In this video, Entrepreneur Network partner Brian Tracy breaks down what it takes to be a  uccessful entrepreneur. He highlights six traits that are common among good entrepreneurs and explains how they can help you in starting your own business.

The first is that you need to have a love and passion for what you do. Without that, you won't have the drive or the belief necessary to get through the humbling and frustrating times. You might not be willing to stay late or get up early or do whatever it takes to get your business up and running.

The operating partner for 1313 Innovation’s co-working space in Wilmington is merging with a Washington, DC organization.

1313 operates from the Hercules Plaza building in downtown Wilmington, with Benjamin’s desk serving as its partner.

1776 and Benjamin’s Desk announced they will join forces to provide greater support for entrepreneurs throughout the Northeast Corridor.

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When it comes to emails, I tend to be pretty wordy.

I live with an intense fear of coming off as too direct or cold, and there’s something about all of those extra words, niceties, and (embarrassing) exclamation points that make me sound a little warmer and friendlier.

But, here’s the thing: I’m ultimately wasting my own time–along with the time of the person reading my message.

This is the latest in my “superstar effect” series. Richard Florida posted an interesting analysis of venture capital investments over at City Lab.

Four cities dominate the charts: San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Boston, and Southern California. Call them the Big Four. No place else is even close.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley this year set themselves an audacious new goal: creating a brain-reading device that would allow people to effortlessly send texts with their thoughts.

In April, Elon Musk announced a secretive new brain-interface company called Neuralink. Days later, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared that “direct brain interfaces (are) going to, eventually, let you communicate only with your mind.” The company says it has 60 engineers working on the problem.

Richard H. Thaler, the “father of behavioral economics,” has this week won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in that field. Thaler has long been known for challenging a foundational concept in mainstream economics — namely, that people by-and-large behave rationally when making purchasing and financial decisions. Thaler’s research upended the conventional wisdom and showed that human decisions are sometimes less rational than assumed, and that psychology in general — and concepts such as impulsiveness — influence many consumer choices in often-predictable ways.

Once considered an outlier, behavioral economics today has become part of generally accepted economic thinking, in large part thanks to Thaler’s ideas. His research also has immediate practical implications. One of Thaler’s big ideas – his “nudge theory”  – suggests that the government and corporations, to take one example, can greatly influence levels of retirement savings with unobtrusive paperwork changes that make higher levels of savings an opt-out rather than an op-in choice. In fact, he co-authored a book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness, which became a best-seller.

Every startup fears that one angry and unfair customer who can jeopardize the business by a negative post on Ripoff Report, Yelp, or one of the hundreds of other consumer complaint and review sites on the Internet. Most entrepreneurs don’t even know how to keep track of what people are saying about them on the web, much less how to respond or remove it.

Web reputation management, both business and personal, has become a top priority requirement. On the personal side, these items can kill your career, as I discussed in an old article “Google Yourself to See How Other People See You.” Luckily, the basic principles for reputation management are the same for both business and personal environments:

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Construction is under way at the Wexford Innovation Complex in the I-195 District in Providence. Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo calls the project a game-changer for the state’s economy. But is the governor’s optimism justified?

Upbeat rhetoric was in the air during a ceremony marking the start of construction last month at the Wexford Innovation Complex. Rhode Island Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor was the MC for the event. The complex will be the first major development on land once covered by Interstate 195. Pryor called it a renewal of the capitalist spark from when the Jewelry District was a hub of manufacturing.

There is no doubt that the start-up community in Ireland is buzzing. But, when it comes to really pressing issues, it lacks cohesion, writes John Kennedy.

I believe in karma. I also believe it is important to treat people well on the way up because, I can guarantee you with certainty, you will meet them on the way down. And those encounters can be awkward.

Do animals also have to deal with horrible traffic, a boss that hates them, and finding time to just... breathe? Yep, pretty much. Introducing our new series 'Talk Like The Animals'!   

