Linda Rottenberg

Every entrepreneur at one point in time has had a “crazy moment”—a time when almost everyone bets against them. What separates successful entrepreneurs from the rest is the ability to face down naysayers, embrace and manage risk, harness chaos, tolerate failure, and muster the courage to be contrarian. The best entrepreneurs zig when everyone else zags. Linda Rottenberg has spent her career helping innovators think big and get over their own fears. Blending inspirational stories with practical tips, she will help you hone your entrepreneurial personality, take smart risks, and adapt the tenets of leadership 3.0. As Linda says, “If people aren’t calling you crazy, then you’re not thinking big enough.”

Twenty-five years ago “entrepreneurship” was a rarely used French term that applied to a handful of individuals that were mostly in tech, mostly in California, and mostly go it alone. Today, entrepreneurship is better viewed as a distinct set of skills and a way of approaching the world. Top corporations have taken note and are seeking ways to disrupt themselves before others beat them to it. For 18 years, Linda Rottenberg has guided 1,000 “high-impact” innovators around the world, helping them scale from promising startups to global multinationals. Now she shares cutting-edge strategies for success and compelling—and occasionally irreverent—business lessons. Managers will come away with practical tips for adopting an entrepreneurial mindset essential to success in the new global economy.

Named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News & World Report, Linda Rottenberg has developed a playbook for leading effectively in the new global economy. Thanks to 20 years of experience working with 1,000 world-class entrepreneurs while simultaneously scaling her organization, Endeavor, in 20 countries, she has identified the “Goldilocks rules” of 21st century leadership: not so “hard” that they apply only to button-downed organizations; not so “soft” that they apply only to t-shirt startups. In this talk, Linda explains how to use chaos to your advantage; motivate employees with “psychic equity”; attract and manage millennials; infuse your business with purpose; and remain nimble in an age of disruption. Linda also shares tips for building a diverse global workforce and ensuring that all employees find meaning in their work.

Stability is dead. Economic crises, technological disruption and nimbler competition mean that more than ever, individuals and corporations must adapt or perish. If you think risk-taking is risky, being risk-averse is often riskier. But how do you know which risks to take? This is Linda Rottenberg’s expertise. The backer of 1,000 top entrepreneurs and author of Crazy Is a Compliment: The Power of Zigging When Everyone Else Zags, Linda is a leading champion of challengers to the status quo. In this talk, she discusses strategies to stop planning and start doing, mitigate risk, embrace chaos, win backers (including your boss), and take your idea to market. Above all, she will help you realize that nowadays you need to be agile and daring, and maybe a little bit crazy, or risk being left behind. “If you’re not being called crazy,” says Rottenberg, “you’re probably not thinking big enough.”