The American tradition of retirement at age 65 is crumbling. As older workers stay on the job longer, challenges ranging from eyestrain to aching joints become increasingly prevalent. In response, technologists and ergonomics experts are rethinking working conditions.

Image: http://www.technologyreview.com 

Management textbooks and the business press are full of advice about creating entrepreneurial business models, shaking up markets, and offering game-changing customer experiences.

As exciting as those opportunities are, there are some important and less glamorous truths about building a business that every entrepreneur should know from the outset. All too many of us learn them only through hard experience.

When The Lean Startup hit bookstores in 2011, it became a bestseller and created a movement. The book’s principles were straightforward and quickly began to resonate with entrepreneurs and wanna-be entrepreneurs. The message was well timed — the stock market was underperforming, the job market was competitive, and countless people were starting to scratch their entrepreneurship itch. The book’s underlying advice: getting a successful startup off the ground can be relatively simple, reasonably easy, and extremely FAST. No more endless analysis and business plan writing, no more waterfall software development, no more heavy infrastructure, and no more useless business metrics.

Most of the entrepreneurs I know realize they have some bad habits, like maybe procrastination or not listening well, so they focus on dropping these. New studies indicate that a more productive approach would be adopting new good habits and behaviors that clearly move your business forward, like good time management and implementing customer recommendations.

With solid wooden stools dotted around the lobby, a bustling coffee bar and a receptionist who says “awesome” as an affirmative, the ground floor of 1 Fore Street in the City of London has all the tell-tale hallmarks of a modern tech company.

The seven-storey building is not home to one firm however but to multiple businesses - from individual freelancers to groups of 50 people - which have taken desks in one of the latest and most imposing examples of the growing trend for co-working spaces.

Image: Fore Street is the largest of New York-based WeWork’s five London locations . 

You have to be a special kind of crazy to start your own company. According to Bloomberg, eight out of ten new businesses fail in the first 18 months. That’s nuts! But seasoned veterans will tell you that it doesn’t have to be that bad. At Desk.com, we talk to many small and fast-growing businesses about the challenges they face. We’ve found that there are a few common mistakes entrepreneurs make again and again. You can dramatically improve your chances for success if you avoid these five traps:

Is there a more anxiety-inducing term in today’s corporate lexicon than “digital transformation”? Probably not, given the high stakes involved. New technologies and business models are upending entire sectors, threatening incumbents with an unprecedented wave of disruptive forces. Corporate leaders understand the need to raise their Digital Quotient,1 but many are struggling with how to do it.

Do you ever wonder what makes some dogs so into us? Why at any moment Pluto might propel himself into Mickey's arms, giving Mickey a full-on scrub-down with his tongue? Why some dogs want to meet everybody and anybody, whereas others would prefer you stay right where you are?

There has been a lot of talk during the federal election campaign about how to create more good, “middle-class” jobs. But there has been only limited recognition of the need for a much more active government role if we are to build the more innovative and sustainable economy we need to create such jobs.

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.

Are you meant to be an entrepreneur? According to Operation Hope, 43% of children and teens say they want to start their own business one day but less than 15% of adults in the United States are involved in entrepreneurship.

Are some people born to be entrepreneurs while others struggle with the decision or never achieve entrepreneurial success because they were never meant to be an entrepreneur in the first place?

Image: http://www.searchenginejournal.com

From an outside perspective, it may seem like job seekers with MBAs and startup culture are ill-suited for one another. Employees with MBAs are often more expensive than their non-MBA counterparts, and may have high expectations of stability and a hefty paycheck from their first job post-B school. On the other hand, teams at startups tend to think of themselves as down-to-earth "families," in which everyone pitches in and gets dirty. Can these seemingly counterintuitive approaches to business really work well together?

Entrepreneurship is all about leading – leading customers to a new product or service, leading a startup team to peak performance, and leading a new business to the market opportunity, while providing maximum return to stakeholders. Most entrepreneurs feel they have innate leadership talents, but struggle with how to nurture these abilities and measure their effectiveness.

Being an entrepreneur is a fascination many wantrepreneurs want to see themselves being included within. They see all the attention and glamour surrounding the field of entrepreneurship and lustfully want to be included in all the celebration. What they don't account for however, is the long process of work that goes into building your entrepreneurial foundation.

The GVS Transmedia Accelerator Program, a partnership between Global Virtual Studio, the Hawai’i Strategic Development Corporation, the County of Hawai’i, and the GTA Development Fund, provides entrepreneurs the opportunity to launch original transmedia franchises for commercial audiences. Each selected start-up franchise is empowered by a $50,000 seed capital investment and mentors from the industry to provide guidance.

Image: GVS Accelerator photo.

By definition, every startup is predictably unpredictable, since new solutions have no proven track record, startups are usually building a new market, and the world around them is changing faster than ever. Yet, as an advisor to startups, I see some common disasters, and recommend some anticipation and recovery moves that can save every entrepreneur some painful time and money.

Scientists say they've found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Salty brines found in dark streaks that show up and disappear throughout the Martian year are evidence that briny water is flowing on the Red Planet, scientists say. Have astronomers always considered Mars a likely hotspot for water ... and possibly life? Turns out, our view of Mars has changed drastically through the years from Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli's 1877 view of a lush scape rife with water-filled channels to an arid, inhospitable orb and now a more complete picture of the chilly planet, where dust storms are rampant and water, at least the very salty kind, may be meandering across its surface. 

Image: On July 14, 1965, Mariner 4 passed within 6,118 miles (9,845 kilometers) of the Martian surface, providing the first close-up snapshots of the planet. The 22 resulting images showed a surface pitted with craters. The mission also confirmed a thin atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide and an intrinsic magnetic field. Here is the first image of Mars, showing an areanear the boundary of Elysium Planitia to the west and Arcadia Planitia to the east. (Photo Credit: NASA)

One of my favorite consulting services is advising founders on how to build their startups.

I work with a founder who knows what problem he wants his startup to solve and asked for advice on how to work with potential investors to raise capital.

He has persuaded some investors to write checks and as the money rolls into his bank account, he is turning his attention to using that capital most effectively.

Forty percent smaller than its predecessor, Cobra's pocketable new 9-ounce, 5 1/2-inch tall JumPack ($120) is brimming with power.  Its 180-amp starting current and 360-amp max is ample enough to crank up your car, motorcycle, SUV or outboard boat engine. Since it holds 85 to 90 percent of its charge for up to an impressive eight months, it's a great little (roughly phone-sized) item to throw in the glovebox until you need it. But feel free to whip it out any time along the way to safely charge your mobile device. Oh, and it also has a built-in LED flashlight, which is always handy.

Image: http://www.maxim.com

You don’t have to build houses in the developing world, launch a trendy e-commerce company with a one-for-one model, or subsist on Ramen noodles if you want to start a venture that will help others. There are a number of ways to be an effective social entrepreneur. But caring is the one big prerequisite. 

Image: Evan Yoshio Yamada