Lately, I have been confronted with two separate problems, both of which require me to separate my heart from my brain.

The first problem is actually simple. It deals with hiring a professional candidate at one of the companies I have invested in. This candidate has the kind of verve, drive, and ambition that I seek in everyone.

I can feel this. But I also know this too, because our very own “Oracle at Delphi” (a.k.a. “the Predictive Index”) tells me so.

But unfortunately, this same index also predicts a personality type that does not fit very well with some of the other requirements of the job we have in mind for this individual. For one thing, this job requires a great deal of personal patience. And our candidate is anything but patient.

There is an even bigger problem – the Predictive Index consistently shows that our candidate is more “big picture” than detail-oriented, thus more prone to delegate than deal with the details.

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The other day my young, talented, but still occasionally naïve sales guy came to me with a proposition.

“The customer has agreed to our deal, but he wants to offset some of the monies he owes us against referrals that he’ll provide us. He actually wants ten percent of any revenues he gets from deals sold by us after being referred by them.”

“I see,” I said while pushing back from the table and unbuttoning my shirt sleeves, “And what, exactly, and in this case, is a referral?”

The next answer was predictable --- “What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, what exactly constitutes a “referral?”

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Almost every year at this time, I direct my comments to a selected sub-set of our reading audience --- recent college grads.

It’s a small sub-set, to be sure. And that’s unfortunate. And so I’m counting on you “older folks” to see to it that these words find their way through to your favorite nephew, niece, and of course --- offspring.

At age 61, I feel somewhat qualified to give this advice; although I, and like so many guys my age (well, at least the ones that are still breathing) know that with each passing year, I know less and less. It’s looking more and more like Mark Twain was absolutely correct when he said (and here, I’m paraphrasing), “The older I get, the more I realize I don’t know.”

Last Saturday afternoon, at the Palumbo Center on Duquesne’s campus, I watched a few hundred young people “walk” (“walk” being vernacular for “putting oneself in position to physically accept a formal degree from the Dean of the Business School”) away with their own beautifully-packaged diploma in hand (actually, they are given replicas of a diploma).

These young people are full of hope and promise. Hope, because they’re hoping that their professors won’t fail them on their final exams, thus rendering those same diplomas invalid --- and promise, because they all by now have huge promissory notes to repay. Unfortunately, many of these notes are in the six-figure range.

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On Monday, May 2, I heard my first radio advertisement for D. Raja.

I had been anticipating this moment ever since: a.) we had him as a guest on my radio show, and, b.) I made a fairly sizable contribution to the war chest he is right now amassing for his upcoming election battles with such local luminaries as Rich Fitzgerald (D), Mark Patrick Flaherty (D), and Chuck McCullough (R).

I had been both anticipating and dreading this audial moment, and I don’t think I really need to explain why. I specifically remember thinking to myself, “Please, please keep your accent ‘light’, Raj. Because whilst it is perfectly fine for you to have an accent, please try to avoid making it sound as if you’ve only been state-side for a few years (Not at all the case, BTW.).”

The truth of the matter is that D. Raja’s “American” story begins as recently as 1986; that being the year that he first came to America --- alone --- to obtain an M.S. in Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. I believe he was about 19 years old when he first set foot on Pitt’s campus.

(Now think for just a minute --- how many Americans do you know who would even consider the idea of traveling halfway around the world at age 19 to get a four-year college education?) Just the fact that he even came here is quite revealing.

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The other day on my radio show, my producer played a news clip of President Obama talking about doing away with the Bush tax cuts.

After hearing the clip, I commented, “You know, there really should be two different tax rates for rich people.” (BTW, “Rich People” are apparently now being defined as “households that earn $250,000 or more a year.” These types of households make up 1.93% of all U.S. homes, and earn 25% of all U.S. income for a grand total of $1.97 trillion per year.)

In my opinion, there should be one tax rate for those who actually built and/or are building something; and a second tax rate for those who got their wealth from their parents or grandparents.

