Man Without A Mission
Jun 4 2011

What is a man or woman without a mission?  Bored? Annoyed? Anxious? Lazy? Happy? Sad? Relieved?  Ecstatic? Depressed?  It probably depends on the person.  I think most of us…especially the entrepreneurial types…need/want a mission and something to believe in.  We want a calling of sorts whether it be parenthood, religion, work, volunteering, etc.  We want to make a difference.  We want something new to fix or figure out.  What happens when for some time nothing inspires you and you wander aimlessly in search of something and/or someone to believe in?  Someone to believe in you? It’s exhausting.

Some people just give up the search and settle for the mundane or just decide they are comfortable where they are and say to themselves ‘what more could I ask for?’  I sometimes envy those people because life might be easier.  But then again it is probably harder in many ways to pretend and be someone you are not.

Memories On Memorial Day Weekend
May 30 2011

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend.  I certainly spent a lot of time reminiscing about old memories with long time friends while the kids played during the day and into the wee hours of the morning when the kids were asleep.  We created new memories with old and new friends.  My kids had fun playing, swimming, playing games on the iPhone and Wii, eating hot dogs, seeing Kung Fu Panda 2, etc.

It’s great to have old friends to ground you and remind you of who you were back then and talk about how we have all changed and/or stayed the same.  It’s good to have new friends who  know you now (i.e., after kids).  New friends open you up to new and different experiences because they don’t know who you are supposed to be, and they don’t let your old self hold back your new self.  Under their influence you may be able to see and experience things you never have before.

But Memorial Day weekend is about remembering those Americans who died for our freedom.  So, thank you to those who serve, who have served, and whose families support them while they continue to protect us so people like me can hang out with our friends during this long weekend.  I’m ever so grateful that I live in the United States and have had the opportunities that I have had, including the ability to express myself on this here blog.

The End Of The World
May 22 2011

All of my friends and family (as far as I know) survived the Apocalypse that was supposed to happen yesterday.  I don’t recall how many times the End of Days has been predicted but I do recall that the Christian Bible says that no one can predict the rapture so those who made signs and said it would happen yesterday seemed not to give credence  to God’s statements  about the whole situation.

I was with a friend of mine here in Austin last night when the end of the world was supposed to happen.  She and I went to eat at a restaurant in the Austin Arboretum area and then we saw Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  It was a good movie but seemed to me to have less special effects than the previous movies and those movies are a lot about the mythical being special effects.  The mermaid scene was pretty neat.  The waitress informed us when 6:00 pm had passed so we could toast surviving another day.  My friend told me that some enterprising entrepreneurs created a service for atheists to watch the dogs of the people who were going to be taken in the rapture and over 100 people signed up for the service!

Seth Godin wrote a post about the marketing lessons from the apocalypse and how they were able to get so many people to notice their message.  People want to believe.  I suppose if you find a subset of people who really want to believe in something and they do, they spread the word better than people who are mildly in your product or service.  But no matter how much you want to believe in something, it certainly won’t come true unless you take action and spread your message.

I believe and want to believe in so many things and I know some will come true and some will never come true in this lifetime.  I’m hoping the fact I can still believe in some things even if they seem impossible, will help me and/or my kids change the world for the better some day.  The older I get, the more I believe that All You Need Is Love (the Beatles).  Love of an idea, a person, a concept, a philosophy and someone/some people to love you as close to unconditionally as us mere humans can.

If the world does end tomorrow: PS. I Love You – a link to one of many gapinvoid cube grenades on the topic of LOVE that I’ve always found especially poignant.

Teaching Your Kids the Science of the Search Engine Search
May 17 2011

Following is a guest post by Taylor Laurents, a twenty something freelance writer from Lincoln, NE. She was bitten early by the entrepreneurial bug, selling Girl Scout cookies like many young girls, and hopes one day to run her own business and be her own boss.

