Howard is the brilliant and overpowering founder of a billion dollar vehicle business who pressed his elder son into the business. The son is himself a brilliant man who wished to be a physicist but, overwhelmed by a sense of duty to his father, studied business in college and then entered the family firm. His father demanded absolute commitment to the business, forcing his son to be “all in” and to follow the career path set down for him in early adolescence.

Whether you’re building a business, a network, or friendships, you always want to look for people who are genuine. After all, nobody wants to work or hang out with a phony. On the flipside, that goes for you, as well. Bet you never considered that. 

Last year was a challenging one for South African businesses and there are few signs that 2015 will be much easier. However, get the basics right and your business will be in a good position to survive and even thrive this year. Here are five fundamentals that can help you to succeed in growing your business during 2015.

The Bay Area is the center of the technology universe, and for good reason. The talent is there, the money is there and just about all the major players in modern tech – Google, Facebook, Apple and more – are within an hour's drive of each other. It's the obvious place to get started if you want a career in technology, and thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs flock to the region every year to do just that.

Image: Timothy Sprinkle is the author of “Screw the Valley: A Coast-to-Coast Tour of America’s New Startup Culture" (January 2015, BenBella Books). BenBella Books

The CEO of IBM, Ginni Rometty, doesn’t tweet, and her presence is minimal on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Does this mean that one of America’s most powerful tech CEOs doesn’t make the grade as an engaged leader? Hardly. She’s actually a model leader for a new era.

Rometty doesn’t tweet simply because it’s not a part of her larger plan. Instead she’s frequently on IBM’s internal social networking site, getting feedback, responding to comments, and connecting with employees. She is focused on those direct forms of engagement where her personal agency can have the greatest impact.

You know the saying, "Money can’t buy happiness." You get it. But startup founders and CEOs still don’t seem to understand.

When CEOs find out that their employees are unhappy, they throw money at the problem: they buy better furniture and give away fat bonuses. These tactics may help in the short term, like a caffeine boost, but they don’t solve the underlying problem.

PITTSBURGH, PA – The latest edition of the Fourth Economy Community Index was announced today, recognizing the top ten large-sized Fourth Economy Communities. These communities—with populations between 150,000 and 499,999—were selected because they represent regions that are poised to achieve sustainable economic growth while attracting people and investment. The top 10 Large-Sized Communities for 2015 are:

Significant consensus was reached between representatives of small business and universities at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on March 19, 2015. The hearing was held to take testimony relating to proposed reforms to the U.S. patent system. The day’s discussion prompted Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) to make the comment that the argument over whether there is any need to diminish the rights of patent owners has been “turned on its head.”

The County of San Diego and the City of San Diego today approved a maritime vision for the region that will include forming a Blue Tech incubator to create jobs and businesses. The joint action promotes “San Diego as a leading global maritime technology center,” according to a resolution. As part of that vision, the agencies will develop a Blue Tech incubator to create more jobs and businesses in water technology, aquaculture, underwater robotics and other related industries.

Some startup entrepreneurs are leaving the high tech hot spots of San Francisco, New York and the Silicon Valley for greener pastures in a place that actually has greener pastures: Lincoln, Neb.

In fact, one of the secrets to the economic success of Lincoln, a city with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, is a surprisingly strong tech startup community that is part of what some in the region are calling the Silicon Prairie.

Image: Lincoln, Neb., is home to several startups, which use the city's low cost of living and high quality of life to attract workers. Nicolas Henderson/Flickr

Earlier this week I mentioned a tech company in the Mural District of Fresno's tattered-but-struggling-to-recover downtown called Bitwise Industries. It's a company we first visited one year ago and have followed ever since. In this and a subsequent post or two, I'd like to say something about the ways in which Bitwise's story sheds light on conditions distinctive to Fresno and its surrounding, hard-pressed Central Valley of California, but also about the ways in which it reflects trends we've seen in every corner of the country.

