When I meet six-figure entrepreneurs, they tend to have all the tactics, strategies and information they need to scale to seven figures and beyond.

What holds them back (and the vital piece they miss) centers around mindset.

Almost every single time, they are their biggest obstacle. Their mindset (or lack of) stops them from making the leap, and for a long time this held me back. I've slipped into huge debt, suffered entrepreneurial depression and blown up successful businesses because they weren't "right" for me.

Seems like asking investors, “What do you look for when investing in startups?” is the go-to panel topic at every health tech conference.   

The problem is most founders have heard the same answers so many times that they would rather stick sharp needles in their eyes than sit through another panel on the topic.  

Rarely discussed are the all-too-common pitch mistakes that quickly land companies in the “No” bucket before the pitch is even finished. These are self-inflicted wounds. If you make these mistakes, your platform and market opportunity do not matter. Maybe it is unfair, but a team that makes these five mistakes will likely not get funded.

Which suits you the best? Do you use weekends as a chance to catch up, get ahead or re-charge?

There is no wrong answer. However if you consistently find yourself playing catch-up you may want to reevaluate your ability to say no.

Related: Why You Should Take 10 Minutes a Day to Do Nothing

Knowing when and how to say no can allow you to focus on your priorities and do the things that help you stand out in your career.

If you're bored of your neighborhood restaurant and are looking to spice up your meals with new global food options, you may consider moving to a new city — or even just visiting one.

Bott and Co, a legal organization in the UK, found the top 50 international cities for foodies, based on the number of nationalities represented in each city's restaurant scene.

To determine the ranking, Bott and Co analyzed restaurant data for every international city with a population of at least 1 million. To qualify as having a specific national cuisine available, the city needed to have a restaurant dedicated to the cuisine listed in Google Maps. They also found the top-rated restaurant for each cuisine in each city.

Venture capital-backed companies based out of California are usually recognizable. But what can get lost in the mix are the companies based throughout the rest of the country. VC research firm Pitchbook compiled every state's most valuable VC-backed startup into an interactive graphic.

The authors write that Oregon's leaders can fortify the state as a "hub of medical discovery" by pushing for policies promoting life science and biotech research.

Image: https://www.oregonlive.com

Being in a healthy relationship has been shown to provide health benefits, including a longer life. Now, a new study reports that people who are married appear to have a lower risk of heart disease.

The review, published in the journal Heart, analyzed over 30 studies that involved more than two million people. The studies included information on people’s marital status and their risk for heart-related problems. An estimated 80% of a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease is related to issues like genetics or other health issues like high blood pressure or diabetes, the researchers say.

A European Commission report shows many of the best innovators in Europe may soon be on the union’s borders, rather than inside it – with the UK, Switzerland, Norway and Israel all scoring highly on the agency’s innovation index, even as Germany slipped down the rankings.

The report, based on an annual statistical review of science and technology indicators, could further strengthen calls for the European Union to step up R&D collaboration with its neighbours, including a post-Brexit UK.

Image: https://sciencebusiness.net

It seems like every entrepreneur I meet these days is quick to proclaim themselves a visionary, expecting that will give more credibility to their startup idea, and improve their odds with investors. In reality, I’m one of the majority of investors who believe that startup success is more about the execution than the idea. Thus, unless the visionary highlights a cofounder who can take the vision and execute, I assume the worst.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

During residency, Dr. Jones, realized there were many surgical problems that needed innovative solutions. During his chief year of residency, he started his first company and created and acquired patents around a more convenient surgical instrument. While working on this project, he identified several other clinical problems that needed to be solved and began to add to his portfolio of products.

Image: http://innovationexcellence.com

It was a scene that summarized the evolution of Wisconsin’s early stage investment community: Six portfolio managers from a statewide “fund-of-funds” gathered on the same platform to talk about how and where they plan to invest in some of the state’s youngest companies.

Silicon Valley has thrived as the hub for tech startups because of the access to capital, talent, and other resources that have developed over years. New York City and Boston, along with neighboring Cambridge, have developed their own strong startups communities for the same reason.

Image: JD Vance, second from left, and Steve Case, third from left, ride the Rise of the Rest bus with their colleagues and guests in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Richard Feloni/Business Insider

If you feel like your team is lagging on all things innovation, you’re not alone. In fact, a recent McKinsey report highlights that 84 percent of global executives believe innovation is extremely important, yet only 6 percent are satisfied with their organization’s innovation performance. Even more confounding, these corporations have assets and scale that in theory make investment in innovation more feasible than any start-up’s.

There are times to fight.

No great startup has been built without getting one’s knuckles bloody at times. This is especially true because incumbents now know how much is at stake when they let a startup get a huge head start in a market.

Procrastinators, don’t fret: You still have time to book an affordable summer vacation.

The best summer weekend travel bargains are still months away, according to new research done by travel booking site Kayak. Whether you’re planning a getaway in the U.S. or internationally, you’ll tend to find the best summer deals on the weekend of August 25, says a Kayak spokeswoman. She adds that the analysis was done based on general seasonal trends in flight prices.

There was a time when entrepreneurship was mostly for the crazy or the brave -- or maybe a bit of both. That’s still true, but now new groups of people are being brought into the world of entrepreneurship due to changes in the workplace and changes in technology. People aren’t so much choosing entrepreneurship as they are being faced with the opportunity to embrace it, even if they are building a career, rather than a business.

Entrepreneurs exhibit a variety of admirable qualities that make them positive role models in their communities. People can appreciate the financial acumen, personal traits and interpersonal skills they must acquire in order to see their businesses thrive. These characteristics also contribute to their personal well-being well beyond the bottom line, as well as to the common good of society. Elements within the media and the culture may like to malign the entrepreneurial spirit as if it were inherently unethical, but entrepreneurs themselves, and those who are aware of how much the prosperity of our society depends on their successes, know better.

The big question of 2018 is: how can America’s heartland — especially cities that have been overlooked in the recent obsession with Silicon Valley and New York — build an uplifting future, strong communities and good jobs. However, this year’s VentureBeat BLUEPRINT conference broke the idea that Silicon Valley is the benchmark of entrepreneurship.

One over-arching insight that emerged from the conference is that the next objective for all heartland cities is to double down on this progress, and establish the ideas and language necessary to carve out a space in the public consciousness.

Vegetation plays an important role in shaping local climate: just think of the cool shade provided by a forest or the grinding heat of the open desert.

But what happens when widespread changes, caused by or in response to global warming, take place across larger areas? Global climate models allow researchers to play out these kinds of thought experiments. The answers that result can serve as a warning or a guide to help policymakers make future land use decisions.

For clues about how America’s future is shaping up, look to its metro areas: They’re where 85% of the U.S. population lives, and where the bulk of the country’s economic and cultural activity unfurls.

But the picture they’re painting right now about where the country’s headed is pretty grim. In the second-annual analysis of how the 100 most populous U.S. cities and metro areas are faring in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations in 2015, the majority are lagging far behind.