Teaching Your Kids the Science of the Search Engine Search

It sounds like probably the most boring subject you could mention to your child, but perhaps nothing more vital to their well being is so easily bypassed during dinner table discussion than lessons on how to initiate a productive search for something on the Internet.

Think about it – we teach our kids to grasp other forms of information location: alphabetically, by way of reference, through the Dewey Decimal System, et cetera. But when it comes to how to use search engines effectively, undoubtedly the tool our children will be utilizing the most to get information, we seem to be in a kind of disinterested time warp, not nearly as focused on making sure our kids know how to execute proper research on the Internet. This is a generational gulf that needs to be crossed.

Children who use the Internet to garner information who don’t know how search engine optimization works, and we’re just talking the basic understanding of it, are at risk for falling for the deceitful tactics many online enterprises use to perpetuate desired information. For instance if your child wanted to do a research paper on the fat content of McDonalds hamburgers versus home made and wasn’t aware that typing “McDonalds fat content” would bring up McDonalds-sponsored websites, they could be easily manipulated into submitting a paper with inaccurate information, and worse carrying that inaccurate information in their head for the rest of their lives.

The business behind search engine results is really not that difficult to get across to the mind of a child. If your kid can grasp how your own small business works then the moneymaking methods of search engines shouldn’t be hard. If you have a problem relating the issue to your child though, try and focus their intention on the power of “number one”: Number one in line gets lunch first, picks the first playground toy, et cetera. If they can understand why a company would view being in first place on a search engine as a top priority, they’ll begin to understand.

The information that encompasses all of human knowledge is one day, if not already, going to be accessed exclusively through the Internet. “Don’t be evil” is the self-guiding model of search engine ethics, but more times than not it’s the good intentions by companies trying to be found that leads to the propagation of disinformation, which can easily find its way into the heads of our kids if we don’t give them a heads up first.

Note: I was compensated to review, edit and post this article.

I’m Speaking at IBM’s Smart Camp on May 18, 2011
May 15 2011

I speak on many panels and serve as a judge at many competitions, and I wish I had time to write more about them.  I just got back from a conference put on by one of the Austin Technology Incubators funders, the Economic Development Agency, held in Albuquerque.  I was on a panel and served as a discussion moderator at one of the round tables they held.   I’ll be writing about that one in the next week or so.  I recently wrote on the Austin Technology Incubator blog about an upcoming event I’m speaking on at IBM’s SmartCamp here in Austin, Texas.

I will be serving on a panel sponsored by SharpSkirts with other key executives from IBM and the Dachis Group on May 18, 2o11.  ATI will be offering  part of the University of Texas at Austin prize consisting of a package of strategic consulting services and office space to the winning team.

Scott Case, CEO of Startup America, will speak about Startup America and share his views for the Austin entrepreneurial community.  Scott will be joining from Washington DC via an interactive webcast.

Jim Corgel, IBM General Manager of ISV & Developer Relations, will speak about what IBM SmartCamp is doing for the local and global community and what the new IBM Global Entrepreneur initiative offers start-ups.

entrepreMusings – New Blog Design
May 9 2011

It’s finally here!  I have a new blog design and it’s really cool.  It’s simple, it’s clean, it’s pretty, it’s fabulous and it was designed by Brian Hurdle, IT/network guy by day, wedding photographer extraordinaire by night/weekends.  I’ve changed the subtitle from “babbling about business, babies, and parenthood” to “babbling about business, parenting, and music.”  My kids aren’t babies anymore.  I realized it’s been closer to 4 years since I started blogging (thanks to Connie Reece) and a blog redesign was way overdue!  And my current entrepreneurial endeavor is music related.

The design incorporates musical notes, buildings, paisley type designs, and of course elephants!  Elephants are my favorite animals, and I have a collection of various elephant figurines.  My songwriting partner and I have been making progress on music creation, and we have 5 songs in various stages of completion.  We even have a band name, a facebook page (if you are really curious to know the name, you’ll just have to click that link), and a YouTube channel.

