Becoming a millionaire may seem like an unobtainable dream. I've been there and felt like it was unattainable and something that would never happen to me.

Then I started reading, studying and mimicking countless different successful millionaires.

In reality, it’s a lot more common than you think and completely possible if you have the right mentality to become rich. Here are 20 signs based on observations from several millionaire friends of mine, that you're destined to become successful.

Recently I looked at the latest EU document on innovation that espoused open science and open innovation. The paper talks about the need for scientific collaboration to be rife, and for a landscape that encourages this knowledge to transfer quickly into industry.

Further insight into the strategy of the European Commission on innovation was provided by a recently published research note written by the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC). The note highlights the important role innovation plays in the future of Europe, and sets out what it believes are crucial aspects of supporting it.

Image: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

On August 10, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed an extensive economic development bill (HB 4569) into law. The new economic development law, An Act Relative to Job Creation and Workforce Development, will provide up to $1 billion with the intent of “building a skilled workforce, connecting residents to economic opportunities, strengthening community and housing development efforts, and investing in the emerging technologies that will drive Massachusetts’ economic prosperity in the future.” Among the items included in the bill are $71 million for the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative, $15 million for the Scientific and Technology Research Development Matching Grant Fund, $15 million for the Community Innovation Infrastructure Fund, and an angel investor tax credit.

Starting up a new business can be incredibly difficult. After all, it takes a lot more than a great idea and a pocket full of dreams in order to disrupt markets and generate success. New entrepreneurs need access to capital, mentoring and structural resources in order to prosper. But sometimes those lifelines seem nearly impossible to track down — which is why nine out of ten startups shrivel up and die within three years.

Maggie Wilderotter, former CEO of Frontier Communications and a former senior executive at both Microsoft and AT&T, remembers the day that her mother called her at work to report that her husband, Jay, was up on the roof with their 14-month-old son.

As she recounted at the recent Wharton Leadership Conference, she called her husband in a panic. He answered from a portable phone (this being the days before everyone had cell phones) and confirmed it was true.

Want to raise money for your new small business or entrepreneurial venture? Until now, it’s seemed easier for a twenty-something techie in San Francisco to raise millions of dollars than an experienced businesswoman in Ohio to raise thousands. Thanks to new equity “crowdfunding” rules that went into effect in May, that situation may have changed.

In the height of the Great Recession, President Obama proposed the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups), making it easier for small businesses and start-ups to raise funds. In 2012, Congress enacted the legislation legalizing equity crowdfunding.

Somewhere along the line, having your head in the clouds got a bad rap. Yet, for business leaders, finding time to ponder the future can mean the difference between successfully scaling your company or watching it fizzle.

There’s a reason LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner sets aside two hours a day for uninterrupted thinking and why Richard Branson takes time off to dream big. Studies show that companies that have a vision grow twice as big as those that don’t and taking the time to set goals increases your odds of achieving them by 95 per cent.

To celebrate the end of my internship at Entrepreneur.com, I was kindly taken to lunch by my bosses. “What did you enjoy most while interning here?” one asked. I talked about people I had interviewed, events I had attended and my favorite articles that I worked on.

I also mentioned a piece I had done on Elon Musk, which torpedoed into a statement about how I had become slightly obsessed with him (which I immediately regretted). “Do you like, have a crush on him?” one of my editors asked. Well yes, but that’s not what I was referring to.

Image: Elon Musk - Photo: Steve Jurvetson - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/18659265152/

Every other day, we hear stories of young people turning entrepreneurs, creating fantastic apps, and generally conquering the world. It usually brings on one of those 'what-have-we-done-with-our-lives', where we look back at our years and lament the time wasted. In today's edition--yes, it did take us down that same road again--we feature 5 young innovators who are morphing the face of technology and creating things that are novel and marvellous, to say the least.

Image: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/

Corporate venture capital firms have closed fewer deals and raised less money over the last few months, with activity level at a 9-quarter low, according to a new report from research firm CB Insights.  

The overall deal flow for corporate VC firms (i.e. divisions like Google Ventures, Intel Capital and Qualcomm Ventures) is down 11 percent from the first to the second quarter this year. 

There's more venture capital money floating around Nashville, and most of it is still going into the health care business. The city's investors and health care executives have compiled a report that finds in the last 10 years, $1.6 billion has been poured into local startups, 60 percent of that went into health care.

These are companies that have moved beyond angel investors or getting help from friends and family. According to the Nashville Capital Network and the Nashville Health Care Council — who jointly produced the report — a total of 300 firms were backed by venture money between 2005 and 2015.

Image: http://nashvillepublicradio.org

What can you tell us about White Star Capital and your role there?

White Star Capital (WSC) is a transatlantic venture capital (VC) fund. I’m a managing partner there.

