Guest guest Posted December 25, 2011 Report Share Posted December 25, 2011 [image: Posterous Spaces] [image: Your daily Update] December 25th, 2011 Lies Entrepreneurs Tell <http://ptmanagerblog.com/lies-entrepreneurs-tell> Posted about 20 hours ago by [image: _portrait_thumb] Kovacek, PT, DPT, MSA <http://posterous.com/users/1l1oCkDWEWjv> to PTManager<http://ptmanagerblog.com> [image: Like this post]<http://posterous.com/likes/create?post_id=89194980> Lies Entrepreneurs Tell [image: lying nose] *Editor’s note:** Contributor *Ashkan Karbasfrooshan<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/ashkan-karbasfrooshan> * is the founder and CEO of *WatchMojo<http://www.watchmojo.com/index.php?id=1> *. Follow him *@ashkan <https://twitter.com/#%21/ashkan>*.* Entrepreneurs are always in “sell mode”, but that doesn’t mean they need to be BS-artists. Most entrepreneurs aren’t born liars, but we’re brought up in a system that rewards bad behavior<http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/03/web-rewarding-greed/>and taking the easy way out by lying instead of being truthful, something that eventually catches up with you. If you’re an entrepreneur, here are 5 common lies you’ve probably told. *Lie No. 1: “I have no regrets” or “If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t do it any differently”.* Conventional wisdom suggests that you should not regret anything. Highly unlikely if you ask me; the key is *how* you manage the things you regret and what you do about them: do you let them affect you and cloud your judgment in the future? Do you dwell on the mistakes you have made or have you learned from your errors and ensure to avoid them in the future? Human beings are more Velcro than Teflon, but we are raised to think that having regrets or regretting something makes us feel inferior. I regret the color of socks I decided to wear today. I also regret not starting a company sooner. I regret that last shot of tequila at our office party last Friday. I could go on. The point is, it’s what you do about the mistakes and missed opportunities that you regret that matter, not pretending that you ever did anything wrong. Don’t live a lie, be honest about your past to live a better future. *Lie No. 2: “It’s not personal, it’s business”* You’ve certainly heard the line “it’s business, not personal” from The Godfather. I had a boss who used to live by this motto. After I helped make him millions, I left to start WatchMojo; he sued me in a frivolous lawsuit<http://www.watchmojo.com/blog/business/2008/05/08/flashback-may-8th-2006\ -the-calm-before-the-storm/>(which I won despite representing myself). He had no case and lost any shred of integrity he had left. It was personal. In other words, just because you hear a cool line in a movie doesn’t make it true, and certainly doesn’t mean you should live by it. It’s Hollywood, it’s make-believe. In real life, *everything* is personal, especially in business—and in particular at startups, where emotions run high and personalities spill over into the workplace. Of course, without a doubt, anyone who can manage their feelings and not let personal emotions affect business decisions has an upper hand in business dealings, but that doesn’t make business any less personal. In sports, it’s great to remain cool—think Joe Montana. But those who take losing personally and play to win tend to win more often than they lose. Success boils down to vision, ambition, determination, execution, luck and timing. Luck and timing are the most important externalities and determination is arguably the biggest variable you can control. As such, success or failure boils down to emotions and how determined you are to win, take your victories and setbacks personally, but act professionally about it. In my experience, anyone who says this lie is probably most likely to take things personally, even if they don’t realize it. I tell my colleagues that I expect them to take their work personally (so that they are passionate) but that they should remain professional about how they show their reactions. *Lie No. 3: “We’re not raising money” * It’s practically the American dream to spend other people’s money. Yet publicly, entrepreneurs oftentimes play charades and pretend that they’re not raising money. Why? Building companies takes time and money. Telling an investor who is taking the time to meet you that you’re not interested in raising money isn’t playing hard to get, it’s wasting their time. *Lie No. 4: “We’re not looking to sell”* When the Google guys were willing to sell their search engine early on to Yahoo! for a couple of million dollars, then you know that *all*entrepreneurs would sell<http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/15/top-10-greatest-u-s-digital-media-ma-deals\ -of-all-time/>if the price was right. