If you’ve seen Eminem’s movie 8 Mile, you surely remember the scene of an industrial basement packed with hip-hop fans assembled for the battle between rival rappers. Will they cheer you or boo you off the stage? The refrain repeats, “You’ve got one shot.” It’s the pivotal moment in which you must persuade them to join your movement or slouch off stage in humiliation.

Much of what is written about persuasion addresses the challenge of building influence over time. But when you have only one shot, you need to prepare differently.

We associate the term “entrepreneur” with those brave enough to go out on their own, not conform to traditional corporate standards, and who come out alive to talk about it.

Traditional corporate standards has many employees unhappy with their current supervisor, pay or some other facet of their job. Seemingly, there is a direct relationship among how dissatisfied someone is with their current condition at work or in their careers and the allure of starting a business… of being an entrepreneur.

During the “Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship” hosted by President Barack Obama in Washington, DC, in April 2010, it became clear that the seeds of entrepreneurship as an economic development policy and diplomatic tool had been planted. Today, I send in a quick report from the Second Global Summit on Entrepreneurship in Istanbul which has brought together approximately 1200 successful entrepreneurs and leaders from Turkey and across the world for idea sharing under the general theme of “Entrepreneurship, Values and Development: A Global Agenda”. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted the event and US Vice President Joe Biden spoke yesterday.

The Summit is a timely event for the region. Turkey has the potential to become a model for all Muslim countries as it grapples with quickly absorbing the renaissance underway in this region—namely in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen. It has a strong economy that has flourished in the post-2008 crash following strong fiscal discipline. However, while a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem is challenging anti-risk taking thinking and top-down planning, with more than 12 million youth aged 15-24 entering the workforce over the next five years, Turkey will need to create millions of new jobs in order to achieve a 70% employment rate.

You've got a great idea. I know you do. But I also know it's just sitting there. In your head. Like a lump. Why? Because you haven't pitched it to anyone.

Everyone -- even your best friends -- all seem so busy, right? And even if they're not busy, you... um....er... uh... don't really know how to kick-start the conversation to get them to help you develop your idea. The hardest part? Beginning.

And so, here's a way to start -- actually, 20 ways to start -- phrases you can use to increase the odds of someone giving you the feedback you need to develop your bold, new idea.

Go ahead. Get your idea out there. Invite someone to give you feedback. You can do this.

Sure, you've heard it all before--if you've been laid off, or just finished your degree and can't find a job, now could be a great time to start a business. But is this just fashionable talk of the times, or is it really possible in today's ravaged economy?

I'd say there really is strength to the theory that now could be a great time to go solo. But first, let's get the bad news on the table: About 95% of small business start-ups fail within the first 10 years.

Second, we're obviously in a long, slow-moving, low-to-no-growth recession--which would make you think that start-ups' failure rate would be even higher, right?

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The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, a nonpartisan business advocacy group, ranked states in terms of how “friendly” their policies are to business interests. Factors included in the index are taxes, regulatory costs, government spending, property rights, health care policies and energy costs. Overall, the group applauds low taxes and limited government spending.

Just the other day, a colleague asked me whether I could suggest some examples of organizations that have been successful with “innovation initiatives” in a commercial setting?  He said that he had a CEO who wanted to launch an “innovation initiative” that would provide a laboratory for experiments in-house, so that his firm could become known as an idea factory in their sector.

I replied that I didn’t know of any “innovation initiative” that was ultimately successful on a sustained basis. That’s because if an organization is looking at innovation as “an initiative”, and it introduces that initiative into a culture that doesn’t support innovation, then the culture will sooner or later crush the initiative—usually sooner. So you can have temporary “successes” as “initiatives” with a lot of flag waving and hoopla ceremonies and celebrations of victories, but they don’t last.

U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte is co-sponsoring a bill that would let entrepreneurs raise up to $1 million a year by selling ownership stakes in their companies through what are known as crowdfunding websites. A similar version of the bill breezed through the U.S. House early last month.

Introduced by U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., the Senate bill addresses some of the consumer protection concerns that critics levied against the House bill, which passed overwhelmingly in November by a 407-17 vote. (Two of those "aye" votes came from New Hampshire Congressmen Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass.)

Vanderbilt’s Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization (CTTC), formerly known as the Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development, is expanding its services to accommodate the growing needs of Vanderbilt researchers.

“Our role is to assist Vanderbilt inventors in their goal of transferring inventions to the marketplace where they can have a positive impact on society,” said Alan Bentley, M.S., who was named assistant vice chancellor for Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Development earlier this year.

“As the Vanderbilt research engine expands, the breadth of our expertise and capabilities will allow us to keep pace and meet demand for commercialization support,” Bentley said.

Over the years, we've met with thousands of entrepreneurs who were starting consumer Internet businesses.  And as we listen to them describe their business, I find myself categorizing the opportunity.  One of categorizations I've found most helpful has been to determine whether the company is looking to help people "save time" or help people "kill time".

Companies like Youtube and Zynga entertain people (and help them kill time)  -- while companies like Google, LinkedIn and Mint.com are great utilities and help people save time (but users rarely visit them for without intent or for for pure entertainment).  At First Round, we've funded both:

• Mint.com, Uber, Xobni, and HotelTonight all fall in the "save time" category
• And StumbleUpon, MyYearbook, Roblox, MovieClips all fall in the "kill time" category

Stanford University and the University of California continue to be fertile breeding grounds for breakthrough technologies, generating many millions of dollars in annual income for two schools that have played a central role in building Silicon Valley.