We haven’t done much promotion of any of these because our songs aren’t ready to publish, but we may begin promoting at least the facebook page so we can get support from folks to help us make sure we do complete what we set out to do.  This will be no easy task given both of our busy schedules and different worlds.  He’s a professional musician and I’m a professional “wondering what to do with my life next while wreaking havoc in some small business” type of person.

Thanks Brian for exercising your creative muscles to come up with a design that makes me happy!  Next he’ll be updating my twitter page (which I rarely use but may one day be worth something since I was a fairly early adopter) to match the blog design.

Happy Mother’s Day – 2011
May 7 2011

Happy Mother’s Day!  I hope all the mothers out there have a pleasant day tomorrow – May 8, 2011 – with kids not whining doting on you, listening to everything you say, and smiling all day. 🙂  If your kids are grown and if you’ve been a good mother, hopefully they’ll send you something or call you.  My kids are still young so I suspect they will give me something they made at school.  For one brief second I thought about writing a short Mother’s Day poem, but then I realized how late it was and changed my mind.  Being a mother has been the hardest, yet so far the most rewarding profession I’ve ever had.  I love my two little human start-ups (i.e., ventures) more than anything else in the world.  The mother-child relationship is the only relationship that starts with a human physically connected and constantly fed by another human.  I imagine I’ll always feel connected to them in some form even though the connection changes over time.  I hope I have as positive an affect on their lives as they have had on mine.

My neighbor shared some of her Mother’s Day roses with me today.  She said she had so many and she wanted to share some with me.  That was so very thoughtful and sweet of her, and I’m tearing up a bit writing about it now especially given the hard year we’ve gone through.  They are my favorite flowers: roses, which are shown in the photo accompanying this post.  I’m grateful for people like our neighbors who we’ve lived next to for over 10 years and who have been kind and supported all of us.  She’s a wonderful mother with 4 kids, and I think close to 10 grand kids now.  When she’s not working, she seems to be always doing something for her kids or grand kids.  Her husband is the wonderful guy who helped us plant our new trees, and he has also read my blog consistently since almost soon after I started writing on it over three years ago.  So I know he’ll see this post and hopefully tell her about it.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY 2011 to all.  Do your best to be great mothers every day and night (since it’s a 24×7 job) and hope your kids forgive you when you screw up as you will forgive them when they do…unless of course they forget mother’s day or your birthday!

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead
May 2 2011

I don’t watch the news often because most of it is depressing, and I get most of my news by reading articles online.  But last night I just happened to switch to CNN around 10:00 pm CST after seeing a recording of one of the few drama shows I watch and saw the news about Osama Bin Laden’s death.  I checked out FOX News as well…just to make sure both stations were reporting the same thing.  Lo and behold they were except for they spelled his name “Usama.”

The strange thing was that I happened to be watching TV the morning of the 9/11/01 twin towers disaster.  2001 was a BIG year of change for me personally and professionally and for some reason I was up early watching TV when all of a sudden I saw planes flying into the World Trade Center in New York.  I couldn’t believe my eyes at first and thought it must be some weird kind of movie, but it was true.  I had family and friends who lived in New York.  One of my friends was in the Merrill Lynch building just before the planes hit but fortunately, he made it out safely.

It’s been almost 10 years since that crazy day.  It took 10 long years and a lot of money to find him and kill him.  Who knows if al Qaeda will retaliate.  I hope they are as tired as we are at all the stupid killing over things that really do not matter.  I can’t imagine that God, however anyone chooses to believe in Him/Her would condone such senseless acts since we are all His/Her children.   “9/11” was before either of my children were born so when I talk to them about it they don’t really understand and I guess they never will.

I’m glad he’s gone and I hope wherever his soul goes it gets a good hard deep cleansing with extra strength bleach and a huge dose of painful reality.  That way if he comes back again to earth, he will be highly sanitized.

