Jason Calacanis is a serial entrepreneur, founder of Weblogs Inc and Mahalo.com and a general man-about-the-internet. Over the years he's had unprecedented success with startups and has doled out some very useful advice. I came across this video of Calacanis giving a lecture to some students at Penn State, and was really impressed with the way he tells his story and gives advice (hat tip Secrets of the Job Hunt).

What stood out most from his comments was this specific bit of advice:

What it takes to be an entrepreneur is to be about 6 months ahead of everyone else. That's it ... If you've got a six month lead on people that's all you need to see the business opportunity and get a really significant head start.

He goes on to detail how, specifically, with Weblogs Inc., all that he did was recognize a growing trend online and find a way to monetize it. He points out that he was ahead of the curve by about 6 months to a year, and as a result he found very significant success. All in all it's a great little video, and I highly recommend you check it out.