Ever wonder what it’d sound like if animals could talk? We were so curious we made it happen with sarcastic, silly and even sassy personalities. 

U.S. President John F. Kennedy once met a custodian mopping floors at NASA headquarters long after normal work hours and asked, ‘‘Why are you working so late?’’ The custodian replied, ‘‘Because I’m not mopping the floors, I’m putting a man on the moon.’’ If this story seems too good to be true, it does have a parallel in the historical events that illustrate how the United States created a remarkably successful space programme, and it offers an important lesson in leadership.

Across the world, cashless culture is now the new normal and the United States is among the top countries to have embraced it. Data shared by Forex bonus provider ForexBonuses shows there are nearly three credit cards for every person in the U.S. The country ranks fifth among cashless countries.

Image: https://smallbiztrends.com

Industrial revolutions are momentous events. By most reckonings, there have been only three. The first was triggered in the 1700s by the commercial steam engine and the mechanical loom. The harnessing of electricity and mass production sparked the second, around the start of the 20th century. The computer set the third in motion after World War II (see “The Man Who Made the Computer Age Possible,” by Jeffrey E. Garten).

Image: Illustration by Opto Design - https://www.strategy-business.com

Isn’t it frustrating to think you finally understand something in business, like marketing with social media, only to realize that the landscape changed while you were looking at other priorities? For example, it used to be that marketing via social media meant banner ads on Facebook, buying search engine results, and sponsoring blog entries, but these don’t suffice anymore.

In a classic book on social media by Jim Tobin, “Earn It. Don’t Buy It,” he asserts that “earned” social engagement drives better business results than paid social exposure.

Gold’s origin in the Universe has finally been confirmed, after a gravitational wave source was seen and heard for the first time ever by an international collaboration of researchers, with astronomers at the University of Warwick playing a leading role.

Members of Warwick’s Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, Professor Andrew Levan, Dr Joe Lyman, Dr Sam Oates and Dr Danny Steeghs, led observations which captured the light of two colliding neutron stars, shortly after being detected through gravitational waves – perhaps the most eagerly anticipated phenomenon in modern astronomy.

Transformations are difficult undertakings and come with a high likelihood of failure. But with a focused plan and dedicated leaders, a company’s executives can turn around the business and achieve meaningful success. In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey partner Michael Bucy and senior partners Stephen Hall and Doug Yakola, leaders in the Recovery & Transformation Services Practice, speak with McKinsey Publishing’s Tim Dickson about what it takes to truly transform a business and bring about lasting change.

Novel and useful crowdfunding ideas surprisingly don’t work together, according to new research. Both novelty and usefulness increase project funding separately, but when these two are together they cause a noticeable decrease, say researchers from HEC Paris, the University of Technology Sydney, Singapore Management University and INSEAD.

Swiss cities will soon have delivery drones zipping through their airspace. Drone startup Matternet has announced that it will start using a network of robotic quadcopters to make deliveries to hospitals in urban areas across Switzerland later this year.

The scheme, which is claimed to be the first to fly such deliveries over densely populated areas, makes use of an automated landing station to accept packages and release them to approved recipients. Senders pop goods into a purpose-designed packing case, which is then sucked into the base and maneuvered by robot arm into the drone. After the aircraft has flown itself to its destination, at the other end users must scan a QR code sent to their phone to grab the goods. You can watch a (painfully corporate) video of it in action, if you want.

Illumina Ventures, a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm, closed its maiden fund, at $230m.

Launched with an initial $100m investment from Illumina, Illumina Ventures has then been supported by a mix of corporate, institutional, sovereign, and individual investors.

Growth has always been fundamental to business success, but it’s never been more critical than it is now, nor more difficult. Every opportunity is global, but so is the competition. Evolving customer expectations and technology are the norm, forcing every company, from startups to large enterprises, to innovate quickly, despite their fear of change, uncertainty, and doubt.

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