21st Century Skills for the Entrepreneur

Happy New Year to all my blog readers!

I was struck when reading Time Magazine, Karen Tumulty's article called "How to Bring our Schools out of the 20th century" The advice she details is a success blueprint for 21st century entrepreneurs.

She lists the 21st century skills as: 1)Knowing more about the world—Thomas Friedman's book, "The World is Flat" speaks to the same issue.  Web 2.0 makes borders and boundaries less relevant to the small business owner.  An awareness of how this impacts business is essential.

2) Thinking outside the box— In the new economy, creativity and innovation skills are prized.  (See "A Whole New Mind", Daniel Pink for more on this.)  Every online business owner knows that the ground shifts beneath him on a regular basis.  Learning to make that work for you is key.

3)Becoming smarter about new sources of information— We have more information now that ever, but can we make sense of it?  If you don't, you can be overwhelmed.  Social media bookmarking and tools have grown as a result of this issue.

4) Developing good people skills— Ok, this one may surprise you.  This has always been an important skill, why the emphasis now?  Collaboration and teamwork has become critical to working on Web 2.0.  The ability to understand and work with people from other cultures comes to the forefront.

Doing a self-assessment on these skills is well worth your time in the New Year.