Despite continuing difficult economic conditions, in 2010, Stanford collected $65.5 million from the commercialization of its inventions, up slightly from $65 million in 2009, according to a new survey from the nonprofit Association of University Technology Managers.

The 10 campuses in the University of California system also did well, earning a total of $104.5 million in licensing income -- up slightly from last year's earnings of $103.1 million.

Moneytree statistics posted on the National Venture Capital Association website paint a potentially troublesome picture for the venture industry. In recent years, VC investment into portfolio companies has far outpaced the inflow of limited partner investments into venture funds. On a year-to-date basis through Sept. 30. 2011, VC investments in portfolio companies totaled $21.2 billion compared to VC fundraising of just $12.2 billion. Anyone with a working knowledge of arithmetic can see that this situation isn’t sustainable.

Based on my discussions with university endowments and pension funds over the last couple of years, the story behind the numbers raises additional concerns. While most limited partners are still clamoring to invest in the top 10 percent of venture capital funds based on performance, the picture for the bottom 90 percent isn’t so clear. Many venture capitalists are not looking forward to the process of raising their next fund and are waiting for a few more successful exits in their portfolios to improve their chances.

Business Angel Investing received a strong boost from Government today, through both a new major 50% tax relief for seed stage investing and the launch of a new £50m angel co-investment fund.

Notably in his Autumn statement today, Chancellor George Osborne has announced that investors wishing to back very early stage seed stage businesses can gain up to 50% tax relief.  Under this new Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), commencing from April 2012, which will be similar in design to the current Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), the focus will be on supporting new early stage companies with 25 or fewer employees and assets of up to £200,000 which are carrying on or preparing to carry on a new business.   For investors the maximum an annual investment limit for will be £100,000 and the maximum that any early stage business can receive cumulatively under this scheme will be £150,000.

Of the many jobs bills competing for support this month on Capitol Hill, one would have a direct impact on the U.S. research community. But its progress this week has gone largely unnoticed amid the partisan battles between the White House and Congress over how best to stimulate the sluggish economy.

On Tuesday, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) moved heaven and Earth to win Senate approval of a bill reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The largest federal research program for small businesses, SBIR is funded through a 2.5% tax on the budgets of 11 science agencies. Last year, the agencies made roughly $2.5 billion in competitive grants to entrepreneurs seeking to commercialize the latest technologies.

At the mobile health technology conference mHealthcon held at Rutgers University on Dec. 1, one panel shared some interesting insights about their businesses and what entrepreneurs and adapters of mobile health technology could learn from them.

Patients are consumers first. The users of your product may be patients, but they evaluate new product choices the same way that any other consumer would. There’s a lot the mobile health industry can learn from the gaming and shopping industries. Communications stressed the personal relationships people have with their mobile phones. Text messages is the most scalable platform. Avoid duplicating information users can get on their own by searching the Web. Chronic diseases may provide more opportunities to guide patients with data, knowledge and action — support apps are richer. Richy Glassberg of MedHelp said the 60 percent to 70 percent of customer service requests it receives are how can the company make it easier for customers to speak with their doctors.

NorTech clearly has a “Go big or go home” attitude. Its cluster approach to economic development in advanced energy and flexible electronics has supported companies that have attracted $20.5 million in capital, created 171 jobs and generated $10.8 million in payroll in Ohio over a one year period starting in July of 2010.

A “cluster” is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, service providers, and associated institutions in a particular technology sector.

When I got separated from my ex-wife in November, 2008 I put an ad on Craigslist pretending to be a psychic and spent the day answering all the emails I got in return. I had various tricks to prove I was a psychic. For instance, if a woman wrote me and asked: prove you’re a psychic I would write back: when you were younger you had beautiful long hair. Then it was cut and you were horribly sad, all that beautiful hair lost. They would all respond, HOW DID YOU KNOW?

Then I had Thanksgiving dinner in the Red Flame diner on 44th Street by myself and had a Turkey sandwich.

Boxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling employ weight classes to ensure the competition is fair and you’re tested on skill, not size. In business, weight classes don’t exist, so if your company is a young, skinny 95-pounder, while your industry is filled with 300lb giants, you’re going to need to tighten up your laces and punch way above your weight. If you want to survive these mis-matched fights in today’s saturated marketplace, you need to get comfortable.

Here are tips to help you, the little guy, use your small size and agility to your advantage.

Speed

Your competition is juggling thousands of employees, sweating quarterly shareholder expectations, and managing disconnected systems from acquisitions. They are simultaneously watching out for the challengers next to them, in front of them, and behind them. They are moving at a slower speed.

Rich Bendis has been nominated as a "Top5 Speaker" for 2012 in the Innovation/Creativity category by Speakers Platform. Recognition is based on: expertise. professionalism, innovation within the topic area, testimonials and references, presentation skills and online votes. Rich has spoken over 30 times this year in many Countries, Provinces, States, Regions and Cities around the world on Building Innovative Economies and other Innovation topics. ALL VOTES MUST BE CAST BEFORE JANUARY 14TH, 2012.

Rich would appreciate your vote and asks that you please go to the voting page at: http://speaking.com/top5/ to cast your vote.

Thank You,

Rich Bendis