Total Rethink

Rethink your way to a better life

In business, and in life, everything is changing fast, apart from how we behave. Our ways of thinking and making decisions have changed little since we lived in agricultural and industrial societies, but the problems we now need to solve are entirely different. It requires a revolution in thinking and behavior to meet the challenges that now face us and avoid disaster we need to totally rethink the model.

Part business biography, part business blueprint, Total Rethink explains how this can be done. Successful telecoms entrepreneur David McCourt lays out the reality of the dangerous situation we find ourselves in and suggests solutions which will empower everyone, including business people, politicians, diplomats, and teachers, to repair the damage we have already done, and prepare for the dramatic changes to come.

• Change the way you think and behave to be a true entrepreneur

• Understand why incremental change no longer works

• Move at the speed of the times we’re living in to keep up

• Find trusted, effective guidance you can put to practice today

Written by a sought-after speaker, businessman, and entrepreneur, the advice inside this book will help you learn to think—and live—like a revolutionary.

Foreword xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Chapter 1 Visualize the Future 1

Chapter 2 Start a Bottom-Up Revolution 7

Chapter 3 When the Revolutionaries Become the Establishment and Stop Blowing Up the Model 21

Chapter 4 Entrepreneurial Thinkers Can Be Found in Every Walk of Life 33

Chapter 5 Can You Teach Entrepreneurship or are Creative Entrepreneurs Born that Way? 39

Chapter 6 Work on Your Strengths, Forget Your Weaknesses 53

Chapter 7 Being Interested in Everything 65

Chapter 8 Getting Taken Seriously 71

Chapter 9 Achieving the Impossible 77

Chapter 10 Tell Your Story to the World 81

Chapter 11 Radical Ways of Getting Paid 85

Chapter 12 Taking Risks and Grasping Opportunities 91

Chapter 13 Connecting Computers to One Another 105

Chapter 14 Finding a Mentor 113

Chapter 15 Trying to Do Everything at the Same Time 123

Chapter 16 If You Are Persistent, Your Plan B May Be Better Than Your Plan A 137

Chapter 17 Crowdsourcing Is the Future 145

Chapter 18 The Death of the Middlemen 157

Chapter 19 Ten-Year-Olds Have Great Ideas, Too 163

Chapter 20 Never Be Afraid to Think Big – or to Think Young 167

Chapter 21 Future Generations 181

Chapter 22 The Power Shift 189

Chapter 23 The Power of Immigration 201

Chapter 24 The Sheer Joy of Being a Creative Revolutionary 207

Epilogue 213

About the Author 217

Notes 219

DAVID McCOURT is Founder and Chairman of Granahan McCourt Capital whose European offices are in Dublin. He is an Irish American businessman, anentrepreneur, and one of the world’s most successful, award-winning business people. The Economist described him as having, “impeccable credentials as a telecom revolutionary.”

“Inspired by the graphic image above I find the notion of “art as a political instrument” of particular importance at this time. It is of great and significant value that we are now finally experiencing a time of inclusion, collaboration, and empowerment. We have the technology available to inform us, the cultural diversities globally to inspire us, and the social movements being put in place to acknowledge the measurable value of everyone’s contribution. These shifts are not only welcome but are necessary to thrive in what has become a brand new world order.

Art has long inspired the masses both politically and through religion, more recently by way of street artists. Not only is that phenomenon socially acceptable, it moves civilization forward. We learn, we grow, we share our cultural heritage and racial differences for the purpose of good. It offers a view to the world through a new less myopic lens. I am often reminded how very fortunate we are to be here now experiencing the constant and innovative shifts, a direct result of the technology revolution. There will be so many more to come and with them changing opportunities for success.

Total Rethink for me is a movement to inspire in business and within our social climate the opportunities for all to adapt to the changing world economy and to thrive within the new and ever-changing climate of business.

I am by nature two things: curious and optimistic. I find they are essential for mining great ideas and finding my way to interesting people. Business opportunities are everywhere as are compelling stories of talented entrepreneurs and artists moving the cultural agenda forward.”
—David McCourt