When I was a child, my mother told me that I would miss all the shots that I didn’t take. Her words didn’t make complete sense at the time, but after almost 50 years in business, I have come to truly understand what she meant: You can’t rely on luck, but on the other hand, fortune favors the bold. I believe that what people refer to as “luck” is one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated factors in life. Businesses and entrepreneurs that are generally considered to be more fortunate or luckier than others are usually those that are prepared to take chances and experiment with new approaches -- and to fall flat on their faces every so often.

Cars haven’t changed much over the past century or so, have they? Most still run on four wheels, burn some sort of fossil fuel and have a penchant for transforming otherwise peaceful individuals in raving mad road-ragers.

But each and every year, automakers come up with new and exciting vehicles that not only move the industry forward, but also serve up some sort of newfound delight for us, the car-loving consumers.

Image: http://motorburn.com/ 

As the Boulder Startup Community evolved, I started to become inundated with people who wanted to get involved. Some of these were locals while others where people looking to move to Boulder, or who had recently moved here. Some where people known to me while others were new relationships. As the momentum, size, impact, and reach of the Boulder Startup Community grew, I found myself overwhelmed by the amount of requests I was getting to get together, meet, explore ways to work together, and just generally share food and drink in the quest for figuring out ways to work together.

Venture capital exploded in 2014, with bigger deals and more eye-popping valuations than anytime since the dot-com boom. So what happens next, and which opportunities will define 2015?

We asked several venture capital investors to reflect on the past year and give us their outlook for the next 12 months. Next in our series is Dayna Grayson, a partner at New Enterprise Associates. Ms. Grayson talks about the strength of the public markets, overvalued companies going public and competition among venture capitalists.

Maybe you’ve been called a dreamer your whole life—by others and by yourself. However, saying you are a dreamer or a doer is like saying you are good or bad. Nobody is 100 percent one way or the other, but they may lean more in one direction. It’s a spectrum, and the good news is that you can shift the paradigm so you’re a little more balanced.

Financial regulators are getting ready to crack down on crowdfunding platforms across Europe. New guidance has been published aimed at aligning crowdfunding rules throughout the European Union. The documents also highlight what regulators in each country need to do to make sure cowboy crowdfunding platforms play to the same rules as the rest of the industry.

My friends at the Kauffman Foundation have released the Kauffman Thoughtbook 2015.  It’s a beautifully done, well-organized, and super rich with content web document about entrepreneurship. There is extensive content and examples around Startup Communities, included in the Paths to Entrepreneurship section. I made a few guest appearances, including in the long article about the Kansas City Startup Village.

As an analyst at an early-stage VC firm, I frequently see companies that have some initial traction but are running out of money and are fundraising under pressure.

These are often companies that did not raise enough money earlier, and now struggle to raise the next round because they did not have the resources (money) to create enough assets to attract the next investor.

Imagine your life many years from now, when the time you have left is best measured in weeks or months instead of years and decades, and 2015 is a distant fading memory. What moments will stand out to you?

Do you really think it’s going to be that time, all those years ago, when your fairly frivolous app raised money so it could eventually be sold to some unnamed bigger company and shutdown? Or will you think back on your life and remember your wife, your husband, your children, and the friends you made and lost too soon?

Image: There are more important things in life than securing that Series A. Image Credit: Quinn Dombrowski 

Whether it's glowing lava snaking into the sea or lightning blooming in billowing ash clouds, the sight of an erupting volcano inspires awe and wonder.

Now imagine 1,500 of these suckers all shooting off at once. That's how many active volcanoes dot the Earth, plus an unknown number hidden under the ocean. Every day, between 10 and 20 volcanoes are erupting somewhere on Earth, but scientists say the chance of every volcano on the planet erupting at once is so small that it's impossible. But what if it did happen? Would Earth as it we know it survive?

Frankfort, Ky.: A bill to use a state-run “crowdfunding” platform to help Kentucky entrepreneurs raise capital is on lawmakers agenda in the 2015 Kentucky General Assembly’s session starting Jan. 6.