Let’s get back to the show, “So,” I said to my audience, “let me tell you about the first type of rich guy …I call this the, “Self-Made Rich Guy” (hereinafter “SMRG”).

The SMRG is characterized by:

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As most readers of this column know by now, I have been an entrepreneur/business owner for just about 40 years.

During that time, I would say that I’ve spent probably a solid 20 years selling (at least). This is because, and frankly, life is a sales job. You start selling the minute you wake up in the morning; you don’t stop until Mr. Sandman has visited.

Think about it. You sell your kids on cleaning up their rooms. You sell your wife on the fact that you have to work late that night. You sell your dog on a quick trip to the browned-out spot in your side yard. (Especially when it is raining or sleeting!)

When you say “selling” to most business people, however, they tend to think more of the classic “sales call.” And so, for the balance of this column, I will, too.

Most sales people do what I call, “show up and throw up.” That is, they get their nose into an account --- hopefully, an account where the “Economic Buyer” is present --- and then proceed to “dump” the contents of their brains onto his/her desk.

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It’s amazing how often we quote our favorite Chinese strategist. I guess it speaks a lot to that old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

But Sun Tzu was right on with this comment. Execution is wonderful, but planning --- and the research that precedes planning --- is paramount.

The other night, I was conducting a class for my Duquesne students. This particular class features a simulation; a game wherein teams of students compete for both grades and cash prizes by “defeating” their industrial competitors.

The object of this game is to create a manufacturing entity that efficiently produces laptop computers and similar equipment. Winners are those that finish the game with the best ROI (Return on Investment), IRR (Internal Rate of Return), market share, gross and net revenue, and overall employee satisfaction.

We’ve been using this particular simulation for the past three years and because there is $1,000 in cash on the table (in addition to a good grade!), competition tends to be fierce.

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It was a beautiful spring day and so I decided to take a walk. As I strolled the campus, I found my mind drifting back, back, back. Forty years back. When I saw two young men throwing a baseball from a distance of a hundred-plus feet, I thought of my arrival on Westminster College’s campus in the fall of 1967. I was all of 17 years old and completely intimidated by this new (college) world.

Nonetheless, I eventually met an upperclassman who had professional baseball aspirations --- it was probably the only thing we had in common --- so, he and I would play catch in a dormitory parking lot until the weather finally prevented us from doing so.

Continuing my walk, I met some students from the pharmacy school fraternity who tried to convince me to purchase their “homemade hot sausage.” I (pardon the pun) bit on their pitch and ordered a sweet hot sausage with ketchup and onions. It was actually pretty tasty.

I next just sat on a bench and observed tomorrow’s leaders. “So full of life,” I thought to myself, “I wonder if they really have even a clue as to what’s coming?”

Working my way back to the office, I thought about the things that still had to be done before I left school for my radio show. I had students dropping in, and the big worry this week was the upcoming “E-Day,” a “mixer” between students and business owners to be held Saturday morning at the River’s Club.

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The other night, and around four in the morning, I received another in a series of requests for me to “endorse” someone by connecting me with them via a software called LinkedIn.

For those who don’t know, LinkedIn is a kind of cyber-referencing software. It basically uses the Kevin Bacon “six degrees of separation” theory to “connect” people who might otherwise have never met.

For example, say that you’d like to meet the CEO of a major corporation. You don’t personally know this guy, but you do know a guy who might know a guy who seemingly knows him. So, you contact the highest-ranked person in the chain that you do know, and then ask him to, and in effect, “link you in”. Should he agree to this, you move a step closer to making your connection.

Theoretically.

But to me, the whole idea stinks. I say this because, and in my opinion, this “connection” is more often than not a “reach”.

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As many of you already know, I am a teacher. I teach entrepreneurism and courses related to entrepreneurism at Duquesne University here in Pittsburgh.

I’ve been doing this for ten years.

I love the teaching part of teaching. (You can have the administrivia.) I especially love watching the students learn --- watching that light bulb go off in their heads whenever they realize that they’ve just learned something that they’ll use the rest of their lives.

