When people talk about the American Dream, it is usually discussed in decidedly materialistic terms – owning a home, creating a better standard of living for our children, or enjoying the annual vacation some place warm. Two years ago, ABC News polling czar, Gary Langer, said we were witnessing “no less than a diminution of the American dream” after polls showed that Americans were spending less on things like dining out, taking vacations and buying cars. After looking up the word “diminution” (when something is getting smaller), it’s hard to deny that fewer Americans are “livin’ the dream.” In fact, consumer confidence figures have been in the cellar for the longest period since this critical economic indicator was created. As a result, most commentators aren’t as polite as Mr. Langer, gleefully declaring that the American dream is dead. But is spending the metric by which we measure our happiness as a nation?

The Princeton Review has released its college rankings (my university topped the party-school list, to my chagrin), and tomorrow Forbes will release its own rankings of America’s institutions, beginning a season of rankings that should get considerable media attention for the next few weeks (if not upended by federal fiscal shenanigans or the like).

Full disclosure: I am one of the nefarious “rankers” myself, as the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, which I direct, does the rankings for Forbes. I also maintain cordial relations with Bob Morse, who someone (George Will, I think) said was the most powerful man in collegiate America as the overseer of the US News & World Report rankings.

PALO ALTO -- As weeks of partisan battles over a 10-year debt-reduction plan ended with its approval Tuesday, leading U.S. technology innovators and entrepreneurs said they are upbeat about Silicon Valley's ability to boost the nation's ailing economy by creating jobs for Americans.

"Now that this debt issue is at least for the time being clarified, Washington needs to shift to jobs and the economy," America Online founder Steve Case said in Palo Alto at a jobs conference before hundreds of people.

For as long as social media has been taunting us with follower numbers and Likes, business owners have been trying to network with people deemed more influential than themselves. We strive to reach these people with the hope that if they like what we’re doing they’ll be inclined to share it with their audience and foster positive word of mouth. We want to tap into their audience to help grow our own. But before any of that can happen, before these influencers can help spread our message, it’s our job to get on their radar. Because the first step to partnering with an influencer is to make sure they know your name.

But how exactly do you do that?

One of the toughest challenges of an entrepreneur in building a startup is the fact that there are so many things that you don’t know how to do, or don’t like to do. Things like raising money, building a business plan, or hiring and firing people. These aren’t fun, especially for a visionary. That’s when the curse of procrastination steps in.

The result is that certain things just never seem to get done. Jan Yager, in her book, “Work Less, Do More” talks about procrastination as a primary obstacle to efficient time management. She describes how you can grow so busy doing everything but what you should be doing, that you’re unaware that you’re failing to address what’s really fundamental to your success.

MADISON – Even after the federal debt ceiling is raised, one thing is certain about federal spending over the next decade: There will be less of it than expected. To be precise, federal spending will drop by about $2.4 trillion from current estimates. That means a full range of programs, from social services to defense to academic research, are likely to feel the pinch.

For major research universities such as the UW-Madison, that could present a troubling scenario.

Year after year, the UW-Madison is among the nation’s leaders in attracting “sponsored” research, meaning research sponsored by federal agencies, private foundations, industry and, in small amounts, state government. In fact, the UW-Madison has ranked among the nation’s top five academic R&D powerhouses for more than 20 years running – with more than $1 billion in sponsored research from all sources in fiscal 2009, according to the National Science Foundation.

When a home-based business owner first starts out, they almost always feel excited and very motivated to achieve success. Sadly, these feelings can often begin to diminish when faced with the actual workload that will be required. Knowing exactly how to maintain your original feelings of excitement and motivation can be one of the best business tools a home-based entrepreneur can possess. Below are some tips that will help you maintain feelings of motivation and encouragement, which will aid in the success of your home-based business.

WASHINGTON—Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas today outlined a series of policy, operational, and outreach efforts to fuel the nation’s economy and stimulate investment by attracting foreign entrepreneurial talent of exceptional ability or who otherwise can create jobs, form startup companies, and invest capital in areas of high unemployment.

“The United States must continue to attract the best and brightest from around the world to invest their talents, skills, and ideas to grow our economy and create American jobs,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Today’s announcements will help our nation fully realize the potential of existing immigration laws.”

Do you want to achieve more in less time? Then you are like most of my Executive Coaching clients: successful managers who still feel they stay behind their full potential despite working around the clock. They think they could achieve even more if they were less distracted during the day-to-day business.

Famous blogger Yaro Starak published a great post on this topic: “How To Remain Productive When You Feel Like Giving Up”

Yaro gives valuable insights and one key messages is that success is to a great deal based on the “ability to force yourself to be productive when you don’t feel like it.”

Although I admire people with such output-oriented attitudes, I have a slightly different view.

There is no doubt that persistence is at the heart of truly successful business people and entrepreneurs. However, it is most important that you find out how you are most productive. And this does not contradict with the idea of persistence as a key of success.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Every morning entrepreneur Hajj Flemings wakes up and heads to his favorite coffee shop in downtown Mountain View, Calif., to prep for one of the most important presentations of his career.

On Thursday, the 39-year old Detroit native will have six minutes to present his fledgling startup venture to a roster of Silicon Valley's top investment firms, including SV Angel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) Ventures and Sequoia, to name just a few.

Since June, Flemings and seven other entrepreneurs have been living and working together in a house in tech hub Mountain View as part of the NewMe Accelerator, a pioneering incubator for minority-led startups.

