When you think of an entrepreneur, you might immediately picture a kid from Stanford or some other top-notch tech school. But the fact is that the majority of the self-employed and entrepreneurial aren't young at all. As of 2010, only 2% of those under 25 were self-employed. Among those 65 and over, the rate of self-employment was 23%. And they're doing well: A survey by AARP found that 75% of older self-employed workers made a profit in 2011.

There’s a question that haunts every would-be entrepreneur – and many actual entrepreneurs – every day: “How do I know if I have what it takes?” Yes, the Internet is full of ideas, tips, tricks and even awesome quotes. But do you actually have the skills? Find out -- here are 17 skills every entrepreneur must have to be successful.

Staying productive as an entrepreneur can be a challenge, but these 5 tips can keep you focused and diligent in even the most stressful times.

You're an entrepreneur, and part of being an entrepreneur is feeling overloaded and occasionally too distracted to get any real work done.

We've all been there.

Technology is changing the business world and unlike previous years, we now have three generations working side by side with each other: the Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials.  As digital natives, Millennials understand and use technology in a way that has created a seismic shift in corporate America – and also how we conduct business.

Researchers at the University of Wyoming discover that adding capsaicin from chili peppers to a diet can help to prevent weight gain in mice on high-fat diet

Don’t go chomping on a handful of chili peppers just yet, but there may be help for hopeful dieters in those fiery little Native American fruits.

A large percentage of the world’s population — fully one third, by the World Health Organization’s estimates — is currently overweight or obese. This staggering statistics has made finding ways to address obesity a top priority for many scientists around the globe, and now a group of researchers at the University of Wyoming has found promise in the potential of capsaicin — the chief ingredient in chili peppers — as a diet-based supplement.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan designated Feb. 11 as National Inventors' Day to honor the impact inventors have had on our nation. Feb. 11 is also Thomas Edison’s birthday. As an inventor of renown, Mr. Edison held over 1,000 patents for his groundbreaking inventions. Patents of Edison and of more recent inventors have grown our economy and nation.

For over 200 years, the American patent system has given our nation’s innovators the protections needed to succeed. The patent system provides patent holders the peace of mind in doing their work knowing that their property is adequately protected. This incentivizes innovation and builds investor confidence: Both promote growth and spur job creation in Missouri and nationally.

Update: Dr. Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of Science and Technology at the University of Sussex in Britain, led a workshop titled ‘The Entrepreneurial Government.’ Dr. Mazzucato outlined that governments are vital to creating new markets and growth opportunities, and play an equal role with the private sector in spurring innovation.

“There is a persistent misconception that innovation begins only in the private sector. While the government does exist to ensure a fair and level playing field and to solve market failures in the public’s best interest, it also serves a much more interesting role,” said Dr. Mazzucato.

Image: The UAE Government Summit 2015 displays the future of technology. (EAY)

Lockheed Martin's newly remodeled Innovation Demonstration Center at its east Orlando facility is now double in size, giving clients better access to see what the defense and support company offers in immersive simulation training and logistic capabilities.

The Bethesda, Md.-based company hosted a ribbon cutting on Feb. 9 to officially open the remodeled center. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) started construction for the center in January 2014. The company relocated the various demonstration areas throughout its east Orlando facility and placed them in one spot. The previous areas combined were 10,000 square feet, and the new center is 20,000 square feet, giving more space for demonstrations and new tech.

Image: Lockheed Martin Looks pretty high up, doesn't it? Its actually from inside a building.

The era of open innovation can be dated to 1971, when teenager Steve Jobs and his engineer friend Steve Wozniak became “phone phreaks.” They sold kits to create routing tones spoofing government-regulated phones into making free long-distance calls. Evading the absurdly high prices that federal regulators set for AT&T calls felt like civil disobedience. The same spirit of disruptive innovation led them to found Apple.

(MENAFN Press) High levels of entrepreneurial optimism, ambition and innovation are vital to advancing economies, according to The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2014 Global Report “ an annual survey of entrepreneurial activities, intentions, and attitudes across 73 countries. Data from Qatar was included for the very first time this year.

African economies showed the highest ability to perceive and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities with little fear of failure. In contrast, European Union nations are less optimistic, see fewer opportunities and are more uncertain about their skills in acting entrepreneurially.

Our fascination with talent goes back a long way.

Homer described the qualities of his heroes with a precision not reached by today’s profiling experts. For instance, Odysseus was brave, clever, quick-witted, and at times too focused on himself.

