Chasing waves is a way of life for Sean Gravem. After his first scuba lesson, the Pacific Grove, California, photographer got hooked on shooting under the ocean. His images freeze shore-break waves in time, capturing water droplets right before — or after — they turn to foam. For other shots, Gravem dives below the waves to reveal sun-dappled sand. You can almost hear the watery silence.

Image: The sun turns this breaking wave a golden hue around Monterey Peninsula, near Monterey, California. Sean Gravem captured this shot with a GoPro and a KNEKTUSA trigger. Credit: Sean Gravem, @decompresean

Tales of enormous fortunes created by the technology industry brought a gold rush in recent years that has gripped San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. Many young dreamers – entrepreneurs, geniuses, idealists – flocked to the area with the hope of starting a successful start-up or striking it rich by joining the right company at the right time.

The tech boom has contributed to growing income inequality in the area. And many of the young transplants profiled below are not among the area’s elite, at least not yet. They often live on the cheap while working on their companies, a process known as bootstrapping.

Image: http://www.nytimes.com

Two summers ago, Jack Bonneau started a lemonade stand to earn some cash. Instead of setting it up on a street corner in his Broomfield, Colo., neighborhood, he and his father, Steve, came up with a more ambitious plan. Jack, then 8, would peddle cups of lemonade at the local farmers’ market throughout the summer.

The strategy was a success.

Image: Jack Bonneau, 10, of Broomfield, Colo., waits for customers at his cider and hot chocolate stand at a shopping mall in Littleton, Colo. Credit Nick Cote for The New York Times

Before Nathalie Miller decided to walk away from Instacart, the grocery delivery start-up now worth more than $2 billion, she made a spreadsheet to analyze how much money she was leaving on the table.

She had been Instacart’s 20th employee, managing operations during a period of extremely rapid growth, and the sum could have been huge. She quit anyway. Like many strivers in Silicon Valley, she had a bigger plan: to start her own company that could not only make millions, but also fulfill a mission she believed in.

Image: Nathalie Miller in November at a co-working space in San Francisco. She was eight months pregnant and seeking investors. Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times

Around this time of year, I tend to look back at the list of commitments I made in early January: I will exercise more often, spend more time with family, do a better job balancing my personal and professional lives, leave my laptop home when we go on vacation, and so on. And yet, only two months into the new year, I find I am not doing such a good job. And I am sure I am not alone. On January 1, people around the globe commit with vigor to all sorts of virtuous goals, from losing weight to being a more understanding boss or partner to eating more healthfully to saving more money. And, before too long, most of us find we’re back where we started.

Ellen Chisa knew she had to quit Harvard Business School. She looked out the window, and back down to her desk where a full-time offer letter from Lola sat, awaiting her reply. It didn’t matter that she’d only finished her first year. Or that most people she asked said it was a mistake. She knew it was time to make a change, and she did.

In late 2009, when Gabriella Draney-Zielke started Dallas-based startup accelerator Tech Wildcatters, the accelerator was still a relatively new idea; there were only a handful at that time; by now, there are hundreds.

Soon enough, Draney-Zielke began to realize what all accelerator founders inevitably realize: Some startups admitted to the program were better than others. The best startups, especially, were willing to critically rethink their assumptions, particularly when it came to what customers want. Draney-Zielke recalls the case of Validic, a company now focused on aggregating data from wearable technology

Image: http://www.fastcompany.com

In an ideal world, I would exercise first thing in the morning. I’d also be well rested, someone else would be available to watch my children, and the weather would be warm enough that I could run through my neighborhood without slipping on ice.

But the stars rarely align for all this to happen. That’s why lately I’ve been hitting the treadmill at night after my youngest child goes to bed. There are arguments for and against 8:00 p.m. exercise, but none of the "con" arguments hold up if the alternative is not to exercise at all.

Image: Flickr user Michel Dangmann

The Venture+ Forum at HIMSS offered some insights from investors and entrepreneurs ranging from the predictable — patient engagement is oversaturated — to some surprising political insights on the eve of Super Tuesday. Here’s a look at some of the more interesting observations from the investor panels with a couple of entrepreneur insights as well.

Image: http://medcitynews.com

So, I admit it.  I’ve attended a board meeting without feeling fully prepared.  And not just once.  I’ve done it many times when serving in many different roles: as a board member, as an entrepreneur and executive responsible for managing my own board, and as a staff member tasked with supporting the work of the board.  To be sure, there are widely varying degrees of preparedness; and it is fair to say that one can always be better prepared.  So, it’s quite rare that I feel completely ready for any board meeting.  And when I do, it’s usually an indication that I’ve actually allocated far too much valuable time to the task of meeting prep!

