Everyone hits a crossroad from time to time. We get stuck in a state of indecision on a problem that seems to have no correct answer, and at times, it can be maddening.

From pristine beaches in Indonesia to picturesque mountains in Armenia, more freelancers and entrepreneurs are escaping fluorescent-lit cubicle life for less traditional "offices" overseas. I've met them—and I am one myself.

Three years ago, Kate Rogers was caught in the Bay Area struggle. She paid the astronomical rents. She did the crushing commute. She lived the frustration of always thinking about money even though she was a well-paid professional in the booming technology industry.

Answer three short questions to get a tailor-made way to say you're not at work

Like so many morsels of office drudgery, the out-of-office message that one leaves behind while on vacation has acquired its own internal set of stylistic rules. As the New York Times noted last summer, “some cannot resist the opportunity to inject a bit of their personality into their correspondents’ inboxes in absentia.”

Most of us make bad decisions every day. We eat too much despite being full, we spend too much when we should be budgeting, we drive when we should walk, and we choose not to resign from jobs we hate.

Meet Kobe Bryant, venture capitalist.

The retired NBA star today unveiled his venture-capital fund, a $100 million vehicle for investing in technology, media and data companies.

More and more people agree: cybersecurity is in our region’s DNA and can continue to be a boom for greater Washington.

But venture capital is pivotal in providing the accelerant for rapid growth of technology companies, and it I fear that the lack of sufficient risk capital is strangling some promising startups.

Entrepreneurship in the U.S. is showing signs of a comeback, with the number of companies being launched up for the second straight year.

That's the finding of the Kauffman Foundation's annual report on startup activity. Kauffman's index tracking startups stands at 0.38 for 2016; the index registered at minus 0.33 in 2015 and minus 0.95 in 2014. Its last positive reading was in 2010, when it stood at 0.08. The figures compare to a baseline of zero when Kauffman began tracking entrepreneurship in 1996.

Reasoned economic and scientific debate is sorely lacking in developed countries despite high education levels.

Jean Pisani-Ferry, a professor at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, has written a very interesting post about the need for trusted experts in a democracy. He addresses the criticisms that economic experts have received as a result of the Brexit vote. Quoting from the post:

Venture capital (VC) financing fuels our future by investing in small, early-stage companies and projects that may be destined to become the next Apple or Google. A new report from Martin Prosperity Institute shows venture capital is highly concentrated by industry. The top five industries (in order) are as follows: software, biotechnology, media and entertainment, medical devices and equipment and information technology services.  According to the report, which uses detailed data from Thomson Reuters, these top five VC industries receive $25 billion in investment—more than three-quarters of the overall pie. If expanded to include the top 10 industries, we can account for more than 90 percent of all VC investment. The report focuses on the intersection of industry and geography for all VC investments.

Having a great idea for a business is one thing. Getting the financial backing to grow, scale and make it a success is quite another.

Most entrepreneurs approach funding in stages, starting by dipping into their own savings, going cap-in-hand to friends and family, taking advantage of government grants, crowdfunding and potentially seeking angel and venture capital.

Most people are probably not familiar with non-compete agreements, at least until they are hired for a job by an employer who requires one as a condition of employment. Non-compete agreements restrict where somebody can work, for a certain period of time, after leaving their current employer. Supporters of these agreements argue that they are necessary to protect a business from an employee leaving to work for a competitor or to start her own business that may be competitive with her former employer.

Image: http://patch.com/

From advances in renewable energy to encouraging young men to check for testicular cancer, Aussie companies are leading the way when it comes to being innovative and disruptive. The Australian Financial Review's 'Most Innovative Companies' top 50 list is compiled with innovation consultancy, Inventium as a way to pinpoint exactly which companies are moving in unique directions.

DURHAM — Research Triangle Park will be expanding its “open innovation” area, The Frontier, creating more space for budding companies.

RTP opened The Frontier in 2015 as the first completed project in its Park Center Development, which will encompass 100 acres of residential, retail, office and outdoor areas.

The Bonfire Of Venture Capital: The Good, Bad And Ugly Side Of Cash Burn! by Aswath Damodaran

In my last post on Uber, I noted that it was burning through cash and that this cash burn, by itself, is neither unexpected nor a bad sign. Since I got quite a few comments on what I said, I decided to make this post just about the causes and consequences of cash burn. In the process, I hope to dispel two myths held on opposite ends of the investing spectrum, the notion on the part of value investors, that a high cash burn signals a death spiral for a business and the equally strongly held belief, at the start-up investing end , that a cash burn is a sign of growth and vitality.

According to a new survey released by Big Four firm Deloitte, more companies in the middle market are embracing emerging technologies as a key element of their business growth strategy.

The survey also revealed that chief information and technology officers are calling more of the shots with technology investments. In fact, respondents indicated that 49 percent of technology adoption is led by IT department leaders, compared to only 36 percent in 2015.

In the U.S., the two hottest locations for biotech startups are Cambridge, Massachusetts and the San Francisco Bay Area. Generally speaking, the reason is proximity to major research institutions and universities, and interested venture capital. But at least in the case of the Boston area, the growth hasn’t just been a happy conjunction of academia and venture firms. Developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities has worked to make it happen.

On a recent night out in Beijing, a friend in her late 20s sent me a message on WeChat to ask which new restaurant I’d like to try: Thai or Italian? Then she sent me a location “pin” on the popular Chinese social-messaging app to help me navigate to the chosen address. After dinner, we took selfies while clinking cocktail glasses, and she enhanced our pixels using MeituPic, a popular photo retouching app, to virtually brighten our lipstick and smooth any dark circles under our eyes before posting the photos to her WeChat timeline with the caption “Fabulous dinner!”

The aim of investing in any kind of business is to make profit and anything contrary to that is unacceptable to entrepreneurs.

One way to ensure that a business keeps growing is investing wisely and according to experts, this involves certain characteristics that an investor needs to have in order to build wealth.

Image: http://punchng.com

Each month seems to bring a new piece of major economic news to Delaware that fundamentally challenges how our state has approached economic development for several decades.

Our economy today is unrecognizable to leaders of just a generation ago, as major corporations are downsizing and huge chunks of entire industries have left the state. Traditionally, the state’s economy has relied on the presence of large corporate and institutional employers, which is where much of Delaware’s long history of research and innovation has occurred. Now, to keep up with economic and technological change, Delaware must develop a culture of entrepreneurship.