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Most business founders start their company with the highest of ideals and wouldn’t dream of building one with a culture of apathy or downright unethical behavior. Yet all too many succumb to the pressures of survival, driven by demanding investors or a cutthroat competitive environment. How does a Read More

With the pace of change ever escalating, business owners today can't afford to acquire talent through traditional hiring and need to revise the perception that "talent" is only full-time office employees. More and more people in the workforce don't want to be resident employees. More than 40 percen Read More

As an enthusiastic early-stage investor in new business ideas, I have always been surprised that some founders who appeared to have a great idea and were doing everything right still failed, while others with “far out” ideas and tactics managed to succeed. I’ve become convinced that the difference Read More

You can’t survive as a new business founder without resilience, because you are going to fail at least once, maybe multiple times. That’s the nature of trying something that’s never been done before. Resilience means not giving up and being energized by what you have learned. As Thomas Edison said, Read More

Every technical business founder I mentor is an early adopter of technology, so naturally, they build things with people like themselves in mind. Unfortunately, for most solution markets early adopters represent only 10 to 15 percent of the total opportunity, so it's easy to get misled about the re Read More

One of the things I have learned from working in many businesses, big and small, is that people are the key to success, rather than any specific business model or innovative product. People and their personalities determine how decisions are made that drive business. The better you can read people Read More

Does your business have a visible positive strategy, or do your customers and employees still see your primary focus as closing more sales and killing competitors? Certainly, that has been the strategy of many companies and has worked in the past, but today's customers and workers are looking for m Read More

More business owners want to be socially responsible these days, but fear a negative impact on profits, growth, and the ability to find investors. In the short run, there are real costs associated with the “triple bottom line” of maximizing profit, people (social), and planet (environment). But ve Read More

Based on my own experiences in big businesses, as well as being an advisor to new startups, I have concluded that innovation starts with a mindset that change is inevitable and most often good, rather than something to be avoided at all costs. This mindset must be nurtured in every part of the orga Read More

In my experience mentoring business owners and aspiring business leaders, I see far too many who seem to be driven by all the wrong reasons. Everyone seems to espouse extrinsic motivations, such as getting rich, having power, and fulfilling their parents' dreams, when in fact a focus on satisfying Read More