Leading innovation is a lot like parenting.

As a parent, you generally don’t have any meaningful training or preparation before you start.  You kind of learn as you go, and figure things out as they land in front of you.  Most of the advice y0u get is off base and not at all relevant to your circumstances.  By the time you’ve accumulated enough experience to be more or less competent, the skills you’ve acquired are mostly irrelevant.  To top it all off, the really important things you did, the things that will really matter somewhere in the future, are totally invisible, hidden away in a flurry of daily actions and drama and living.

Just about everyone knows how to talk. Far fewer know how to communicate. All too many of our leaders have this problem: great talkers…not so good communicators. The ability to not only talk but also communicate is such an unusual trait that one of the highest accolades earned by President Reagan was that he was “The Great Communicator.”

Talking is not communicating. Talking is using words to convey messages or feelings. Communicating, on the other hand, is using words, emotions, and gestures in such a way that the listener can fully understand what the words mean at a surface level while internalizing the underlying message you’re expressing.

Rep. John Boehner resigned from Congress last week, signaling the end of his short tenure as speaker of the House. Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, presided over one of the least effective (and most antiscience) Congresses in recent memory, and stepped down amidst yet another partisan battle—this one over Planned Parenthood—and vague rumor of a brewing government shutdown.

Just about everyone knows how to talk. Far fewer know how to communicate. All too many of our leaders have this problem: great talkers…not so good communicators. The ability to not only talk but also communicate is such an unusual trait that one of the highest accolades earned by President Reagan was that he was “The Great Communicator.”

Talking is not communicating. Talking is using words to convey messages or feelings. Communicating, on the other hand, is using words, emotions, and gestures in such a way that the listener can fully understand what the words mean at a surface level while internalizing the underlying message you’re expressing.

We recently released our list of the 50 most powerful companies in America.

To determine the power of each company, we factored together 2014 revenue, number of employees, press mentions, and social media influence. You can read our full methodology here.

Image: REUTERS/Rick Wilking Warren Buffett is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the most powerful finance company in America. 

PORTLAND, OR (September 22, 2015) – The Angel Resource Institute at Willamette University (ARI) released the 2015 Q2 ARI HALO Report: Geography Edition today, a national survey of angel group investment activity sponsored by PitchBook. ARI’s Vice Chairman of Research Rob Wiltbank said, “For the first time ever, we are able to report on the geographic differences over the last several years for the key metrics we’ve been reporting in the HALO Report™.”

The State Department has made bridging the global digital divide a priority.   State on Sept. 27 launched a new initiative, Global Connect, with the goal of connecting 1.5 billion people to the Internet worldwide by 2020.   During her tenure as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton declared Internet freedom a basic global value and foreign policy goal , but to have that freedom, the world needs to have access to the Internet, State suggested in declaring its mission to connect the world. In addition, Last spring,

It was a cold December morning in Stockholm and I stomped my feet briskly while waiting for the bus. When the bus pulled up the woman closest to the door hurried on and I stepped forward happy to follow her. Although I had been oblivious to the loose queue my fellow passengers had formed, I could scarcely miss the angry coughs they directed my way when I boarded before them. Cutting in line — even inadvertently — is a cultural crime in Sweden.

We’ve all hit a wall at some point. You may run up against a competitor you cannot beat. You might lose your job despite your best efforts. You could be doing everything you can – but still not getting that promotion. But whatever the cause, what feels like a roadblock could be your first step on a new growth journey – as long as that step is backwards.

Ghana’s creative economy is in tatters. Wait, “creative economy,” you say? Is there even such a thing? A creative “sector”, surely! However, one is not so sure about there being an “economy”. What is the sum of it? Or who’s recording this sum?

Critics mooting a ‘Creative Industries’ or ‘Arts’ Council believes there is an urgent need to expedite its formation. But would that really solve the myriad of problems the sector faces? Yes, they argue.

Image: http://graphic.com.gh 

It was like any other contest where startup founders pitch their ideas to a skeptical audience, except the majority of the people doing the pitching as well as in the audience had either gray or no hair.

Entrepreneurial families, in the early stages, may have the stress of a two-income family, but the income of only one.

Image: http://www.entrepreneurship.org 

The US smart home market has yet to take off. Quirky's recent announcement that it was filing chapter 11 bankruptcy — and selling off its smart home business, Wink — highlights this well.

At its current state, we believe the smart home market is stuck in the 'chasm' of the technology adoption curve, in which it is struggling to surpass the early-adopter phase and move to the mass-market phase of adoption.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com 

In your business, your team is everything. Even if you follow the guidelines from my blog on how to hire your first employee on the best practices for hiring and interviewing candidates, some bad seeds will still find ways to slip through the cracks. It’s not just poor workers who will affect how your team pool changes.

The TechStars Startup Next pre-accelerator backed by Bank of Ireland and Google for Entrepreneurs will return to Dublin in October.

Startup Next is a pre-accelerator designed by Techstars aimed at getting tech start-ups ready for accelerators and seed stage investment.

It takes place over a six-week period (one per week) finishing with a demo day on 10 December.

Rising sea levels due to climate change is a big threat, research shows

Flood risk in New York City has increased in recent decades due to human-caused sea level rise and the related storm surge that occurs during cyclones, according to a new study. Climate change threatens to exacerbate the risk storms pose to the largest city in the United States.

Biology is less of a long shot on a wet and active Mars

MORE Why Humanity Keeps Putting Off the Trip to Mars A Brief History of the Search for Water on Mars Signs of Water Found on Mars, Researchers Say Mars may be the solar system’s most tragic planet. It once had a dense atmosphere; it once fairly sloshed with water; just one of its oceans may have covered two-thirds of its northern hemisphere. With seasons very much like Earth’s, it could have been home to who knows what kinds of life.

Too many entrepreneurs look for that one magic bullet -- an exciting new technology, perhaps, or their own determination to make the world a better place -- to override any shortcomings in their startup model. Yet, magic bullets are not sufficient to assure business success. If the elements of your business aren't expertly developed and aligned, even the best dream will be in jeopardy.

You’ve heard me and others comment on the issue of artificially bloated up Unicorns and their questionable exit paths into the public market, or even into the arms of private suiters. In this post, I want to highlight some really good Unicorns, lest you think all Unicorns are artificially bloated. And, I will also point out the at risk ones.

As the post-lunch slump sets in, many office workers opt for a coffee or chocolate to keep their eyes open, risking sleeplessness or a sugar crash. It is at times like this, its inventors believe, that a new wearable device can stimulate users via a tiny pulse that will heighten their mood or bring it down if they want to relax.

Image: The creators claim Doppel helps make users more alert or relaxed. Founders from left are: Nell Bennett, Jack Hooper, Andreas Bilicki and Fotini Markopoulou. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian