Last month I attended a father-son banquet at my son's high school where the featured speaker was Captain Paul “Buddy” Bucha, President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. As I settled into listening to Captain Bucha's speech I realized he was giving us a road map for leaders. The first point he made was that most leaders have a responsibility thrust on them... it takes extraordinary times to make extraordinary leaders and many people rise to the occasion rather than choosing to be a leader. This was a real lesson for me, and it reinforced my suspicions of people who try to be leaders when leadership might not be needed.
 
However in those situations where leadership is needed (and I can think of a number of places in the world right now where we really could use a leader), Captain Bucha gave us the five following characteristics as must haves:

Why I think Blue Man Group is the best case study for growing your business and how they helped me look for companies to invest in.

Yesterday when I was riding my bike to work I ended up behind a Muni bus in San Francisco which had a large advertisement on the bus talking about the infamous Blue Man Group performing at the Oakland Coliseum in February. I chuckled to myself and thought two things: first it has been over 12 years since a friend of mine in the hedge fund business took me to see them in a small theatre in Greenwich Village and now they are playing sold out shows in places like the Oakland coliseum! How far they have grown as a business as I also know they have an ongoing show in Las Vegas and many other enterprises. I also thought about how the minute I saw the add I wanted to see the show again and how the picture of men in blue faces brought back a lot of fun. And that I wanted to show them to other people I thought would enjoy them.