Now onto the next chapter of humanity…

Something wonderful is about to happy
Apr 17 2011

No, that’s not a typo.  The fortune from the cookie from Twin Lion Chinese Restaurant said “happy” not “happen.”  For those who have followed my blog for a long time, you may recall my numerous fortune cookie posts.   My last one was based on a fortune that said Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

It’s been quite some time (3 weeks) since my last post on the Strengths Finder book, which surprisingly garnered several comments.  Time has flown between work, kids, my consulting work, homework (my kids and mine), housework, planning the summer camp schedule, birthday party planning, taxes, driving, friends, food poisoning (not from Chinese food), attempting to sleep, oh and eating!

A couple of other fortune cookie fortunes I received are “Happiness is not a reward, it’s a consequence.” and “Financial prosperity is around the corner.”

So until I have a chance to post something of more substance, may something wonderful “happy” to you!

Strengths Finder 2.0
Mar 27 2011

I recently completed the test in Strengths Finder 2.0 which can be bought on Amazon for around $12 (StrengthsFinder 2.0 – Link to Amazon).  It was recommended to me by a long time friend who works at Texas Instruments.  His team took the test at his work so I bought it for our Operations/Admin team at my work since I thought it would be a fun way for us to understand each others strengths.  I really enjoyed reading the assessment it gave of me and my co-workers.

Following are my Top 5 strengths and brief description of each.  I wonder if these are typical of entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, technology entrepreneurs, or other professions.  I know that I enjoy having roles that are not fully defined and where I can try new things.  I thought these described me fairly well and it was nice to have a way to put in words some of my strengths.  It was eye-opening for me as I didn’t fully realize there were others who thought like me or articulated themselves like me, but when I read some of the quotes from people who had the same Top 5 strengths, I recognized myself in some of the things they said.

Strategic

People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.  “Chances are good that you periodically identify problems others fail to notice.  You might create solutions and find the right answers.  Perhaps you yearn to improve certain things about yourself, other people, or situations.”

Connectedness

People who are especially talented in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason. “Driven by your talents, you occasionally sense you are part of something bigger or more important than yourself.  Maybe this conviction influences choices you make in life.  By nature, you may be guided by the notion that no one can live life without some help from others.”

Woo

People who are especially talented in the Woo theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person. “By nature, you may share a lot of information about yourself with certain people.  You might make individuals comfortable enough to candidly talk about themselves.”

Communication

People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters. “Instinctively, you occasionally feel comfortable telling certain individuals stories about your personal habits, qualities, experiences, or background.  Your forthcoming nature might enable some people to share their thoughts and feelings with you.  Chances are good that you may help others understand you as a person.”

Developer

People who are especially talented in the Developer theme recognize and cultivate the potential in others. They spot the signs of each small improvement and derive satisfaction from these improvements. “Instinctively, you repeatedly go out of your way to support, inspire, motivate, or embolden various individuals.  You likely regard this task as worthy of your effort and time.  Driven by your talents, you inspire your teammates with words that bolster their confidence.  You repeatedly remind them they have the abilities needed to attain their goals.”

Experience is Training – How I Got Involved with the Free Dental Project
Mar 24 2011

Following is a guest post by Hannah Daniel.  Hannah manages a blog about dental health and is passionate about making sure people have access to oral care. She also wants to remind everyone to brush and floss every day!

I studied journalism at The University of Texas, but am I a reporter now? Of course not. Isn’t that how it always works?

You may not be exactly where you intended to go in life, but sometimes what you learn is only training for where you are meant to be. You never know where life may take you. Teachability is the key – you must find lessons and be willing to apply them to your current situation.

I chose to major in journalism because the concept fascinated me. How else can you learn so much about so many things and have the ability to share it with others? I even created a complete 100+ page business plan for starting a new magazine myself. Have you ever poured yourself into a project only to shift directions right after you finish? Now imagine all the valuable skills and lessons you learned from the experience!

That’s what happened to me when, quite by accident, I was introduced to the world of brand visibility and marketing, and it fascinated me from the start. I watched the people around me and gained a broader view of the field. I took a job with a company that sells discount dental plans called 1Dental.com. As a brand visibility manager, I have an important part in promoting the company and expanding its online network.

