birmingham folios would mean it was quite possible that the person who had written them would have been alive at the time of the Prophet Muhammad.

“The person who actually wrote it could well have known the Prophet Muhammad. He would have seen him probably, he would maybe have heard him preach. He may have known him personally – and that really is quite a thought to conjure with,” he says.

First-hand witness

Prof Thomas says that some of the passages of the Koran were written down on parchment, stone, palm leaves and the shoulder blades of camels – and a final version, collected in book form, was completed in about 650.

Prof Thomas says the writer of this manuscript could have heard the Prophet Muhammad preach

He says that “the parts of the Koran that are written on this parchment can, with a degree of confidence, be dated to less than two decades after Muhammad’s death”.

“These portions must have been in a form that is very close to the form of the Koran read today, supporting the view that the text has undergone little or no alteration and that it can be dated to a point very close to the time it was believed to be revealed.”

Susan Worrall says the university wants to put this internationally significant discovery on public display

The manuscript, written in “Hijazi script”, an early form of written Arabic, becomes one of the oldest known fragments of the Koran.

Because radiocarbon dating creates a range of possible ages, there is a handful of other manuscripts in public and private collections which overlap. So this makes it impossible to say that any is definitively the oldest.

But the latest possible date of the Birmingham discovery – 645 – would put it among the very oldest.

‘Precious survivor’

Dr Waley, curator for such manuscripts at the British Library, said “these two folios, in a beautiful and surprisingly legible Hijazi hand, almost certainly date from the time of the first three caliphs”.

The first three caliphs were leaders in the Muslim community between about 632 and 656.

The fragments of the Koran are still clearly legible

Dr Waley says that under the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, copies of the “definitive edition” were distributed.

“The Muslim community was not wealthy enough to stockpile animal skins for decades, and to produce a complete Mushaf, or copy, of the Holy Koran required a great many of them.”

Dr Waley suggests that the manuscript found by Birmingham is a “precious survivor” of a copy from that era or could be even earlier.

“In any case, this – along with the sheer beauty of the content and the surprisingly clear Hijazi script – is news to rejoice Muslim hearts.”

Muhammad Afzal of Birmingham Central Mosque said he was very moved to see the manuscript

The manuscript is part of the Mingana Collection of more than 3,000 Middle Eastern documents gathered in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana, a Chaldean priest born near Mosul in modern-day Iraq.

He was sponsored to take collecting trips to the Middle East by Edward Cadbury, who was part of the chocolate-making dynasty.

The local Muslim community has already expressed its delight at the discovery in their city and the university says the manuscript will be put on public display.

“When I saw these pages I was very moved. There were tears of joy and emotion in my eyes. And I’m sure people from all over the UK will come to Birmingham to have a glimpse of these pages,” said Muhammad Afzal, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque.

Prof Thomas says it will show people in Birmingham that they have a “treasure that is second to none”.

Source: www.bbc.com

July 23, 2015
Salahkah Jual Lampu Bermotif Islam Kepada Mak Nyah?

Dear friends pls do excuse me….

This post is directed to a certain someone yang tidak tau menghormati sesama manusia.

Firstly mohon maaf kalau ada yg terasa atau tersinggung.Alhamdulillah,dah setahun saya mulakan perniagaan ini saya pun tak menduga mendapat sambutan yang baik terhadap lampu ini.Ramai yang bertanya mcm mana saya boleh mendapatkan idea untuk menjual lampu ini.Dengan jujur saya katakan ianya adalah pemberian dari Allah swt.Hanya mereka yang rapat dengan saya tahu cerita sebenarnya disebalik lampu ini dan maknanya dalam kehidupan saya.Ianya bukan setakat satu perniagaan.

Saya pernah menerima tawaran dari sekumpulan jejaka Melayu untuk memasarkan lampu saya di Malaysia dengan confirmed order seribu unit setiap bulan,which they wanted to make an advanced payment for 2 months,mereka hanya meminta saya menambahkan audio ‘zikir’ yang telah mereka siapkan.Pada luaran CDnya nampak biasa. Bila saya mendengar CD tu permulaannya pun biasa,but bila middle part dah masuk chanting yang lain yang bukan dari agama kita.Cik Puan kalau saya mengejar kekayaan saya takkan even mendengar CD tu saya akan terus menerima tawarannya.Saya tahu tanggungjawap dan amanah saya sebagai seorang umat Islam.

Saya ini manusia biasa yang tidak lari dari melakukan dosa setiap hari,jadi siapalah saya untuk menilai pelanggan yang membeli lampu saya.Kalau awak nak katakan seorang itu tidak boleh membeli lampu ini hanya kerana kelainannya,tidak pernah pulak saya terbaca atau dengar yang mereka ini tidak boleh membeli sesuatu yang ada kaitan dengan agama.Ada ke hadis2 untuk support ulasan awak. Boleh tak awak yang bijaksana jelaskan pada saya.Tolonglah jangan menghina golongan tertentu terlalu sangat they pun manusia biasa yang mempunyai perasaan seperti kita.

Saya memang ada pelanggan dari agama lain.Sebelum awak tanya saya mengapa saya menjual pada mereka kenapa awak tak tanya mengapa mereka membeli.Untuk pengetahuan awak saya amat tersentuh hati bila diberitahu lampu2 yg dibeli adalah hadiah untuk teman2 Islam mereka.Cuba tanya pada diri sendiri pernah ke awak membeli sesuatu yang memberi kebaikan pada teman2 awak. Janganlah menilai seseorang tanpa mengetahui niat mereka.

Dalam perniagaan yang singkat ini saya dah banyak menerima rejection oleh pihak2 tertentu just because this is an Islamic product,saya pun dah biasa dgn msg2 yang tak bermakna seperti ini walau macam mana pun ianya tidak akan mematahkan semangat saya.Saya yakin pada ketentuan Allah.HE IS THE BEST PLANNER N INSYAALLAH HE WILL EASE MY PATH.Janganlah soalkan adat dalam perniagaan when u have yet to walk the path that I have walked,u never knew the sweat n tears that I went thru in this biz.

Just a little note for you kalau awak membenci seseorang istighfar dan hadiahkan surah Fateha untuknya.InsyaAllah akan ada kelegaan dihati.

Source: Jas Tiara

July 22, 2015