Some entrepreneurs are born to start businesses – often more than one. But not all of these idea people really want to lead a company. They

Courtesy: Galina Barskaya/FotoXpress Free Images

simply don’t have the leadership traits that would make them the best choice to head the company, especially as it grows larger. That’s why so many founders are replaced before a company goes public – investors want to know that a vibrant, inspiring figure whose core competency is leadership will be there to drive growth.

It’s common for founders to step back from being CEO and take on some other role — common titles for founders who have stepped away from the top spot include chief technology officer, board director, chief operating officer or research and development director. Some people are full of creative spark and have a passion for coming up with new concepts or for marketing their idea. Others love to lead teams of people and inspire them to do their best.

But rarely do these two innate drives reside in one person. Many entrepreneurs cling to leadership simply because they fear the loss of control, even though their business would be better off if they brought a passionate leader to the helm and focused on the part of the business they love.

So how do you know if you should lead your business? Here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• Do you get a bigger thrill out of energizing workers and seeing your employees succeed than you do when you are successful yourself?
• Do you feel that you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself if you weren’t heading the company?
• Do you know instinctively what you want to do when confronted with managerial problems such as a team that has failed?
• Do you feel compelled to lead? Dave Logan, a management consultant and an associate dean at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, recently wrote, if you feel you could do no other job,that’s a strong sign you have the drive to continue leading your business to success.

On the flip side, if managerial tasks bore you, and you find yourself wishing you could get back to the lab/computer/workbench to tinker, your company might be better off without you at the top.

Read Full Article in Entrepreneur.com

Good luck.

Calvin Wilson
Founder and CEO
Upstart: Business and Management for 20-40 Year Old Professionals
calvin.wilson1@verizon.net
http://twitter.com/Upstart__Nation

The standard operating procedure for most start-up incubators is something like this: Bright entrepreneurs submit their million-dollar ideas; a select few get some money, mentors, and time for developing these ideas; at the end, they take the ideas out to the real world in search of capital.

Y Combinator, perhaps the top incubator in the world, is now planning to dispense with one of the core ingredients in that formula: the idea. It will now accept applications from entrepreneurs with no particular idea at all. The Y Combinator team explained their reasoning in an announcement yesterday:

Read the Full Article in The Atlantic.com

Good luck.

Calvin Wilson
Founder and CEO
Upstart: Business and Management for 20-40 Year Old Professionals
calvin.wilson1@verizon.net
http://twitter.com/Upstart__Nation

I’ve been writing this blog for Forbes for over a year now, and if I’ve learned anything it’s that whatever is easiest for you is what’s most likely to become the most successful.

Work hard? Forget about it.

I realized this yesterday when the head of a conference asked if I would speak at this year’s event. They wanted me to speak on what it’s like to work the gig economy, to be a freelance, to work from home in your underpants.

I was out walking the dogs, imagining myself standing in front of a room full of people, contemplating what I might say.

Immediately, I knew I would have very little to say.

Because, really, it’s never what you think. The answer is never what you expect.

TIP #1: Go for the lowest common denominator.

When you blog for dollars, which is what many of us do here at Forbes — that is, our page views dictate our paycheck — you pay a great deal of attention to what works and what doesn’t.

What works for me? Tits and porn.

Of course, that’s what works on the internet generally. If I start writing about Apple products, I’ll be golden.

Read Full Article in Forbes.com

Good luck.

Calvin Wilson
Founder and CEO
Upstart: Business and Management for 20-40 Year Old Professionals
calvin.wilson1@verizon.net
http://twitter.com/Upstart__Nation

Fathers often talk the talk about sharing parenting duties with mothers when it comes to a newborn.  But a new study finds that couples who profess to believe in equally-shared parenting rarely do so in practice.

The researchers surveyed 181 married, heterosexual, tenure track professors with children under age two. All of the professors had access to paid parental leave. Each survey participant was asked how their handling of about 25 child-care tasks compared with their spouse’s handling of the same tasks. Among the tasks: changing child’s diapers; taking child to doctor; feeding the child; staying home from work to care for the child; giving child a bath. (See the full list on page 21 of the study.)

The majority of professors – both male and female, particularly the women –  held the view that men and women should share child care duties. But only three of 109 male faculty members surveyed reported that they did half or more of the care, while 70 of 73 women reported doing at least half–even when both spouses worked full time.

The study found that female professors who take paid maternity leave spent most of their time off to focus on infant care, including breastfeeding. Male professors, on the other hand, used their paid paternity leaves to focus on things other than infant care, such as research and publishing papers.

The study also found that women enjoyed doing child care work more than men.

“Our results suggest that one reason why female professors do more child care may be that they like it more than men do,” the researchers wrote in the study. “This conclusion is possible even though the vast majority of female respondents and a clear majority of male respondents believe that husbands and wives should share child care equally. Gender ideology about care may be less important than feelings on these matters.”

Read Full Article in Wall Street Journal.com

Good luck.

Calvin Wilson
Founder and CEO
Upstart: Business and Management for 20-40 Year Old Professionals
calvin.wilson1@verizon.net
http://twitter.com/Upstart__Nation

Fund raiser. Dishwasher. Product manager. In the world of Silicon Valley start-ups, where I’m based, a CEO has many duties. Of course, as your company grows and evolves, you’ll likely delegate a number of those duties. But there are three primary tasks you must own yourself in 2012 if your team—and your start-up—are going to succeed.