At some point in my teaching career, I learned something else. I learned that:

Let me address each of these points in some detail.

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A couple of nights ago my wife and I were in the car, working our way home from the Robert Morris Speaker Series at Heinz Hall.

Karen and I had just listened to Mark Shields speak, and if there is a more witty political satirist on the planet, I’d sure like to meet him. (Example: he quoted a conversation between Newt Gingrich and John McCain wherein Gingrich said to McCain, “John, why is it that people take such an instant dislike to me?”

To which McCain replied, “Newt, probably because it saves them time.”)

Anyway, I was curious as to how my adopted alma mater – Duquesne University – was doing in its tournament game. (Yes, Duquesne is in a post-season tournament.) I kept changing stations, looking for this phantom game when I came across the sports station in Pittsburgh, an “FM-er” that goes by the name of “The Fan”.

Thinking I had found the game and was simply at half time, I heard the announcer say, “Today prominent Pittsburgh Steeler Rashard Mendenhall supported Adrian Peterson’s comment which equated playing in the NFL to slavery. So, we’re asking callers to give us their thoughts on this topic.”

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A few years ago, and at the request of Renda Broadcasting, I agreed to do a daily talk radio show dealing with business and entrepreneurial-related issues.

Today, and after a few product makeovers, these radio shows are regularly heard by nearly 100,000 people --- all over the world.

As I write this, Pittsburgh Business Radio (dba “American Entrepreneur Radio) has received in excess of 800 letters and e-mails; most of them imploring us to please continue doing that which we normally do --- that is, basically help business owners and entrepreneurs start, build, and exit their enterprises.

It’s been a lot of fun doing this. It’s fun because the business is contemporary; and, because it is both “clean” and “glamorous”. Included among the people I have personally interviewed are such individuals as: Ram Charan, Steve Wozniak, Nolan Bushnell, Tony Hsieh, and Jason Fried. (The “hipsters” reading this column will no doubt recognize these last two names as perhaps the two hottest, young software entrepreneurs in America today.)

But there’s always a problem with “glamour” businesses. The problem being the fact that, everybody wants to be in them!

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I have been starting businesses since I was 22 years old. That’s just short of 40 years ago.

And of all the skills I have been required to acquire and hone along the way, the one that was most difficult was learning how to manage.

What is a manager?

A manager’s task is to somehow find a way to drive a group of disorganized and disparate individuals toward the achievement of some goal.

Sounds easy on paper, doesn’t it? But --- and as many of you already know --- it most certainly is NOT. In fact, managing is singularly the most difficult thing a human being can endeavor to do, short of performing brain surgery.

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Before you brand me as a Communist and damn me to Hell forever, please at least read the next paragraph.

I could go on --- for example, the Chinese “middle-class” will exceed 400 million people by the year 2015; thus making this a “middle-class” that dwarfs the very population of the U.S.

And it is this halcyonic growth of China that has me both perplexed and astounded. Just the other day, I was speaking with my good friend Dave Iwinski about his adopted home. I say this because Dave travels to and from China as much as anyone that I personally know. I’d say that he now spends at least 35% of his total year at his permanent office in Shanghai.

One of the stories that Dave just told me related to the construction of a downtown highway in Shanghai (a city, by the way, of 20 million). And yes, I did just use the words “downtown” and “highway” in the same sentence.

In order to keep things moving along, the business leaders of this great city went to the Chinese government to ask for assistance in building a five-level, limited-access, high-speed road right through the middle of town.

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I turned the corner just in time to see the guy being violently shoved into the wall.

It was a gruesome sound, and it was followed by the “shover” letting the “shovee” know exactly why he was so upset.

I thought to myself, “Here’s something you don’t see every day,” although I must admit that the tension in many companies is, and right now, extremely conducive to these kinds of events.

As things turned out, there was no real “beef” between these two individuals. (I was going to call them “combatants” when I realized that the “shovee,” and to this very moment, probably still has no idea why he was “shoved.”)

It turns out that the most likely reason is the “shover’s” overall frustration with his job.

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