Then my experiences took yet another turn – philanthropic projects. 1Dental is dedicated to helping people have access to low-cost dental plans, but over the years of business, our team has run into many people who cannot afford discount dental plans for even $75 per year. We wanted to do something to help, since our normal business cannot meet these needs.

Even though it’s not in our normal line of work, we recently created a unique Free Dental Care Finder to help people find free or low-cost dental care in their specific area. It has been a long process, but we personally contacted each of these clinics to verify the information in this tool. We even included Google Maps information with street views of each clinic to help pinpoint the location. The project has been fully funded by 1Dental.com, and our hope is that we can help make dental care more accessible for those who can’t afford it across the nation.

Every day I strategize ways to network with people and help people learn about the Free Dental Care Finder. We’ve made a free widget that anyone can put on their own website so people can find free dental care without even leaving their page. I gather information. I write. I publish relevant content. I was specifically trained for journalism, but everything I learned applies to the career in which I now find myself. You never know how your training will help you in the future, even if it seems completely unrelated. Your experiences could actually be classrooms in disguise.

Random Watering and Benign Neglect
Mar 21 2011

I mentioned in my Parenting Epiphany #1 post, which surprisingly got more comments than I expected given comments on my blog have declined since my decline in posting frequency, that I would post about my plant growing epiphany.  I have house plants that are fairly old in dog years.  An 18+ year old ivy that has survived 4 moves.  A 14+ year old ficus that has survived 2 moves.  A 6 year old palm.  An almost 10 year old bamboo plant.  All are green (non-flowering) plants.  I usually accidentally kill the few flowering indoor plants I’ve received.

So here it is: I randomly water them and I benignly neglect them.  I was telling someone my theory behind plant growing success and he told me that most plants die from over watering so I guess there is some credence to my plant growing insight.  I figure in the outside world, they never know when they will get water and people/animals don’t pay much attention to them except when they are eating them.  So my busy, hectic schedule actually plays in favor for the plants.  Somehow, I always seem to know or sense when they need water but I’m one of those people who sort of believes in the connectedness of things so maybe they send their vibes out to me so my brain triggers a thought that says something like “Darn, I need to water those plant things again.”

It’s a good thing we don’t have any pets because I’m pretty sure I could not apply the same method to them. 🙂  I mostly try to do the opposite with my kids.  I try not to over water (i.e., over parent) them but sometimes I do ignore them so they can figure out stuff on their own and so I can get things done.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Mar 20 2011

My best friend of 23 years is an English professor.  We met during my first day in the dorm before starting my freshman year in college.  I was a business major who didn’t know much about English other than writing seemed to come easily for me even at a young age.  I can trace my interest in creative writing back to a 5th grade teacher I had the first year I moved to Lubbock, Texas.  I would make A’s and A+’s on my English papers in high school for creativity but practically fail grammar until my freshman year in college when grammar all of a sudden made sense to me.  Or maybe I should say I quit trying to make sense of grammar and accepted it for what it was. My best friend is a grammar guru and maybe the combination of taking freshman English and typing her papers for her, because I typed faster than she did, somehow helped me get the practice I needed to improve my grammar and punctuation.

Our professional worlds rarely collide, but when I’m facing a situation personally or professionally, she often has a reference to literature (sadly, my knowledge of great literature is not deep or wide given my business degrees) to help me try to make sense of what is happening.  Fiction is fiction but as a writer I have come to appreciate that really good fiction is based often times quite heavily on the author’s direct experience or observation of others.  A book that my friend suggested I read a while back when I was going through my personal family transition is called The Awakening by Kate Chopin (wikipedia) [The Awakening (Norton Critical Editions) – Amazon link], but she didn’t think it wise for me to read it while in the middle of my turmoil since the main character kills herself and she was concerned about me.  Not that I ever had suicidal tendencies, but it was probably wise I wait to read it because I’ve come to realize that the state of being one is in when they read certain words has a huge impact on how they receive and interpret those words.  So I read it this weekend.

