Think about the people you know who are successful in their personal and professional lives. Were they born destined for success? How do they make reaching goals that most would consider completely unfeasible seem so easy?

It's not fate. Instead, they all have one thing in common: resilience. The good news is we all have it in us. All we have to do is learn to develop and utilize it.

An ominous spike in global ocean temperatures are threatening some of our most cherished underwater ecosystems. Coral reef communities — from the Great Barrier Reef to the Caribbean — could be victims of the third recorded global coral bleaching event on record, fueled by a combination of a strong El Niño and manmade global warming.

Coral bleaching occurs when waters reach certain temperatures (the exact temperature is different depending on the coral community). This causes corals to expel the algae that live in their tissues and give them their vibrant colors, while supporting extraordinarily diverse ecosystems.

Image: Antilles Shipwreck, Aruba IMAGE: CATLIN SEAVIEW SURVEY 

BEIJING - China will accelerate its exploration of new models to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, the central government said in a statement on Saturday.

The government will step up the establishment of relevant platforms, support crowdsourcing, encourage private capital to invest in innovators and widen funding channels, according to a guideline released by the State Council, China's cabinet.

A snapshot of small-business activity in North Carolina during and in the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession can be created using preliminary results from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 Survey of Business Owners. This is possible because the previous survey was conducted five years earlier – prior to the onset of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression – in 2007.

In 2012, there were 805,985 small businesses in North Carolina – 7,194 or 1 percent more than existed in 2007. Sales and receipts totaled $847 billion in 2012 – 3.6 percent or $29 billion higher than the $818 billion small businesses generated in 2007.

The recent Chief Innovation Officer Summit in Sydney assembled Australia’s leading voices under one roof for a two-day master class on how to innovate. Delegates from a spectrum as diverse as healthcare, media and finance shared how they’re bringing innovation into the Australian enterprise at a time of unprecedented change when even formerly safe industries are under tension.

As a sponsor and chair for the summit, The Strategy Group had a ringside seat to see how Australian organisations are tackling the challenge to be more innovative as industries are remade around them.

Although there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to innovation, common themes emerged as speakers talked through their unique challenges. Here are our five key pointers to how Australian organisations are bringing innovation to bear.

I started working at Aslanoba Capital, Turkey’s most active internet investor, more than two years ago, and we’ve invested over $60 million in over 40 companies in Turkey. Our investments include the world’s largest hijab online fashion site, Modanisa, Turkey’s leading taxi hailing app, Bitaksi, and Turkey’s largest prepaid debit card, Ininal. This gives us a bird’s eye view of the Turkish startup scene, and I want to share that perspective with you.

I spent the day yesterday doing Denver Startup Week stuff. I was on a bunch of panels and during one of the Q&A sessions someone asked something to the effect of:

“Now that things are moving faster than ever before, how do you deal with / keep up with them?” I thought about it for a second and responded that I wasn’t sure the assertion was correct. I don’t think things are moving faster than ever before. I paused to make sure I believed that. Then I continued with my answer.

Image: Wikipedia

Oculus Rift. The Pebble Smartwatch. Hidden Radio 2.

These are just some examples of ideas funded by crowdfunding. Imagine how much more money could be raised if companies could offer equity in exchange. That desire, to change the law to allow for investment crowdfunding, is what I have heard from entrepreneurs from across the country over and over again.

Increasingly, countries are searching for new sources of growth to maintain and improve living standards, create sustainable employment, diversify their industrial base and address critical challenges of growing and ageing populations, among many challenges.

The annual Global Innovation Index, or GII, prepared since 2007 by INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, measures innovation in a holistic way, scoring and ranking more than 140 countries. It combines an innovation input sub-index and an innovation output sub-index, plus an innovation efficiency ratio, to produce an overall Global Innovation Index.

Eureka moments are rare. The backstory behind great ideas is often more complex and winding than having an apple fall on your head. But the best part is that creative ideas aren’t reserved for a special group of people; they can come to anyone if you change your mind-set.