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s when entrepreneurs try to convince anyone who will listen that they’re going to IPO. A fraction of startups go on to survive, let alone succeed. A fraction of those will have liquidity events, and—you guessed it—a small portion of those will come from IPOs. This year we saw the return of tech IPOs, and most of them fizzled after the offering. Call me a cynic, but as an investor, I like to know that an entrepreneur is thinking of who might buy his company. *Lie No. 5: “I’m your biggest fan”* People who say “I’m your biggest fan” probably have already stabbed you in the back or will throw you under when you’re not around. Whenever someone has said this to me in the past, it’s been akin to the kiss of death. Be honest with people: if you are actually their biggest fan, don’t just say it—act on it. And if you don’t like someone, then don’t be a hypocrite. I’ve found that people who use this line like to use it a lot. They are * everyone’s* biggest fan. When it’s said and done, the truth always comes out. And when it comes to clichés, eventually people see through them and you look hollow. All you have is your integrity and your word; don’t waste your credibility by trying to curry favor. *Image by Arena Creative <http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-59783p1.html> /Shutterstock*. Shell companies steal millions in Medicare fraud - FierceHealthcare<http://ptmanagerblog.com/shell-companies-steal-millions-in-medi\ care-fr> Posted about 20 hours ago by [image: _portrait_thumb] Kovacek, PT, DPT, MSA <http://posterous.com/users/1l1oCkDWEWjv> to PTManager<http://ptmanagerblog.com> [image: Like this post]<http://posterous.com/likes/create?post_id=89197618> Shell companies steal millions in Medicare fraud December 22, 2011 — 1:10pm ET | By M. Cheung<http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/author/kcheung> Shell companies--sham firms on paper with no real operations--are a prime tool for fraudsters to scam Medicare out of millions of dollars, according to a Reuters investigation. Medicare's current pay-and-chase system has holes that allow providers (or imposter providers) to bill Medicare for services and then steal millions of dollars from the federal health program. For instance, Florida authorities charged Michel De Jesus Huarte for his role in setting up fake AIDS clinics in Florida, but not before he billed Medicare for more than $4.5 million and formed at least 29 other shell companies in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, Reuters reports. Huarte and co-conspirators formed clinics purported to treat HIV and AIDS patients and submitted claims for expensive drugs such as Infliximab and Rituxan, costing Medicare as much as $7,800 per dose. " This is a 'Catch Me If You Can' environment, " said K. Stumphauzer, a former assistant U.S. attorney with the Department of Justice in Miami who prosecuted Huarte. " We had no clue who Huarte was. We had no idea there was some mastermind out there. " The strategy of shell companies can go unnoticed for years. Scam artists use fake names and addresses for corporations or real information from others. In Florida, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents said almost every Medicare fraud case involved a shell company. Florida, where the fake AIDS clinic scheme took place, is one of five states that tops the list for the most Medicaid fraud activity<http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/feds-recover-nearly-184b-medicaid\ -fraud-5-states-top-list/2011-10-14>, according to a recent Office of Inspector General report issued in October; the other states are New York, Texas, California and Ohio. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last month announced that hospitals soon will be subject to prepayment audits<http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/hospitals-worried-about-medicare-ra\ c-prepayment-audits/2011-11-28>, with aims to fix the traditional pay-and-chase method. Effective January 2012, Medicare recovery audit contractors (RAC) in 11 states will conduct reviews of inpatient claims before payment. Those states will be areas that have high fraud and error-prone providers (Florida, California, Michigan, Texas, New York, Louisiana and Illinois), as well as those states with high claims volumes of short hospital stays (Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Montana). Although the government has expanded its Medicare Strike Force<http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/oig-hhs-target-hospitals-continued-f\ raud-crackdown/2011-10-06>with increased focus on acute-care and critical access hospitals, senators this week are pushing for better assessment of Medicare fraud detection. CMS plans to launch a new predictive modeling program nationwide this summer, in which the analysis tool will flag common patterns of Medicare fraud, such as suspicious billing patterns or a great distance between the hospital where treatment occurred and the claimant's home address, reports * Nextgov*. Senate Federal Financial Management Subcommittee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.), Ranking Member Brown (R-Mass.) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Tuesday requested CMS outline its plans to launch the predictive analytics technology and stated that CMS may not have sufficient metrics and processes in place as part of a comprehensive plan to ensure the success of identifying and preventing fraud. via fiercehealthcare.com<http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/shell-companies-steal\ -millions-medicare-fraud/2011-12-22> [image: App] On the go? *Download Posterous Spaces* for your phone <http://posterous.com/mobile> Sent by Posterous. Is this spam? Report it here<http://posterous.com/emails/gspsqucxgqviGogjvCufJwAxBxkgmH/subscriptions>. Manage or unsubscribe email subscriptions<http://posterous.com/emails/gspsqucxgqviGogjvCufJwAxBxkgmH/subscri\ ptions>. Other questions? We’d love to help. <http://help.posterous.com> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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