The reason that Lincecum was overshadowed was because on that same day, RHP Roy Halladay threw only the second no-hitter in the history of baseball. Halladay’s only blunder in the game was a single walk, and many think that this was the greatest playoff performance by a pitcher ever. Not bad for a postseason debut, eh? Halladay has been on an absolute tear of late, picking up the win the last six times that he went to the bump. With 21 wins on the season, the argument could be made that this is the Cy Young Award winner in the National League.
How could we pick against either of these arms? The only hope that we have in this one is that the Giants find a way to scratch together a couple runs, whether by bloop or by blast. We can’t lay -170 chalk against Lincecum even though the big three starters for the Phils have been beaten a grand total of one time at home since July.
EMBRACING RISK AND FAILURE WITH GROUPON INC.’S BRAD KEYWELL, BBA ’91/JD ’93.
States News Service September 19, 2011 ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The following information was released by Ross School of Business:
Brad Keywell, BBA ’91/JD ’93 , thinks government and society have it wrong when it comes to risk and failure.
As a serial entrepreneur, he knows how valuable both can be. Keywell is co-founder and director of Groupon Inc., a website that utilizes social networking to enable group purchasing. The site offers a daily Internet coupon that provides consumers substantial discounts on products and services. But the “groupon” is only valid if the daily quota of people participates. Launched in November 2008, Groupon now counts some 7,000 employees, and offers deals across 43 countries.
Keywell also founded MediaBank LLC, Echo Global Logistics Inc., and venture fund Lightbank.
Those are the successes, and Keywell points out that everyone loves a winner. But there were failures, too, and those aren’t as celebrated. In fact, “the popular press generally burns you at the stake” if you fail in business, he noted. And the focus in government and society seems to be on risk avoidance rather than intelligent risk-taking. go to web site groupon boston
If Keywell had followed that formula, none of the companies he founded would have gotten off the ground.
“It’s not win or lose, it’s winning or learning,” Keywell said during his keynote address at Entrepalooza 2011: The Path Forward. The annual symposium at Ross, hosted by the Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, brings together leaders in entrepreneurship and venture capital to share the secrets behind their success with students, alumni, faculty, and members of the broader business community.
The process of being an entrepreneur could be likened to the experience of the Maasai warriors of eastern Africa, Keywell said. Massai men go through a series of tests — enduring pain without flinching, herding cattle for days, and hunting — before becoming warriors.
Failure is certainly possible, but the real goal is to learn and grow.
“That, to me, is entrepreneurship — risk, inevitable failure, and hopefully overcoming all of it,” Keywell said.
Business schools are coming around to that idea, but government and media still lag. So why does it matter? The latest economic downturn, which began in 2008, has seen the worst job loss since 1945. Since 1995, most of the net new jobs in the United States were created by companies five years old or younger.
“Entrepreneurs matter. They matter now more than ever,” Keywell said. “If you are becoming an entrepreneur, you hold the key not only to your future, but the future of our country.” Keywell’s own journey includes taking risk and enduring failure. In fact, sometimes success can become failure and failure can become success, he said. He recalled when he and partner Eric Lefkofsky, AB ’91/JD ’93 , founded Starbelly, a tech boom-era business that was supposed to disrupt the logo merchandise industry. Less than a year after its founding, Halo Industries acquired the venture for $240 million and Keywell signed on as Halo president. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Halo later filed for bankruptcy. Payment to Keywell and Lefkosky was mostly stock. this web site groupon boston
“Failure, massive failure,” he said. “But it’s not win or lose in entrepreneurship. It’s win or learn. We made a list of things we thought we were good at and not good at, and things we wanted to do more of and less of. We still have that list and it guides us.” For example, after they founded Echo Global Logistics in 2005, Keywell and Lefkosky hired a CEO to take it public. One thing Keywell learned from the Starbelly experience was that he didn’t want to be a top executive at a public company again.
Tenacity is another lesson Keywell has learned over time. Groupon, he noted, may be successful today, but even that startup nearly died on the vine. Along with Andrew Mason, Keywell and Lefkofsky originally funded and co-founded Groupon precursor The Point, an online destination designed to spark collective action. A year later, The Point had zero revenue and was on its way to failure.
“Do you throw in the towel, just forget it, or do you dig a little deeper and ask, ‘what’s the logic behind it?’” Keywell said.
The trio revisited the business model, tweaked the website’s functionality, and renamed the venture Groupon.
“Underneath every failure is buried an opportunity,” Keywell said. “Some are immediate opportunities, some require investigation. The question is whether you can see it. The question is whether you can pivot and find a gem of greatness.” Keywell suggested putting any idea through a series of tests by writing a business plan with the intent of convincing onesself that it won’t work.
“Eric and I are big believers of in business plans — writing your idea down, seeing what it looks like on paper, and beating it up before you do anything with it,” he said. Sticking with the “precious few” that survive the process increases your odds of success.
Keywell also encouraged students to “mine” for opportunities in business school and find the openings that will set them up for future success.
“Are you using your school, in this wonderful city of Ann Arbor, to help you explore opportunities, learn, and explore risk?” he asked.
More than anything, though, entrepreneurs need a philosophy that keeps them on mission when things get tough, Keywell said. He creates businesses simply because that’s what makes him happy.
“Artists create because they have no other choice but to create art,” he said. “To me that is the world of an entrepreneur. You have no choice but to create a business.” Keywell discounts the notion that a rough economy equates to a hostile climate for new ventures. More than half of the companies on the Fortune 500 started in a recession or a bear market, he pointed out. Despite government and society not appreciating the entrepreneurial process, there are some things that favor the business creator — capital markets are more efficient, data and information are easily accessible and sometimes free, technology is cheaper, and mobile and social media technologies create opportunities that didn’t exist a few years ago.
“How exciting is that?” Keywell said. “You hold the future vibrancy of our nation. If you win, great. But if you fail, that’s often the precursor to something better.”
This fantastic pitching duel features two of the best in the game. It’s hard to think that this wasn’t the best performance by a hurler in the playoffs, but RHP Tim Lincecum’s complete game two hitter was certainly one for the ages. He struck out 14 men and allowed just three to reach base for his third win in as many starts in Game 1 of the NLDS. Lincecum is also 6-1 in his L/7 MLB betting affairs. It wasn’t a thrilling season for the righty, but at 16-10, he was still good enough to be the ace of this staff all year long. Lincecum hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a start since the end of August. He is 2-1 with a 3.17 career ERA against the Phils and struck out 11 the last time he faced them.