The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control. If you follow our newsletter, you’ve read some startling research summaries that explore the havoc stress can wreak on one’s physical and mental health (such as the Yale study, which found that prolonged stress causes degeneration in the area of the brain responsible for self-control).

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Two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology or money. The first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want.

Leadership books present a quandary—they need to tell a story but they also need to be believable as something that can be replicated, preferably without excess effort.

What often results, even among well-written, smart reads, are books that are short on data and long on anecdotes and checklists. What data there is often is situation-specific information that the author, by necessity, stretches to encompass a philosophy.

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Many senior managers desire — and are qualified — to join a board. And many companies around the world would greatly benefit from infusions of fresh talent and insight into their boards. Yet all too often board positions go to people who are already serving on other boards. So how can you, a promising potential new director, realize your aspiration?

First, let’s look at the reality. Boards can be conservative and clubby institutions. They tend to select new members who are proven quantities — typically, members of other boards.

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More than two generations ago, the venture capital community — VCs, business angels, incubators, and others — convinced the entrepreneurial world that writing business plans and raising venture capital constituted the twin centerpieces of entrepreneurial endeavor. They did so for good reasons: the sometimes astonishing returns they’ve delivered and the incredibly large and valuable companies that their ecosystem has created.

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On July 11, I was at the City Club of Cleveland listening to the EPA’s Chris Korleski speak to business leaders and policymakers about the economic impact of the Great Lakes on Northeast Ohio and other regions. Just before the event kicked off, news broke that LeBron James had decided to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers. For a few minutes his announcement caught everybody’s attention and some in the room seemed to have forgotten why they were even there.

Eduardo Costa enrolled at business school with an entrepreneurial ambition – but turning an idea into a business reality required human capital.

The MBA graduate came up with a raft of solid socially impactful plans, but needed help to see them come to fruition. “I thought the MBA would be the perfect environment to not just benefit from knowledge, but to find partners for a new business idea,” he said.

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Earlier this year I surveyed individuals who desire to make the transition from employment to entrepreneurship. I discovered that, overwhelmingly, the biggest roadblock that keeps people from taking action is fear about money.

The question for everyone is the same: Will the passion business I create earn enough income to support me?

The answer is also the same: Who knows? The only way to find out is to test your business idea and learn how to be nimble enough to make tweaks here and there until you find a business model that works. That's understandably overwhelming and stressful, and I can empathize with those who get scared into staying put.

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You should have humor as part of your personal branding – but make sure your humor fits the situation. Choose the right time and place to use suitable, relevant, and brief wittiness. Still, if in doubt, go for it. Good people will be grateful for your attempt to put them at ease.

SEATTLE – Washington State University researchers can get in-house money to move their innovations from the lab to the marketplace through a new commercialization gap-funding (CGF) program. Proposals can be submitted at http://commercialization.wsu.edu/Researchers/CGF/ and awards will be announced by mid-December. “Transfer of WSU technologies to commercial entities follows the university’s land-grant mission by moving knowledge to benefit local and global communities, improving quality of life and enhancing the economy,” said Anson Fatland, WSU’s associate vice president for economic development and external affairs.

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The word “lean” is everywhere these days. Lean processes, lean startups. While Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, has arguably become the face of this movement, its philosophy is largely based on something called the Business Model Canvas — a tool developed by author and entrepreneur Alexander Osterwalder and Swiss academic Yves Pigneur.

As a second year Wharton MBA, my friend and I entered the Wharton Business Plan Competition. We made it to the semi-finals and, with an abundant amount of optimism, we pushed forward with our venture. In short, it did not work out. Along the way, I learned a few lessons, and I offer them here. Failure, after all, is a great, if painful, teacher.

A great idea is not enough

Having a great idea does not mean having a great startup. While it may seem brilliant to arrive at a clever business idea, it is merely one of many pre-requisites for entry into the entrepreneur club. Success depends on the execution, not the idea. Anyone can have ideas, few can execute them.

