Being originally from farm-town USA, I understand the woes of being a connection-less entrepreneur. People don’t understand your mindset. They don’t get why you don’t want to marry your high school sweetheart and take over the family business. Why would you ever leave these fields of dreams? Don’t you want to be buried here? While I went through a Country …
I grew up watching my mom jump from one multi-level marketing business to the next. She was a stay-at-home mom who needed a hobby. It began with blocky 90’s jewelry and ended with Longaberger Baskets. I saw various things fill my parent’s shelves from candles and stamps to useless cooking utensils. My mom recently tried to give me some Longaberger …
We constantly hear about the Microsofts and Apples of the world. The garage band companies from humble places. But those companies were a semblance of what they would eventually become. What about the companies that took a chance on something new? What about the jokes people expected to go nowhere? These are the surprising stories that continually surprise us. We’ll …
Ask most consumers to explain the cloud and they’ll tell you about online storage. And while this is a semi-accurate description of the cloud, there is so much more to cloud computing than just a 21st century way of keeping your mom from finding your porn stash. The cloud is still a mystery to many people even today. They see it …
Sometimes, having the world against you is a good thing. You realize whatever you’re trying to accomplish is bigger than what most people believe is possible. And if you were to accomplish it, the world would bow down in adoration. You wouldn’t think the world would be against a new kind of vegan cereal bar. But only 6% of U.S. …
In college, I took a course on global capitalism from a fairly liberal political science professor. Back then, globalism was a conservative idea to be eschewed by the left. Outsourcing was an evil corporate activity exploiting workers all over the globe. Now, nobody bats an eye at the word. It’s divorced from sweatshops and third world economies. The most reputable …
In the film “Joy,” the title character experienced patent troll torture. Joy Mangano marketed an idea. A mop that required no hands to wring out. After building a business and almost bringing her invention to full success, someone made a claim on her patent. The end of the story is a good one, but Magano went through hell proving the …
Right now is one of the best times to get into real estate investing. Price growth is slated to slow and then pick up speed again. And we’ve seen only a marginal bump in mortgage rates. All of this spurs confidence in the market even if inventory is down. And with confidence comes increase in prices and increase in value. …
Al Gore didn’t invent the internet, but he did create Google’s secret Al-Gore-Rhythm. All jokes aside, ever since Al Gore didn’t invent the internet, network technology accelerated at light speed. We went from 56k dial-up to fiber quicker than the industrial revolution invented cars. This also means that network security needed to evolve just as fast. At times, it didn’t …
William Shakespeare — king-killer, gender-bender, master of pun — ran one of the most lucrative businesses in the British Isles. Playcraft. It is a miracle that he (or she if you believe certain theories) did not wind up hung by the neck for roasting the king on multiple occasions. But he made a pretty penny doing so. To understand Shakespeare’s …