The entrepreneurs have spent the summer coding, designing, and meeting with seasoned tech mentors for feedback as they prepare to present their companies to the Valley's leading investors. Demo Day marks the finish line for their two-month startup sprint.

Intel Capital, the venture-capital arm of the world’s biggest chipmaker, said it may boost its investments by more than 50 percent this year, adding deals in overseas markets including China.

The investment arm of Intel Corp. (INTC) plans to invest about $500 million globally in 2011, President Arvind Sodhani said at a briefing in Beijing today. Intel Capital invested $327 million last year, according to its website.

Intel Capital is stepping up its search for technology companies in China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, where the firm has made six investments this year. That number may increase to 12, Sodhani said today.

Venture capitalists continue to mostly target Maryland’s early- and late-stage companies, leaving an investment gap that seed companies are struggling to overcome.

Investments in the state jumped to $96.42 million in the second quarter of the year, representing 23 deals, according to the latest MoneyTree report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. Early- and late-stage investments accounted for 16 of these deals, while expansions accounted for four and investments in seed companies accounted for three.

With investors continuing to view seed investments as those in the $3 million range, seed companies pursuing smaller infusions are still experiencing a drought in funding, said Robert A. Rosenbaum, president and executive director of the Maryland Technology Development Corp.

For a first-time entrepreneur, dealing with a venture capitalist can involve an equal mix of excitement and apprehension. If the VC has any sort of reputation or prominence, entrepreneurs are often grateful simply to be pitching their idea in the first place. Should discussions get far enough along that a term sheet is offered, a new entrepreneur is usually thrilled beyond words.

Those certainly were my emotions back in my entrepreneurial youth, the first time I dealt with venture capitalists. It was one of the most exciting times of my life. But I also remember a few other, much more troubling, emotions, and I know that these, too, are part of being a first-time entrepreneur. These involve the vaguely-formed stories that many entrepreneurs hear about the dark side of the venture world; stories of VCs who weren’t trusted partners interested in growing a business, but who simply took advantage of inexperienced or unlucky entrepreneurs for a quick, unsavory gain.

“Pay to play” in venture term sheets should have the same deservedly bad reputation as it does in government contracting, where it is illegal.  In this piece, I will present three arguments against pay to play.

By way of background, “pay to play” provisions in a term sheet are a mechanism to induce existing investors in a company to invest additional capital into the company.  This is accomplished by punitive treatment of the existing investment should the investor want or need to sit out the current round.  Typically, this treatment includes forced conversion of a preferred security into common stock, as well as some other common measures to change the rights and value of the prior investment.

City dwellers like car sharing because it's convenient -- no need to find parking or handle maintenance issues. Now, in San Diego, it's also more environmentally friendly. By the end of this year, California's second largest city will have 300 vehicles on the road, representing the nation's first all-electric car sharing fleet. Cars will be available at all hours of every day and users will be charged by the minute, hour or day (after a one-time $35 fee). The car-sharing company sponsoring the fleet told local news outlets that it chose San Diego as the first city because of its unprecedented number of charging stations, which will make it easier for people to get around without worrying about running out of battery life. The cars can travel up to 84 miles on a single charge. The city council also unanimously approved changes in the municipal code to create dedicated spaces for more charging stations and allow the electric vehicles to be parked downtown. The car-sharing company is going to reimburse the city for any lost parking meter revenue.

Innovative Australians are improving the things they make and the way they make them, ensuring a fairer, richer, healthier and greener future, according to the Australian Government’s latest Australian Innovation System Report.

“Innovation will make Australia more productive and competitive, and may answer the great challenges of our time such as our changing climate, national security, hunger and disease,” Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr said.

“This is the second annual report on the performance of Australia’s national innovation system, and provides the latest data and analysis of how our innovation system is performing compared with other countries. It also tracks progress against the Government’s innovation priorities and targets.

If it weren't for venture capital, companies such as Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. probably never would have become as successful as they are today. Yet these days, aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders across the nation are wondering about the big squeeze in the capital markets.

For big businesses that are showing robust earnings, thanks primarily to their international operations, access to capital currently is significantly easier, especially since money is cheap.

THE HEADLINE of Scott Kirsner’s Innovation Economy column, “Start-ups courting older talent’ (Business, Aug. 1), caught my attention, as I volunteer with a network of mature, accomplished professionals who are in career-life transitions.

Kirsner wondered whether HubSpot’s aggressive recruitment program targeting experienced software engineers would draw “the employees least likely to succeed at a start-up: comfy old-timers used to their reserved parking spots and days that end at 5.’’ Perhaps Kirsner could become more aware of his apparent prejudice if he substituted, say, “blacks’’ or “Hispanics’’ for “comfy old-timers.’’

Photovoltaic cells are best known for turning sunlight into electrical power—and they’re big business. But did you know that there’s a type of PV cell that eats heat instead of light to make power? It could replace the Li-ion battery in your cell phone, and it may also be used to scavenge waste heat from almost anything that normally dumps it into the environment, from your TV’s electronics to your car’s engine (even an electrical one).

Over the past couple of weeks I have interacted with people who work for small business owners who aren’t such great bosses. In fact, they are downright angry and mean. I can’t help wondering what they are hoping to accomplish. Yelling at people, demeaning them, using nasty language – none of these are leadership tactics, nor are they effective.

You don’t get people to perform at their best when you spend your time beating them down. Fear is not a motivator. This behavior isn’t something that is learned in leadership training courses. It comes from one of a couple of places – insecurity, fear or mistrust. I submit that you can’t be successful if you operate from any of these platforms.