As entrepreneurs, one of our greatest assets is our ability to be trusted.

No one does business with an untrustworthy person. Without trust, you can’t broker deals, close deals, sell stuff, or come out on top. Trust is the one thing you can’t live without.

Entrepreneurs are integral to the success of the U.S. economy. According to figures from Forbes, over 50% of the working population is at a small business, equating to over 120 million people. That’s a lot of competition.

Calling yourself an entrepreneur is to define yourself as many things: You are declaring yourself an innovator and a risk taker, and may find yourself pigeonholed with assumptions and stereotypes. However, an entrepreneur cannot be defined by a group of characteristics.

Interviewing is full of uncertainty. What set of skills are really the most important? What does it take to rise above the rest?

The answer: "Soft skills."

Soft skills are what enables someone to get along with other people. From technology companies to law firms, every organization recognizes people who are functional experts. However, soft skills that complement these hard skills are what make a job candidate or employee a prize. A 2014 CareerBuilder survey indicates that 77% of employers seek candidates with soft skills. Sixteen percent of these respondents considered such qualities more crucial than hard skills.

When my son was 4, he wore a superhero cape. All of the time. I vividly remember a trip to Home Depot when he had dressed himself in shorts and a shirt, cowboy boots, swim goggles, gardening gloves, and the cape. Even though he attracted plenty of stares, he walked through the store very sure of himself and his wardrobe choice.

Many of us outgrow our childhood ideals, but why is it we also often leave behind the sense of confidence that accompanied them?

The word crowdfunding made its way into Merriam-Webster’s dictionary in 2014, but the explosive growth of the industry means it is now being used as a blanket term to describe all sorts of online fundraising efforts.

But before putting money behind a crowdfunding campaign it’s important to understand what type of crowdfunding you’re participating in and what you can expect to receive, if anything, for handing over your money.

Everything’s chugging right along in your business. You love getting to the office every day, interacting with clients, and having the freedom to set your own schedule. But then something happens, and you’re less enamored with what you do. You start to feel jaded and frustrated.

Looking to make the biggest bucks in the fastest growing industry?

There are two crystal clear — albeit unsurprising — commonalities among the top 10 highest paying jobs in the tech industry. If you want to cash in the biggest checks, you have to:

Step 1: Become a killer programmer or big data expert.

Step 2: Move to the West Coast.

Image: FLICKR, KAMIPHUC

People spend 6.5 hours per week on average in their cars, and as dashboards become digital platforms it's creating a massive new market for carmakers, digital-media companies, and even marketers. Revenues from connected services are expected to top $152 billion by 2020.

Carmakers are offering a selection of features in their connected cars, with a special focus on entertainment apps and safety-management features.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com

WASHINGTON -- By many accounts, the American economy is rebounding. Hiring is accelerating, wages are rising and the labor force is growing. Confidence among business leaders is up, too.

In one area, though, the economy seems to be in serious trouble: entrepreneurship.

"It all feels pretty good," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said during a forum on entrepreneurship this past week in Washington. "But I think there are things to be worried about, and the state of entrepreneurship is one of those things."

Some people working in Canada’s science and technology sector say the government needs to invest in innovation from ideas to commercialization, and to protect the country’s past investments in innovation before they are lost. 

Russia's economy is highly dependent on the price of oil, as are a few other countries, such as Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Russia differs from those other countries, however, in having a very strong scientific community. In fact, Russian scientists have been the authors of some of the great discoveries of the past century. Based on this excellent science, Russia should have a diversified, high-technology economy, but it does not.

The problem with experiments is very simple, says University of Toronto Professor Dan Breznitz.

They often fail.

Which presents a dilemma for those who want to foster innovation: In a world of limited resources, who should be placing the bets on potential winners? And when winners win big, to whom should the spoils go?

Image: RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR Entrepreneurs Ben Fox, right, and Bart Dabek benefitted from government funding and tax credit relief when starting their company, Sidekick.

We’ve all been there before—musing over the endless laundry list of untouched tasks and work seems daunting to many. And the pressure only builds as deadlines creep in and unfinished projects mount up.

This nightmare scenario is becoming increasingly common in the modern workforce, and especially in the academic setting. As a high school student running a national nonprofit, I face this struggle daily.

Christopher Michel (Twitter: @chrismichel) is a writer, explorer, investor and a serial entrepreneur who has has started and also invested in a number of companies. Michel's three distinct careers have taught him many lessons on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Michel first served as a Naval Flight Officer in the United States Navy, then he founded Military.com and Affinity Labs - both companies were sold to Monster.com. Michel is currently managing Nautilus Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm which he founded in 2008. Michel also travels the world telling people's stories as an inspirational photographer. He has photographed some of the world's most unusual places and people, from the jungles of Papua New Guinea to the edge of space aboard a U-2 Spy Plane.

Image: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Large corporations and conglomerates, the engines of growth and vitality in the twentieth century, have lost their edge and their image. They have proven themselves unable to innovate, and they have lost more jobs than they create. My friends who “grew up” with lifetime careers in General Motors, Exxon Mobil, or even IBM, are now often too embarrassed to even mention it.

It seems like every day a new corporation is deciding to launch a startup accelerator. Just a few weeks back, the delivery company DPD launched its own as a way to help ‘secure the future of the delivery industry’. DPD joins a wealth of other companies including John Lewis, Ernst & Young, Wells Fargo (and our very good selves at BBC Worldwide) to name but a few who feel it’s important to have a startup programme within the business. Corporate startup accelerators are, you could say, very much in vogue.

When Natalia Oberti Noguera launched a network of women entrepreneurs seven years ago in New York City, she came to realize that not only was it hard to get funding, but it was rare for her to find someone who looked like her and had a similar background among investors.

"Marie Wilson from the White House Project had a great quote. She said, 'You can't be what you can't see,' " said Oberti Noguera.

Even if you ignore all the hype around crowdfunding, there can be no doubt that it is a real alternative for entrepreneurs to achieve visibility and funding today. According to articles on Entrepreneur last year, there are now almost 1,000 crowdfunding platforms in existence, currently estimated to add more than $65 billion and 270,000 jobs to the economy.

“They do things bigger and better in America.” Whether referring to automobiles, movies, homes, skyscrapers, or fast food menus, this is a familiar refrain in Europe.

The digital era has been no different, with Silicon Valley held up as the touchstone against which to measure all tech startups.

When Scott Vanderbeck started Organic Research Corp., he was focusing on developing technology that would teach computers to identify fatty liver disease from liver biopsies more efficiently and accurately than doctors could.

Now, he's finding there's application in the technology for a whole lot more.

"We learned there's a lot of people who would use the same technology but don't necessarily look at livers," Vanderbeck said. "The goal is absolutely to go bigger."

Vanderbeck's work, developed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and funded in part by a UW Extension seed fund, illustrates a growing push in Wisconsin's education system to develop a research-based technology economy in the Milwaukee area.

Image: Scott Vanderbeck’s Milwaukee-based start-up, Organic Research Corp., received funding from UW Extension’s Ideadvance Seed Fund - Michael Sears