"The fact is, almost all of the research in this field shows that anyone with normal intelligence is capable of doing some degree of creative work," Teresa Amabile, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and author of The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, told Fast Company in 2004.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been neck deep in managing BodeTree’s latest capital raise. My experience this time around, especially compared to our early rounds, has been overwhelmingly positive. The growth and traction that we’ve seen in the marketplace has made the process much easier, however, I’ve found that there is still a significant void in the investment industry.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrismyers/2015/10/10/three-tips-for-navigating-todays-venture-capital-landscape/

Christopher and I spoke in April 2014. I connected with him about the same time I connected with David Verrill, Jim Connor, and Allan May, all of whom are on the board of directors at the Angel Capital Association. All four of these angels are leaders in the angel group community and have spent a fair amount of their lives thinking about how to improve the practice of angel investing. I was glad they all operated in their own space and had their own opinions and approach to angel investing. Christopher and I got into an interesting discussion about investing on momentum and investing on value that I’ll include here as an introduction to the value investors section.

Getting a business off the ground is hard and often feels like one obstacle after another. You need a compelling idea. You need funding. You need customers. You need to learn how to market – the list of things you need is endless, but perhaps the most critical thing you will need is people to take you seriously. It can be hard to get that no matter your age, but as a young entrepreneur you will often be faced with more challenges establishing credibility with potential investors, your team and peers, potential partners and even your customers.

Image: Plastiq's Eliot Buchanan and Daniel Choi cofounded the company when they were 22. Image Credit: ©2015 Jon Chomitz Photography

Most entrepreneurs I know want to do the right thing for their businesses, as well as themselves, but they are not always sure what that means. Does it mean the right thing from a customer perspective, societal impact, maximizing business returns or personal benefit? The good news is that none of these need be mutually exclusive, according to recent studies of market trends.

Australia’s universities are calling for a bold new research and innovation investment strategy, arguing that it is vital to the economic transformation that the government and opposition parties both say the country must make.

The call was central to a pre-election policy blueprint released by Universities Australia – the voice of Australia’s universities – last Wednesday.

A “game-changing” national strategy for funding wealth-generating research and innovation is needed, yet Australia is the only OECD country without a national research and innovation plan, the universities body said.

Innovation coming out of American colleges and universities is alive and well. The Association of University Technology Managers' fiscal year 2014 Licensing Survey released in September shows an 11.7% increase in startups spun out of universities with 914 new companies. Meanwhile, there was a 34% increase, to 965, in the number of products in 2014 created by companies licensing university technologies, despite a 5% reduction in federal funding to university research last year as part of the federal government sequester. All told, net product sales derived from university technologies reached $28 billion in 2014, an increase of 27.2% over 2013.

Image: http://www.thedeal.com

Just as the PC has become a staple of everyday life, so too has the internet. For those old enough to remember, the PC used to be relegated to the techy crowd, so the internet was the domain of the scientist. But as the PC gained popularity and the price grew within the reach of ordinary people, so the internet changed as well. Once the realm of academics, the internet is now nearly indispensable to everyday people. Social media has become an integral part of business strategy. As per Social Media Daily, “Businesses are able to spread their presence through channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Soundcloud and Google Plus.” One can hardly remember what life was like without it, and there are generations that never lived without it. It has become ingrained in our lives, it has replaced ordinary things like going to movies, reading books and balancing our checkbooks.

Image: http://memeburn.com

As the economy recovers from some tough economic times, more and more people seem to be turning to entrepreneurship as an alternative to traditional employment. I applaud this trend, but caution all of you thinking of going this direction to approach entrepreneurship with your eyes wide open. The entrepreneur’s path is fraught with challenges. It may not be for everyone.

We all know what the term "investment" represents: it typically revolves around taking an amount of money and buying bonds or shares of an index fund or a public or private company. But there are a number of time investments that every entrepreneur should make that, although they won’t put out an annual percent-based rate of return, will produce both personal and professional returns that will go well beyond the public financial markets.