“Your words will either give you joy or give you sorrow, but if they were spoken without regret, they give you peace.”

Shannon L. Alder

I am not enough.

But at the party, when I explained my day, I didn’t talk about this. Instead, I spoke about the latest sushi restaurant that opened downtown, my recent Netflix binge, a few timely comments on education reform and my son’s adorable new haircut. Because these are the stories that I tell?—I tell stories that other women are okay with hearing. Stories that don’t shake and don’t divulge. Stories that obfuscate and smooth.

But the truth is, on that day, I didn’t feel like I was enough.

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In a few years manufacturing and resource exploitation might be highly localized, services automated, employee productivity and consumer sentiment highly transparent and predictable, and human enhancement widespread. What would this really mean for “us” as individuals and for our economy?

Image: Which economic systems will be most successful in providing equal access to the social and economic benefits of technology? Credit: U.S. Marine Corps via flickr

Brain drain or brain gain? In the 21st Century, it makes all the difference which side of the line your community is on.

Communities suffering brain drain lose their talented young people to places where the lights are brighter and opportunities are thicker on the ground. The community’s future goes with them. The loss is measured in innovations not introduced, companies not formed, ideas and arts and culture that never see the light of day.

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The United States has over 5,700 hospitals, and most of them are central to their communities for an obvious reason: They help people get healthier. When I look at these hospitals, I see an untapped resource, a way they could provide greater value to their communities and the country.

Intellectual assets — the ideas and know-how in the heads of clinicians — are vital, intangible resources for most hospitals. They’re equivalent to the research assets at universities.

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Late in September, Bioheart, a South Florida-based biotech company, opened a new facility overseas, the South African Stem Cell Institute and immediately began treating patients with their stem cell therapies for spinal cord injury, diabetes, arthritis, autoimmune disease and more.

As our state and our community very much need to grow knowledge-based industries, the Bioheart news is especially welcome.

The first rule of Shark Tank is not to talk about Shark Tank — until after your episode airs.

Eric Bandholz of Beardbrand was on the Halloween 2014 episode of Shark Tank (at 14:03). Although he didn’t make a deal with any of the Sharks, he did learn a lot.

In this Reddit post, he shares his experiences. Here’s a sampling:

The Sharks Questions

So, you guys saw about 6 or 7 minutes of my time with the Sharks, but I actually spent around 45 minutes with them. I had them at the end of the day after they had already seen 10 other entrepreneurs. I got a sense that they were slightly tired, and they wanted the day to be over.

Glaxo Smith Kline vice-president, Bernadette Doyle’s love of science was nurtured in primary school by a nun who taught to learn through discovery, she tells Arlene Harris

SCIENCE has traditionally been a male endeavour. The stereotype of men in white coats poring over microscopes and petri-dishes hasn’t changed, though many women are at the forefront of scientific research.

Software that can “evolve” novel component designs could help designers and engineers by automating part of the creative process.

Autodesk developed the computer-aided design software, called Dreamcatcher, over the past seven years. The California-based company already makes 3-D software that’s widely used in architecture, engineering, animation, and other industries. But Dreamcatcher takes a novel approach known as “generative design.” Among several approaches, it uses algorithms that mimic the process of evolution to produce new designs after starting with a list of parameters chosen by the user.

Image: http://www.technologyreview.com

If you’ve never hired an employee — or if you find the task tedious — never fear! There are websites and tools designed to make the work so much easier. Below are some of the best websites out there for everything related to hiring. Not only will you save time and money on the recruitment process, but you’ll also find the most talented candidates out there.

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The enrollment of new graduate students from outside the United States is up 8 percent this year at American graduate programs, according to data being released today by the Council of Graduate Schools. That's down slightly from a 10 percent gain a year ago, but the same increase of the prior two years before that. While the overall growth rate is strong, there was a slight (1 percent) drop in the enrollment of new students from China this fall, compared to a year ago. China is the top provider of international students to the United States. Enrollments from South Korea and Taiwan were also down. India had the second year of large increases, and Brazil's numbers (though building from a relative small base) are way up.

MedCity News has learned that a new healthcare accelerator is taking shape Philadelphia. Three sources have confirmed former Walgreens executive Peter Hotz is developing the accelerator with Vynamic, a healthcare management consultancy. Although Jefferson Health System and the Center for Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania are among the institutions that could play a role, nothing is official yet.

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They missed an opportunity with a joke about the MiniFigs Boson, but this Lego Particle Accelerator made by JK Brickworks actually accelerates an orange Lego soccer ball to an impressive 12.5 kph. Check out the details on Jason's Blog and I highly recommend watching the video.

Fuelling economic growth through investment in startup companies is a priority in Canada and the United States. Leaders of both nations have taken steps to reinvigorate venture capital industries in their respective countries, but the means to that end are distinctive.

According to a May 6 National Venture Capital Association press release, findings in the 2014 NVCA Yearbook indicate that venture capitalists raised $16.8 billion in new commitments and invested $29.6 billion in U.S. companies in 2013.

One startup's cash register is overflowing now.

Revel Systems announced Tuesday that it has raised "around" $100 million in a Series C funding round, with the goal of using that capital to expand its iPad point of sale platform to retailers abroad.

On a late October weekend, officers of the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) conducted a sting operation on UberX cars in the city. Thus far, the agency has fined 10 drivers of the car service app $1,000 each and impounded their vehicles for violating the law. Uber was fined $1,000 per violation as well. The parking authority said Uber only has permission to operate a limousine fleet in Philadelphia, not a ride-sharing service, whose drivers may not have gone through background and other safety checks. PPA spokesman Martin O’Rourke called UberX a “renegade taxi operation.”

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The importance of innovation as a driver for growth of both companies and entire economies is recognized across the globe. Major nations have long understood that patent protection is crucial to encouraging creativity and innovation by safeguarding inventions.

The earliest intellectual-property systems date back to the 18th century (in the U.S.) and back to medieval times in Europe. Japan has a slightly younger system, established in the late 19th century. Japan’s neighbor, China, is a late-adopter of patent laws, which it first introduced in the mid-1980s.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

In its second year, the Kauffmann Foundation’s Mayors Conference on Entrepreneurship saw mayoral attendance more than double from 16 to 39, signifying how city officials are more engaged in what’s working – and what’s not – when it comes to supporting local entrepreneurs, according to Jason Wiens, policy director at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Every entrepreneur is a leader. You might not have a staff right now, but you could in the future. Furthermore, as a business owner you are a community leader as well. So even if you’re still a “solopreneur” and focused on keeping your head above water, it’s time to develop some serious leadership skills…and in fact, it might be those very leadership skills that help your business get past the startup stage and into growth more quickly.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Your success as an entrepreneur is determined in large part by your ability to communicate. You can be the best at what you do, but if you’re not communicating effectively with clients, staff and the market, then you’re missing opportunities.

While many business schools offer entrepreneurship classes and even majors, there haven't been any schools dedicated entirely to entrepreneurship — until now.

This quarter, Drexel University in Philadelphia opened the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship, America's first stand-alone entrepreneurship school. Though the school has offered classes since January 2013, it officially launched its degree and minor programs this term.