article thumbnail

4 Assumptions About Risk You Shouldn’t Be Making

Harvard Business Review

Most executives know that the present value of an investment comes from projecting its cash flows and discounting those numbers into today’s dollars. The general rule is projects with positive net present values should get funded, and those with negative ones shouldn’t. They don’t.

article thumbnail

Which MBAs Make More: Consultants or Small-Business Owners?

Harvard Business Review

Owners of small businesses can set their own hours, make their own management decisions, and take pride in the ownership of their work. But the annual cash compensation only provides part of the pecuniary payoffs of the purchase of a small business because the entrepreneur also has a significant ownership interest in the company.

article thumbnail

The Secrets to Building a Lucky Network

Harvard Business Review

After all, if he were on a desert island without a capital market, the value of his skill goes nearly to zero. In research for we did for our forthcoming book, Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck , my co-authors and I were surprised at how many of the entrepreneurs and business builders we talked to attributed their success to Luck.