In China, the Han Dynasty introduced an Imperial Examination for evaluating expertise, fit, and moral integrity for government jobs, much like modern assessment centers do today.

One of the most difficult things a leader has to do is identify and develop other leaders in their midst.

Too often, organizations promote people based on competency, not on leadership potential— the so-called Peter Principle (the theory that employees get promoted to a level where they are incompetent), says leadership expert Tom Rath, author of the best-selling leadership book StrengthsFinder 2.0. While someone may be a very good salesperson or accountant, that person should also be a good leader before you put him or her in charge of others, Rath says.

Optimists aren’t just people who see the glass half full. They also make more money than pessimists and enjoy health benefits such as fewer colds, a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, and a longer life.

That’s something to smile about.

"Children are born optimists and over the course of time, life happens," says Jason Wachob, cofounder and CEO of the healthy living website MindBodyGreen.com. "Circumstances change and cynicism sets in, but deep down most of us want to get back to the optimism of our childhood."

A lot of ink has been spilled about the Coolest Cooler, a re-imagined picnic cooler equipped with a built-in blender, waterproof Bluetooth speaker, and UBS charger (among other things). To fund the project, inventor Ryan Grepper of Portland, OR, raised a record $13.3 million from 62,642 backers last summer on Kickstarter.

The $13.3 million Grepper raised eclipsed the previous Kickstarter record for top-funded projects—the Pebble smartwatch raised almost $10.3 million in 2012. It was big news—the amount was equivalent to a sizable venture round. With backers placing more than 61,000 orders for the cooler itself, Grepper also proved that a market exists for his product—which is not something every venture-backed startup can do.

Image: http://www.xconomy.com

I spent the weekend in Las Vegas with my dad. He’s almost 77 and I’m 49. We had an awesome weekend which I expect he’ll write about in detail on his blog Repairing the Healthcare System in the next few days since he generally does a really nice retrospective of our annual trip together. As I was reflecting on our weekend during my flight home yesterday, I remembered a discussion I had with Todd Vernon, the CEO of VictorOps, and a long time friend (we’ve been investors in the last three company’s of Todd’s – Raindance, Lijit, and now VictorOps – going back almost 20 years.)

Drinking one glass of red wine regularly has been linked to decreased risk of certain cardiovascular issues. The antioxidants found in the drink can help your heart. Yet did you know that drinking red wine may also help you lose weight? Like Us on Facebook

Recent findings published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry reveal that drinking small amounts of red wine could also help burn fat.

Over 100 billion work e-mails are exchanged each day, but research suggests that only around a quarter of those are actually essential. IBM hopes to lighten that load. Later this month the company will open up a trial of a new online e-mail service called Verse, which uses algorithms to work out which messages and people are most important to you.+

After Verse is launched as a product sometime this spring, IBM plans to add a personal assistant powered by the Watson software that beat two human Jeopardy! champions in 2011. The finished version of the service will be free for personal or small-business use, but larger companies will have to pay, depending on data usage and the number of users.

Image: IBM’s new e-mail service, Verse, tries to understand which people matter to you most.

Paul Gu dropped out of Yale University four years ago to become an entrepreneur. In the time since he has moved to California and teamed up with two former Google executives to create a company, Upstart, that matches borrowers with lenders online.

Mr. Gu is like many other Silicon Valley hopefuls, except in one respect. He is a Thiel fellow, one of a select few who were given $100,000 each to leave college to pursue their start-up dreams. "It has sort of good and bad associated with it," Mr. Gu says of how people react when they find out that he is a fellow. "It comes with a whole set of assumptions and mixed views. People want to know if you think nobody should go to college."

Image: http://chronicle.com 

“It can be stated, with practically no qualification,” Ralph G. Nichols and Leonard A. Stevens write in a 1957 HBR article, “That people in general do not know how to listen. They have ears that hear very well, but seldom have they acquired the necessary aural skills which would allow those ears to be used effectively for what is called listening.” In a study of thousands of students and hundreds of businesspeople, they found that most retained only half of what they heard — and this immediately after they’d heard it. Six months later, most people only retained 25%.

It’s a law of nature: the further you rise, the more people will make demands on your time. Some of those requests are self-interested: the informational interview, the job advice, the request for a connection, a recommendation letter, or angel funding. Others may be quite beneficial to you: the offer of a paid speaking engagement, or a prestigious media interview opportunity, or an invitation to an exclusive conference. The easy answer is to ignore all of these requests, deleting them as they come in — or even more extreme, declare some form of email bankruptcy. But, of course, that risks alienating some of your biggest advocates.