Much has been written about the supposed preference of millennials to live in hip urban settings where cars are not necessary. Surveys of best cities for millennials invariably features places like New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston, cities that often are also favorites of the authors.

Yet there has been precious little support for such assertions. Iasked demographer Wendell Cox to do a precise, up-to-date analysis of where this huge generation born between 1983 and 2003 actually resides. Using Census American Community Survey data, Cox has drawn an intriguing picture of millennial America, one that is often at odds with the conventional wisdom of many of their elders.

Healthcare technology is hot stuff, with startups and investors from Silicon Valley to the Charles River chasing after the next paradigm-shifting blockbuster innovation. Each passing quarter sees an ever-increasing tally of eager rounds of funding.

In the first three quarters of 2013, health IT venture capital leapt steadily from $493 million to $623 million to $737 million, according to Mercom Capital Group. By Q1 2014, it was up to $858 million.

In Q2, VC funding for digital health passed $1 billion for the first time ever: $1.8 billion worth of deals.

"Funding into the healthcare IT sector continues at an astonishing pace," said Mercom CEO Raj Prabhu in a press statement in April.

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Founded in 2004, JumpStart is a non-profit venture development organization committed to strengthening the inclusive economic vitality of neighborhoods, cities and regions. JumpStart partners with entrepreneurs and community leaders who believe the success of startup and small businesses is key to fully realizing their wealth and job-creating potential.

Fueled with 10 years of experience working with leaders in 20 regions across the United States, JumpStart’s “ecosystem” approach helps philanthropic, business, public and institutional leaders create programs that address critical challenges, such as access to capital, for fast-growing, high-potential firms that can drive economic growth.

Given JumpStart’s passion for assisting and investing in high-impact entrepreneurs and engaged community leaders, we are happy to partner with Innovation America and look forward to a continued dialogue with the Innovation Daily reader.

www.jumpstartinc.org

The millennial generation is the largest in American history, and they’ve begun to enter the workforce. But more and more, these young workers are stuck in low-end, low-pay, and even part-time jobs for which they are overqualified—something that a recent NBER working paper has found could depress their future earnings for years. These days, there are simply not enough good jobs to go around.

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Following the lead of IT, telecoms, and media companies, more traditional brick and mortar German companies are increasingly funding and investing directly in startups across Germany, the U.S. and Israel—a sign that German heavy industry is on the hunt for disruptive innovation. With TMT companies like SAP SAP.XE -0.92% and Deutsche Telekom DTE.XE -1.74% long active in the start-up scene, more traditional players from a wide array of industries, like pharmaceuticals, energy utilities, and automotive, are now shifting into high gear.

What business today does not want to be more innovative? In business parlance, “innovation” has reached a glorified position—like “customer centricity,” it is deemed to be a strategic necessity. But it is hard to define.  It means different things to different people. Innovation exists along a continuum, from material improvements to existing products or processes all the way to the rare disruptive innovation. For our purposes, let’s define it as a “big new” for your business or a “big different” in how you operate your business.

VIVEK WADHWA: A few years ago, if you had asked me about Silicon Valley’s gender imbalance, I would have wondered what planet you were from. I believed it was a perfect meritocracy that was open and diverse. My research had documented that the majority of Silicon Valley’s startups were founded by immigrants and that powerful and inclusive networks gave it a global advantage.

Babson Executive Education has won Silver in the 2014 EFMD Excellence in Practice Awards for the Saltire Fellowship Program, a Babson custom-designed program to help transform the Scottish economy through entrepreneurial leadership. Babson was honored for its submission to the Talent Development category.

Other management education institutions that received top honors included: Ashridge Business School, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, University of Auckland Business School, IMD, and Amsterdam Business School.

The Saltire Fellowship Program is sponsored by The Saltire Foundation, an independent Scottish charity whose mission is to find, fuel and spark the next generation of business leaders in Scotland.