Image: https://beacon.wharton.upenn.edu

Organizations sometimes make catastrophic mistakes. And although they try to learn from these disasters, they tend to make similar mistakes again and again.

Consider NASA, an organization employing some of the nation’s brightest minds. In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded – and by now, we all know the story. Some people within the organization had concerns with a component (the O-rings) being affected by low temperatures. However, their views were not taken into account in the decision to launch the shuttle.

Image: https://hbr.org

The TSX Venture Exchange is either badly broken or doing just what it was designed to do, depending on the sector you canvass.

Junior resource-sector companies and investors say there are systemic problems with the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) and various regulatory organizations that have made it an increasingly difficult place in which to raise venture capital.

Canada’s biotech sector appears not to have the same concerns – though it may be a special case.

If you want to find something quickly, knowing what not to look for can help speed up the process, researchers say.

New research from Johns Hopkins University has found that the art of ignoring can be used to improve search performance, but only after people have been given time to practice.

While it helps to know exactly what you're looking for, the researchers say knowing what not to look for can be just as useful, helping to block out distracting information.

Image: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Today, as Julianne Moore waited a tad too long before announcing DiCaprio’s name as the winner for best actor at the 88th Oscars, most film lovers waited in anticipation. As the world celebrates Leo’s win, we can’t help but admire how in each of his movies, DiCaprio has subtly instilled in us the spirit of entrepreneurship. While The Aviator was the journey of a man who risked everything to fulfil his desire to fly, The Wolf of Wall Street reflected upon the consequences when greed takes over morality. While The Gangs of New York was a perfect David versus Goliath tale, The Revenant was all about endurance. Heck! Even Inception was about dreams!

Image: http://social.yourstory.com

You might think the super-wealthy have it pretty easy, what with their private islands, private jets and the ability to buy just about anything. But there's been one thing they've not been able to buy in a while: an all-new Bugatti.

In fact, it's been more than 11 years since the Veyron first went on sale. Can you imagine driving the same Bugatti for a decade? I can't even.

Image: http://mashable.com

Australian startups are used to hearing about what they can do to be more like their cousins in Silicon Valley. Most often: Don't be afraid of failure and don't be afraid to ask. But as the Australian tech scene comes of age, it's time for local entrepreneurs to hand out the advice. 

On Feb. 17, a group of Australian startup founders flew to San Francisco, California to tour the offices of a number of tech heavyweights, including Google, Facebook and the Khan Academy. Chris Seymour, CEO of the car rental ecommerce platform, Carcloud, and Stuart Richardson, founder of venture fund Adventure Capital, were part of the contingent.

Tech companies hired like crazy coming into 2016. Now they're shedding employees as ambitious business growth expectations miss targets. 

HR company Zenefits, which cut 250 employees on Friday, is just one example of the rush to slim down that's sweeping the tech scene. 

 According to research prepared by DataFox, at least 18 tech, or tech-related, companies cut ties with employees in February, and those are just the ones that have been publicly reported.

A cheetah known as Chewbaaka has helped scientists time-travel through that species’ long, complex history, even providing some clues about how the big cats became the world’s fastest land animals.

Chewbaaka, rescued as a 10-day-old orphan in Namibia, became an “ambassador” animal for the Cheetah Conservation Fund there. (His name is a variation of the “Star Wars” character’s.) He died five years ago at the advanced age of 16 — twice the life span of the average cheetah in the wild — but not before geneticists drew his blood.

Negotiators often develop the wrong impression that common interests between the parties are the cornerstone of a successful win-win negotiation.

While teaching value negotiation recently, a student of mine asked, “for a win-win outcome, don’t you need interests to be well-aligned or at least have common interests?”

Well, “yes and no”, I replied. If two negotiators both want a certain project to succeed, then maybe sharing that common interest will facilitate a negotiation about how much money or time each of them should invest.

Strategy is no longer necessary, according to some – but without it, business would not utilise our full human potential.

A few years back, a searing pain in my elbow sent me to the doctor, who diagnosed me with Olecranon Bursitis. Apparently, all that time spent leaning forward on hard desks in different meeting rooms during my team’s frequent marathon strategic planning sessions was putting too much stress on my poor elbow. The doctor told me I would either have to shorten these sessions in future, or find a better way of developing strategy.