There’s an old adage: “those that can, do.  Those that can’t, teach”.  While not universally true, I believe it’s true in most cases.  There are many a failed or mediocre business person who couldn’t hack it in sales or owning their own business and had to settle for becoming business teachers of some sort at a school.  You can also find these people still in the business world.  For instance, if someone can’t cut it as an independent third party recruiter (eg. executive search or headhunter) they often take up a much more secure yet far less paying job in Human Resources.

You would be very hard pressed to find any highly successful business person making huge amounts of money suddenly deciding giving it all up for full time teaching at any sort of school for relatively very little money.

The Ryerson Angel Network claims to provide start-up companies funding as well as advice and support.  Clearly that’s not the case with Dr. Norrie.  The other thing about Norrie that probably accounts for why he’s had to settle for being an armchair entrepreneur rather than a real one is his highly arrogant, know it all attitude.    There is no doubt that arrogance is a double edged sword.  Self confidence is perhaps the most important trait successful entrepreneurs possess.  However, when a person’s self confidence veers into arrogance it changes their personality a lot.  They become uninterested in other people’s opinions or new ideas.  They become abrasive and highly uncooperative or willing to compromise on anything.

An arrogant person is an egocentric person.  An egocentric person lacks empathy with other people.  They don’t really care about what other people think or feel.  This sort of attitude bodes ill for working with buyers because it’s all about them and what they want.  If you’re not really all about them then they’ll quickly pick up on this and want to show you the door.