Before WSC I was at Facebook for four years. My job was to convince European tech companies to build on top of the Facebook platform and use the platform for distribution. During that time I saw a lot of the European start-up ecosystem.

Image: Venture capital investor Christian Hernandez Gallardo says: ‘A real challenge for us is when the entrepreneur is hazy about their offering’ CREDIT: WHITE STAR CAPITAL

How do you manage someone you've never met in person? And how do you gain loyalty from somebody who works for you 10 hours a week? How do you make all the parts work together?

For all the talk about the gig economy, it's still something most people have little firsthand experience with. According to a recent Pew survey, only about one in 10 Americans have even heard of the term "gig economy," even though it's been estimated that about 40% of the U.S. workforce will consist of freelance and independent workers by 2020.

I once asked the head of a top ad agency what makes a good ad. "No idea," he said. "I have creatives for that! My job is to manage the prima donnas."

He was being sarcastic, of course, and downplaying his own expertise, but I could tell he had a lot of confidence in his team leaders' creativity. And it wasn't because they educated him on the finer points of great advertising. It was because they'd influenced him—to believe that they knew what makes a good ad.

Image: Mollie Pritchett/Tech.Co

Intellectuals — a category that includes academics, opinion journalists, and think tank experts — are freaks. I do not mean that in a disrespectful way. I myself have spent most of my life in one of the three roles mentioned above. I have even been accused of being a “public intellectual,” which sounds too much like “public nuisance” or even “public enemy” for my taste.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

When you think of virtual reality, chances are something entertainment-oriented pops into your mind, like watching a movie or playing a video game. But there's a company that wants to bring VR to a place you might not expect it: your office.

At a virtual reality conference in Los Angeles today, Envelop VR launched Envelop for Windows, new software that allows you to take your entire desktop into a virtual world. It’s an infinite desktop of sorts, with infinite possibilities. The software is in public beta starting today, and is available for Windows PCs via Envelop’s website.

Image: http://www.fastcompany.com

National laboratories play a critical role in building the nation’s innovation capacity and driving our economy. At Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne), we are working on developing a reliable, efficient and secure electrical grid, and other technologies ranging from transportation vehicles to semiconductor devices to cancer-fighting drugs that will change people’s lives, nationally and globally. In order for many national laboratory innovations to be truly impactful, they must be commercialized and distributed through the marketplace, and Argonne works closely with its academic, industry and national laboratory partners to do so.

At Argonne, we strive to do a better job of working with our collaborators to transition the Laboratory’s research and development (R&D) projects from lab to market, mutually benefiting all partners and always keeping the public benefit foremost. We are mindful that other national laboratories, academic and research institutions also are trying to find ways to accelerate and transition their innovations, and some are experimenting with initiatives that could be adapted by others. In order to learn more about these innovative initiatives, we commissioned Innovation Associates to explore some promising models that could be adapted for use. Several national laboratories very generously shared their knowledge with us, and by releasing portions of the Argonne report nationally, we wish to share what we have learned with others.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson partner Steve Jurvetson reveals what he looks for in entrepreneurs and explains how large companies can respond to disruption.

What do venture-capital firms look for when they back entrepreneurs? With billions of dollars flowing into start-ups around the world, that question has never been more important, nor the answer more consequential. Silicon Valley venture-capital powerhouse Draper Fisher Jurvetson has backed almost two dozen unicorns—start-ups valued at more than $1 billion—including Box, Skype, Tumblr, and Twitter. In this interview, one of the VC firm’s founding partners, Steve Jurvetson, tells McKinsey’s Michael Chui what he looks for when he makes investment decisions, what he considers hot sectors, and what could be the biggest start-up of all: space. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.

Image: http://www.mckinsey.com

The Wall Street Journal invited me to participate in a discussion they sponsored titled “Convention Conversation with Robby Mook.” The main conversationalists were Mook, Campaign Manager of Hillary for America, Gerard Baker, WSJ’s Editor in Chief, and Gerald F. Seib, the paper’s Washington Bureau Chief.

My first thought upon receiving my invitation was “how cool.” My second was “why me.” And my third was “no way am I going to brave the traffic and security to get into the Democratic Convention area for a two hour conversation with these three gentlemen…as cool as it would be.

Disruptors are a special type of innovator who go outside the box and attempt to change preconceived notions and practices. If you take a look at the meaning of the word, “to disrupt” means to “rupture” or break apart, and essentially disruptors do this - discarding the old ways to bring in new ones. We might even take it a step further and look at as the commonly used root of "dis" which means to "do the opposite of" - and see the idea that disruptors are "fixers" essentially putting the pieces of something broken back together. Here’s a look at three disruptors in Boston Biotech who are revolutionizing traditional pharma to radically change the ways cures are being brought about for disease.