There is clearly something going on in our country that stimulates deep-rooted hate in many. I don’t believe its “evil” at work in the world, as some might suggest. I think it’s something more fundamental.

So many Americans are living without adequate shelter, food, and work. With such daily pressures, I would imagine it’s hard most days to get out of bed. And yet, most of us do. We keep at it, hoping to build some stability and security for ourselves and our families.

Yet, I can understand how taking one step forward and falling two-step backward might build resentment…

The work I do in organization development and change causes me to think a lot about how and why culture changes. I spend time examining how businesses change to respond to cultural change and how we, as individuals, adjust engagement and consumption behavior in reaction to an external disruption–that change in our normal state–when it is forced upon us.

I have helped many companies facilitate change, and the most important thing I’ve learned from it all is most of us hate change because it is usually something we must react to, rather than participate in. This is especially true in…

One of the hardest things for first-time entrepreneurs, especially those going in full-time, is getting used to the lifestyle.

While working for yourself is one of the most rewarding things you will ever do, it’s quite different from working for someone else. Fundamentally, new entrepreneurs know this, but they tend to focus on the positive aspects of being self-employed.

I’ve often heard how life-giving it is to have the privilege to set your own working hours and decide what you want to do each day. If you are working from a home office, you don’t have to worry too much…

In Financial Ratio Analysis and the Startup, I shared some insights on Financial Ratio Analysis and how investors and lenders may use financial ratios to determine whether to invest or lend to an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs should also understand how to use financial ratios in the regular course of business operations.

Each financial ratio has a purpose. When compared to industry benchmarks, a ratio can provide insights as to a venture’s performance as well as help set stretch goals for business improvements and growth.

The most common financial ratios used by investors and lenders include:

Leverage Ratios

These ratios indicate the long-term solvency…

I’ve been reading meditations from Mark Nepo’s (2000) The Book of Awakening every morning for several years. A few weeks ago, the reading from September 27 in the book struck a chord with me relative to the challenges of fear and panic in entrepreneurship. Here is that meditation and my takeaways:

Leaning In

“Few situations can be bettered by going berserk.” — Melody Beattie

It was the philosopher Michael Zimmerman who told the story of being a boy in school when someone passed him a pair of Chinese handcuffs, a seemingly innocent thimble-like casing with an opening at each end…

Trust is one of the great cornerstones of life. The most successful relationships, whether personal or business, are built on trust. Trust is a critical factor in the consumption of news and information, too. Over the years, many readers, listeners, and ultimately viewers placed trust in their preferred media channel for the most current and accurate news and information. Subsequently, each channel began to exploit the trust gained from consumers by accepting advertisements that allowed businesses to leverage the media’s credibility and intimacy through association. The challenge was then, as it is now, to determine how to align the marketing…

Entrepreneurship in the United States is lagging. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that between 1994 and 2015, the number of new jobs created by start-ups has decreased by more than one million (Bureau of Labor Statistics Staff, 2016). Insufficient financial resources, risk aversion, and perhaps the “lack of a good idea” are all possible reasons for the lack of entrepreneurial activity. Some research suggests those without experience in a start-up environment appear to be less motivated by the spirit of enterprise and, within a generation, the inclination to start a business may further decline (Guilles, 2016). Entrepreneurs…

A good many entrepreneurial ventures are born on a napkin, built on sand, and grown through a series of flips and flops that would make even the most seasoned stunt pilot nauseous. It should not surprise then that longitudinal studies show that a little over 20% of new startups fail within the first year; the startup survival rate falls to roughly one-half around their fifth anniversary (Bureau of Labor Statistics Staff, 2016). Thinking more broadly and implementing effective organization design principles (i.e., people, planning, processes, procedures) may be the key to the building, scaling, and sustaining a startup long-term.

Some…