The book was banished for decades after Kate Chopin wrote it in 1899 for it’s scandalous depiction of Edna, a married woman with two young boys, and her behavior.  I find it scandalous even today given her dramatic moves, an affair with not one but two men (one physical, one emotional), feeling no remorse, shame or guilt, and then killing herself when she can’t be with the man she loves thereby leaving behind two young children.  But it was back in the late 1800’s, when most women had no means to support themselves and they had to remain in situations they did not want to be in. The man also loves her but knows he can’t be with her because of the rules of their society and withdraws himself from her life. Since Edna is not able to pursue other opportunities or escape her current life, she resorts to killing herself (you’ll have to read the book to see how she does it) rather than live in a despondent world “without the vibrant colors of love.”

The main character, Edna, was 28 going on 29 when she began the awakening process.  I was 38 going on 39 when I started to realize I was waking up to a different perception of myself and the world around me.  I remember words I read in an email, I remember my response, I remember the place, the person, the drink, the conversation, the expression, a twinge that when placed together triggered a shift in my being that resulted in my songwriting, journaling, poem writing, emotion laden emails to co-workers, family and friends (i.e., gushes from my writer’s soul that had been behind an enormous dam for a long time).  I sought understanding through courses like Landmark (Transformation in Process and Who I Was Being Was Not Exactly Who I Am) and Search Within that both guided the participant to live an authentic life and not what Henry David Thoreau writes in Walden – “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”  That was a quote my best friend reminded me of this past weekend.  I couldn’t go to the grave with the song still in me, and I hope I don’t die (mostly for my children’s sake) before I release the songs based on my lyrics that I’ve been working on with my songwriting partner.  I also hope I don’t die before I find what some people call their soul mate so I can sing him my song, and he’ll understand it just as I will understand his song.

Here are some interesting quotes from the book written by an author who was 32 years old, widowed with 6 kids:

“In short, Mrs. Pontellier [Edna] was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relation as an individual to the world within and about her.  This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight –perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman.” p. 17

“She [Edna] is not one of us; she is not like us.  She might make the unfortunate blunder of taking you seriously.” [This was said by Edna’s friend to the man, known to Edna’s husband, who eventually became the object of her love.  Edna was not Creole but apparently it was common for young, unmarried men to cater to the needs of married women and flirt with them in that society.]

“Edna began to feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul.” p. 41

“He [the doctor] observed his hostess attentively from under his shaggy brows, and noted a subtle change which had transformed her from the listless woman he had known into a being who, for the moment, seemed palpitant with the forces of life.  Her speech was warm and energetic.  There was no repression in her glance or gesture.  She reminded him of some beautiful, sleek animal waking up in the sun.” p. 92

“Yes,” she [Edna] said.  “The years that are gone seem like dreams — if one might go on sleeping and dreaming — but to wake up and find–oh! well! perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life.” p. 147

How to Raise Young Entrepreneurs: Teaching Tips for Parents
Mar 17 2011

The following is a guest post by Alexis Posharo. Alexis is a stay at home mom, freelance writer and representative for Home Security where she writes about security cameras, wireless systems, and other methods to keep your family safe and sound.

As you read about and experience the current economic crisis, it’s hard not to worry about the future and what your children will be able to do with it. Some analysts say that our country’s economy is suffering from a “creativity crisis” – the absence of new, marketable ideas and products. Wall Street needs a breath of fresh air. Will your child be the one to provide it?

If your child is old enough to be in school, he or she is old enough to start learning how to be a successful entrepreneur. Teaching your child how to implement good business skills and creativity will be immeasurably helpful in the future, where these skills will be valuable resources. Of course, not all children will be interested in entrepreneurship, but giving your child the opportunity to discover the world of business early in life is a wise and lasting gift.