Image: One of Fresno's downtown murals, this one on the Econo Inn. The "Mural District" headquarters of Bitwise Industries is a few blocks away. ( Creative Fresno )

During my final semester of undergrad, I made two signs that read, “Feeling stressed about exams? Have a free hug!” Then I recruited a friend and we stood in the entrance of the campus library, held up the signs, and waited. Passerbys had one of two reactions: Either they quickly looked down at their phones and awkwardly shuffled by, or their faces lit up as they embraced us. Most people were enthusiastic. Some exclaimed, “You made my day!” or “Thank you. I needed this.” One leapt into my arms, nearly toppling me over. After two hours of warm interactions, my friend and I couldn’t believe how energized and happy we felt.

Horizon 2020 is the European Union’s largest research and innovation initiative, with nearly 80 billion Euro in funding allocated for over seven years. The program focuses on three overarching priorities: excellent science, industrial leadership, and solutions to global challenges. Horizon 2020 is open to participants from anywhere in the world as the program recognizes the growing importance of internationalizing how knowledge is produced and used. Please join our speakers to hear their testimonials and to learn about the different types of international cooperation that Horizon 2020 supports, namely on an individual, collaborative, or program level. The presentations will also address in detail the main elements of Horizon 2020 with regards to content, types of activities funded, forms of participation, and application procedures.

I love Twitter. So far I’m loving Meerkat, too. It’s brand new but the enthusiasm that’s been seen for such an early product is truly awesome. I ran a VC AMA (ask me anything) last Monday on Meerkat and had > 1,000 simultaneous people asking me questions. The energy was electric so I’m going to do it again this coming week.

If you’ve just been asked to mentor someone, it’s time for a little reality check. The truth is many prospective new mentors don’t fully understand what it takes to be as helpful as they can be within an effective, dynamic mentor-mentee relationship.

Yes, effective mentors do perform an important advisory and teaching role by sharing valuable information from a broad set of relevant personal and work experiences. But what’s flawed about approaching mentoring only from an information-sharing perspective is that it lacks an appreciation of the highly interpersonal and psychosocial aspects of mentoring.

Being an entrepreneur is not easy. It is a long journey that is full of challenges and problems. In order to overcome these problems, you need to think out of the box, improve yourself constantly and learn from your mistakes. However, you can also learn from other people’s mistakes and movies are a great way for this. Therefore, as an entrepreneur, whenever you need a break or some motivation, watch the below movies and inspire yourself.

The Unification Tool is a tricky but effective tool for outdoor advertising. Unification recruits an existing resource and forces it to carry the advertising message. That resource can come from within the medium itself or within the environment of the medium. In other words, the tool uses an existing component of the medium or of its environment in a way that demonstrates the problem or the promise to be delivered.

Image: via ScoopWhoop

Most Americans, whether willingly or not, have likely heard the pros and cons of net neutrality—ad nauseum. Bonus points (and my condolences) if you’ve been dragged into the policy vortex so far as to invoke Title II of the nation’s Communications Act in polite, cocktail-party conversation.

I spoke with Steve Van Andel, the chairman of Amway, who is responsible for managing daily operations of the company with Amway President Doug DeVos. Van Andel is the eldest son of Amway Co-Founder Jay Van Andel, who, with Rich DeVos, started Amway in 1959 in Ada, Michigan. Since then, Amway has grown into the world’s largest direct selling company. Over the past two decades, Van Andel has led a strategic transformation of the company with a focus on growth through innovation, driving double-digit growth. Prior to being named chairman, Van Andel served as vice president with responsibility for Amway’s business operations in North and South America. He also served as vice president of marketing.

It's one of those things that you've perhaps never explicitly thought about, but it may have tickled the back of your mind a few times as you make airplane reservations or stare at a departure screen. Where do the three letter codes used to delineate between airports actually come from? What's the deal with the "X" in LAX? Why EWR for Newark?

Thanks to a new site from simple and effective new site from designers Lynn Fisher and Nick Crohn we can finally know where these little acronyms are derived from.