Rep. Steve Riggs, D-Louisville, has prefiled legislation to create online crowdfunding investment opportunities in Kentucky for those seeking to launch or expand a business. The legislation proposes to create an online platform for Kentucky entrepreneurs that functions much like the popular website Kickstarter.com. Once up and running, anyone can review the posted business ideas and invest in those they find promising. Likewise, the public’s response helps those posting opportunities judge their idea’s viability.

Image: http://www.lanereport.com/ 

Entrepreneurship is not just a job; it’s an attitude & lifestyle embraced by those who need an extra something from everyday working routine. GB Marketing reveals 8 things entrepreneurs do differently that help enrich their business & personal lives.

In building successful businesses, I find that creating a new and innovative product or service is usually the easy part. The hard part is providing the leadership required to align and motivate all the constituents and players – from engineers, to investors, vendors, and ultimately customers. Great entrepreneurs are not just idea people and then managers, they are extraordinary leaders.

“So how do you feel about it? Do you feel any differently about social media? Will you be using it less?”

My wife was asking me about my just-concluded social media break. I’d stepped away from Twitter, Instagram, Vine and Facebook, essentially all of my social media feeds for more than a week. The timing was letter-perfect as it coincided with a much needed holiday break, which started before Christmas and ended just hours ago, a few days after the New Year.

If you define your self-worth as an entrepreneur by how busy you are, it’s time to find another lifestyle. We all know people who are extraordinarily busy, but never seem to accomplish anything. For survival, entrepreneurs need to be all about accomplishing results that matter for themselves, their team, and their customers. That’s productivity.

Why is this so hard? In a recent FranklinCovey study, respondents indicated that 40 percent of their time was being spent on things that were not important to them or their companies. That is a huge hit on productivity. For insight, I recommend the details provided in a new book “The 5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity,” by Kory Kogon, Adam Merrill, and Leena Rinne.

The Chinese stock market saw 125 initial public offerings (IPO) in 2014, raising 78.7 billion yuan (US$12.86 billion), consultant group Deloitte said.

This number still fell short of the 154 IPOs which raised 103.4 billion (US$16.6 billion) in 2012, the year before IPOs were suspended, Deloitte said.

Image: A trading center in Haikou, Hainan province June 18, 2014. (File photo/CNS) 

When the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 18,000 for the first time late last month, you could practically hear the champagne corks popping. Traders wore hats celebrating the occasion, and email news alerts were followed by dutiful articles.

If you found yourself cheering from the sidelines, however, you’re in danger of using the wrong marker to track your own financial progress.

Image: Robert Neubecker 

In 1941, as Nazi Germany began its disastrous campaign against the Soviet Union, Hitler's other campaign, to exterminate European Jewry, was also commencing in earnest. What began with organized executions carried out by the Einzatsgruppen evolved into systematic genocide, reaching its frenzied final moments just as the Wehrmacht was meeting defeat on the military front. These campaigns—and Germany's failure—were inextricably linked, Yaron Pasher tells us in Holocaust versus Wehrmacht. Pasher argues, in fact, that the major share of the logistical problems faced by the Wehrmacht during World War II stemmed from Hitler's obsession with securing the resources—especially from the Reichsbahn railway—needed to implement the "Final Solution." To a degree never fully recognized or understood, Hitler's anti-Semitic ideology was his war's undoing.

It's been a bad year for the tech sector’s issues in Washington.

Practically every interest group has things to complain about after Congress put to rest its second least productive term in history, but the tech industry has spent millions on its campaigns, and repeatedly come up short.

Perhaps even more frustrating for tech backers, many of the issues that they have advocated have significant bipartisan support and earned the backing of one chamber of Congress or the other.

The New York Times ran an article recently that’s nominally about football, but really gives insight into the decline of the Midwest and the rise of the South. Called “As Big Ten Declines, Homegrown Talent Flees,” this piece ties in perfectly with my recent essay on the differing social states of the Midwest and South. The NYT’s money quote says it all:

The SEC sold excellence. The Big Ten sold tradition.

Ironically, it is the formerly stigmatized “backwoods” South that has embraced excellence while the former industrial champion of the Midwest has spurned it. I don’t think that Midwesterners understand how much things have changed in the South. I hear the same stereotypical view of the South that might have had a lot of truth decades ago but have changes substantially. For example, those who think it is both a good thing and bad have quipped that Indiana is like an extension of the South into the Midwest. I don’t think so.