You don’t have to know everything about entrepreneurship in order to teach your child the basics. Starting a business requires an individual investment in the process of figuring out the best way to do things for a specific idea. You can provide the tools to do this, but it will be up to your child to do the rest. The following tips will help you stock your child’s entrepreneurship toolbox with valuable skills that will be applicable in the world of business and beyond.

Earning Allowances: How to Use a Chore Chart

If you want to teach your child the reality of personal finance, it’s a good idea to require him or her to earn an allowance rather than simply giving it out each week. To do this, you can set up a chore chart by date with the specific work involved in each chore, the amount you’re willing to pay, and a blank for your child’s initials. For example, next to the date column, you might write “empty the dishwasher” with “compensation” at $0.50. If you have more than one child, this is likely to incite competition – but that’s a part of entrepreneurship.

When your child works for his or her allowance, it’s more likely that he or she will develop good personal finance skills, which are essential to learn before embarking on entrepreneurial efforts. Your child might start comparison shopping without even understanding the concept, simply because it makes money go further. This kind of self-discovery is one of the best ways to learn what it means to be an entrepreneur.

Playing Disney’s “Hot Shot Business” Game

In this online game, you can help your child learn the basics of entrepreneurship. The premise is that when a comic book company leaves town, the local kids are worried that jobs will be lost. They’re eager to solve the problem, but are unsure what they should do – until you come onto the scene. Your first decision is to either start a comic book business to replace the first company or to start another business that would utilize the same resources and keep the same jobs filled. The game is entertaining for kids and it causes them to ask questions, think about potential solutions, and make decisions based on their own knowledge of the situation and predictions. It’s a great way to teach your child how to think like an entrepreneur at a young age.

Playing the “Just for Clicks” Business Game: Online & Offline

The innovative website TeachingKidsBusiness.com has a variety of resources and games for young entrepreneurs, but its “Just for Clicks” game teaches the most real-world skills. Kids from age 8 to 18 can play it both online and offline, and the “game” is to create a business that stands up to peer scrutiny. Your child can start by developing a business name, creating an information product, and naming that product. The game then progresses into assigning a price to the product, creating an advertisement for the product, and “playing” with others to find out how the new business stacks up. Kids can let each other know what they think of business ideas and products, giving feedback and making suggestions. It’s a very basic formula, but it can spark creativity and inspire your child to learn more about entrepreneurship.

It’s Over – SXSW Interactive Day 5
Mar 15 2011

Today was the last day and apparently this was the highest attended SXSW Interactive ever with 19,364 attendees up from 14,251 last year.  I made it for Reid Hoffman‘s keynote.  Reid is the founder of LinkedIn.  He had a lot to say and I wish he a few slides for us to look at because it was hard to keep up, but here are my notes.  I missed the first two “rules for entrepreneurs,” but here they are:

1. Zoned out, was checking email or twitter. UPDATE from Jeffrey in comments below: Pay attention to your customers.

2. Zoned out, was checking email or twitter. UPDATE from Jeffrey in comments below: Stay focused.

3. Aim big. It’s the same effort to do a small businesses as it is a big business so it’s better to try to change the world.

4. Plan for good luck.

5. Maintain flexible persistence.

6. Launch early enough that you are embarrassed by your 1.0 product release.

7. Always keep your aspirations and aim high but dont drink your own kool-aid.

8. Having great product important but good distribution more important.

9. Pay attention to the culture and how you hire from the beginning.

10. These rules are not laws of nature. You can break them.

Then I headed to the Austin Technology Incubator’s Entrepreneur’s Lounge for some networking and then to the Game Salad (an ATI company that is doing very well) party, which I left a bit early from.  I’m too old for loud music and late nights.  And so concludes another SXSW Interactive, but wait, I still have one more post to do about SWAG that I’ll hopefully have time to write later.

Good bye tens of thousands of out of town visitors.  We love having you here each year, but we don’t want you to all move here and clog up our roads anymore than they are! 🙂