People who have been followers too long as an employee don’t realize how hard it is to be a leader. Every new entrepreneur has to initiate the right actions to be perceived as a leader in their chosen business domain by their team and by their customers, or the road to success and satisfaction will be lost along the way.

On October 9, 2014, the Investment Advisory Committee of the SEC issued its much awaited recommendations on the "Accredited Investor" definition of Regulation D of the '33 Act. This is in response to the SEC's Request for Comments on the definition of "Accredited Investor" in its release relating to Proposed Rules for Regulation D and Form D, which mainly related to general solicitation (for the full text of that release, see here). Since then, there have been numerous comments and concerns relating to proposals that would increase the wealth and income levels needed to qualify as an Accredited Investor – many asserting that a dramatic increase would severely hurt the ability of emerging companies in the US to attract the investment capital they need to build their businesses.

An expert on technology transfer argues that Israeli startups are selling the future for a quick buck

There are more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups in Israel, making it the largest startup hub in the world in proportion to its population. Israel also has the highest venture dollar/GDP ratio in the world, seven times higher than in the US.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Today’s venture capital landscape has never been more complex, and it will never again be this simple. It’s hard for entrepreneurs to navigate and VCs to differentiate. 

And while many believe increased competition has driven valuations up, that simply doesn’t tell the full story.

Image: http://techcrunch.com/ 

The Texas Medical Center hosted a dozen digital health startups this week as part of a program with Village Capital, a Washington, DC-based venture firm.

The program, called VilCapUSA, marks the debut of the medical center’s new accelerator space, TMCx, which will unveil its own inaugural class of healthcare startups in March. “Working with Village Capital was a great opportunity to set the tone right out of the gate, that TMCx is really about the best digital health, medical, life science companies in the world,” says Bill McKeon, TMC’s COO and chief strategy officer.

To some, creativity is an elusive muse who rarely graces us with her presence. To others, she’s a best friend who stops by all the time to play and hang out. Either way, you can cultivate creativity any time—even right now. While you may not become the next Jony Ive or Salvador Dalí, it is possible for anyone to become more creative than they already are and to practice creativity.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Between office festivities and get-togethers with family and friends—not to mention holiday travel plans and the financial crunch that often occurs around this time of year—plenty of things may distract you from work during the holidays.

Kory Kogan, global productivity practice leader for Franklin Covey and coauthor of The 5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity says surviving the holiday season means turning your attention inward, focusing on what you need to be successful rather than giving into the festive season's demands.

Smartphones have gone from communications tools to our front door keys, light switches, remote controls, credit cards—and now driver’s licenses, at least in Iowa. 

According to the Des Moines Register, Iowa's Department of Transportation will offer digital driver’s licenses via a free mobile app that will launch next year. The virtual version will be as legally valid as the physical IDs currently sitting in Iowans' wallets, but infinitely cooler—the on-screen versions will feature animated headshots that rotate in place. 

Bob Pendleton is a 60-something year old blogger who has (probably) been programming since before you were born. His blog, thegrumpyprogrammer.com, documents the lessons he's learned from decades in the technology trenches.

The most important thing you need to know about Pendleton is his blog's mantra: Programming doesn't have to suck.

Image: http://readwrite.com/ 

Boston's Innovation District is so new that on Google Earth, this former working waterfront—set on one-and-a-half square miles of landfill—is still just a wasteland of surface parking. But those windswept lots are quickly disappearing as office towers and condos spring up to house the start-ups, tech companies, and hip young workers that the city has been trying to lure since before former Mayor Tom Menino christened the neighborhood with its optimistic name in 2010.

Image: http://www.citylab.com/ 

LSU is adding another $2 million into the LSU Leveraging Innovation for Technology Transfer, or LIFT2 fund, which provides grants to faculty members on a competitive basis twice a year, to validate the market potential of their inventions. The LSU Board of Supervisors approved the measure on Friday.

Image: LSU has doubled its investment in the LSU LIFT program. (Brett Duke, NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune) 

Over the years, the crowdfunding industry has made considerable progress enabling entrepreneurs in startups and small businesses to raise capital in different portals. Although regulation of the industry is still wanting, several changes are likely to happen in 2015. These will help shape how crowdfunding will be conducted in the United States. Here are some key predictions on the 2015 happenings in the crowdfunding scene:

Most business mentors tell me that the single biggest problem they have to deal with in small companies is the lack of open, honest, and effective communication, both from the top down and from the bottom up. Some entrepreneurs forget that talking is not communicating. Fortunately these skills can be learned, and the barriers to communication can be overcome one by one.

With brisk chapters and sumptuous language, Doerr’s second novel follows two characters whose paths will intersect in the waning days of World War II: an orphaned engineering prodigy recruited into the Nazi ranks, and a blind French girl who joins the Resistance. Tackling questions of survival, endurance and moral obligations during wartime, the book is as precise and artful and ingenious as the puzzle boxes the heroine’s locksmith father builds for her. Impressively, it is also a vastly entertaining feat of storytelling.

Image: Illustrations by Nicholas Blechman and Christoph Niemann 

Q: How would you describe entrepreneurial spirit in Stamford on the doorstep of 2015?

A: In 2012, it was very hard to find entrepreneurial spirit in the city of Stamford. People were doing stuff -- there were companies that were doing creative stuff -- but it was very much in the shadows. We've had dozens of companies come through this building. We've been very fortunate that we got some money from the state, and we've had great (support) from big companies and some services firms. That has really helped us to move this forward, but I don't think there is anywhere near enough money focused on this community at the early stages. ...

Image: Two years after the launch of the Stamford Innovation Center, managing partner Barry Schwimmer reflects on how deeply the entrepreneurial spirit has rooted in Stamford âÄì and how much deeper it could go.Photo: Alexander Soule 

Steve Blank is known for informing entrepreneurs that, “The safest bet about your new business is that you’re wrong.” He contends, “A startup is not about executing a series of knowns. Most startups are facing a series of unknowns — unknown customer segments, unknown customer needs, unknown product feature set, etc…”

One of the most important things to understand about being an entrepreneur is that there is no such thing as a 9-to-5 or a five-day workweek. You are always thinking about your team, cash flow, customers, company, product, and about a million other details unique to your business. For each thing pulling on your thoughts and time, you are always on call and available to effectively suit up as a firefighter, referee, police officer, high-stakes negotiator, babysitter, garbage collector, disciplinarian, or peacemaker to deal with whatever your company, team, and customers are facing. Furthermore, for each suit you put on, you have to wear it until the job is done.

Your professional wardrobe style is like your very own visual business card.  It speaks for you even when you are not speaking. But have you ever really thought about what your wardrobe is saying about you and your brand?   

This is something I like to call “message management.”  It is the art of knowing what image you want to project and then using your style to your professional advantage. The first step is to know what your current wardrobe says about you. Then, you can make strategic changes, taking control of how others perceive you and your business.  

What do you picture when you think about a day in the life of an entrepreneur? Meetings with investors? Strategy sessions with the executive team? Going over financial statements and analytics reports? While these items all might appear on a business owner's schedule, there are some things that entrepreneurs may never have expected to do on a regular basis. Nine startup founders shared the one task they were surprised to add to their everyday to-do lists.

Each morning people wake up and choose how they will start the day. For some, this may mean a quick workout before heading to the office and for others it could mean spending some time with their kids, reading the morning news or catching up on work-related emails.

In reality, everyone is making personal and professional trade-offs -- spending time here versus there. But ultimately being effective is not a matter of finding a balance between two spheres, but rather it's optimizing how you spend your time across the board. It's time that people embrace the notion of time optimization and put the idea of attaining work-life balance to bed.