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Innovating in a crisis

In the midst of the turmoil in the banking industry, and the seemingly endless stream of bad news from Wall Street, it’s easy to get stuck in a negative mindset. But a couple of articles that I saw recently highlight the fact that one man’s bad fortune can be another man’s opportunity.

For a kickoff, Paul Graham, essayist and co-founder of Viaweb, the first application service provider, writes about why to start a start-up in a bad economy. Many folk are predicting that this economic slowdown could be as bad as the seventies, he notes… that’s when Apple and Microsoft were founded.

Investment guru George Gilder also provides some welcome relief from the doom and gloom with an article in Forbes in which he talks about an upcoming creativity boom. “The real source of all growth is human ingenuity and entrepreneurship, which often thrive in the worst of times,” Gilder points out. Which company emerged victorious from the telecoms crash of the early 2000s? Google.

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