1. Hire for good cultural fit

You know the saying, “You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.” Consider hiring a little like picking your professional family, but in this case you do get to choose.

And choose well, you must.  Last year at Wordnik we hired 12 new people, while seven moved on, bringing our total to 20. Those 12 extra people can either raise the bar or crater the company.

On paper, plenty of candidates matched the experience for the jobs available, but that’s not what I’m most concerned about. I want a good cultural fit.

I find I often spend more time doing reference checks on candidates than I spend interviewing them. The first thing I ask references is if the job candidate lived up to his or her previous references, both in terms of performance and cultural fit. By asking this simple question, it reduces the theoretical risks inherent in blind reference checks and it gives me a broader view on someone’s work history.

One thing to keep in mind: A start-up’s core cultural and philosophical principles evolve as the company grows. Someone who was a great fit for a company of five or 10 may not be for a company of 25 or more. This is why you must be an integral part of the hiring process. And every person you hire, regardless of the role, should meet with everyone on the management team at least once.

Read Full Article in Inc.com

Good luck.

Calvin Wilson
Founder and CEO
Upstart: Business and Management for 20-40 Year Old Professionals
calvin.wilson1@verizon.net
http://twitter.com/Upstart__Nation

As a coach, I help entrepreneurs through the issues that keep them from their dreams. For the most part I see these individuals as driven, passionate, unstoppable human beings. But after my recent discussion with one entrepreneur, the bar has definitely been raised.

Monte Lee-Wen entered the United States from Canada with few resources and little money. But he had a dream, and that was enough to keep him going. It wasn’t long after coming to the United States that Monte built his commercial real estate company, growing from four employees working out of his home, to more than eighty employees occupying an impressive office building in Austin, Texas—all self-funded! He even made the Inc. 500 list in 2009 for revenue growth of 670.3 percent in the previous year.He then went on to make the Inc. 500 list in 2010, moving up to the 20th fastest growing company in all of Austin. Outstanding results for any business person, but what I find particularly amazing is that this young entrepreneur achieved all of this against some very significant odds.

Now 35, Monte was just 28 years of age when he established The PPA Group, a commercial real estate investment company. He maintained his company’s growth during the downturn in our economy while most commercial real estate companies were crumbling. And, as if that wasn’t challenging enough, Monte achieved all of this while battling a life-threatening illness. In fact, he suffered a temporary loss of his voice during surgery and proceeded to close the biggest deal of his career without being able to utter a single syllable aloud. Today, after months of rehabilitation to recover his ability to speak, Monte’s voice is strong, and he has a message to share.

Read Full Article in Inc.com

Good luck.

Calvin Wilson
Founder and CEO
Upstart: Business and Management for 20-40 Year Old Professionals
calvin.wilson1@verizon.net
http://twitter.com/Upstart__Nation

There comes a time in every entrepreneur’s business life when it’s time to hire a sales rep. If you follow these seven simple rules, you’re more likely to end up hiring somebody who can help your company increase its sales.

1. Examine your sales process. If you’re ready to hire somebody to sell, you’ve probably already acquired some customers. While some of that business may have come from previous business contacts, you’ve probably got some idea of what it takes, in terms of expertise and skill set, to sell your offering. Make a list of what’s required. Edit out the biz-blab (e.g. “high energy”) so that you have specifics like “knowledge of manufacturing processes” or “experience selling to large corporations.”

2. Interview your existing customers. Incredibly, many entrepreneurs hire salespeople without asking their customers how they want vendors to sell to them. The more you find out about the environment in which your sales rep will be selling, the better you’ll be able to decide whether a particular candidate is right for the job. And by the way: Your customers will be complimented and pleased that you bothered to ask.

Read Full Article in Inc.com

Good luck.

Calvin Wilson
Founder and CEO
Upstart: Business and Management for 20-40 Year Old Professionals
calvin.wilson1@verizon.net
http://twitter.com/Upstart__Nation

I have been on this performance kick: execute this, repurpose that: leverage this into a new opportunity – blah, blah. But to be honest, I mean it. I look at America, American infrastructure, American schools and even American families, as a tiger that’s forgotten it’s a tiger: a tiger walking around wounded – a tiger that when it roars, its voice cracks – a tiger that, when it appears on the world stage, has lost the respect of some, and the fear of others – a tiger that is no longer a tiger, and everyone knows it – except for the tiger.

One of the reasons for that is success: success brings amenities and attributes that reinforce a certain amount of exaltation, yet, success is also a

Upstart: Business and Management for 20-40 Year Olds/Calvin Wilson

distraction – it creates distortion and deviation from the principles and execution, which availed the success in the first place.

At times, success is the ultimate undoing of oneself, because not only do you start to believe what people are saying about you, you start to believe what you’re telling yourself, and that’s the deathblow. It’s that very same success, which often leads to our downfall: more speeches, less performance – more arrogance, less truth – more convenience: less innovation – less exploration – less discovery – the deathblow. Success is a killer.

So how does America get the fire back in its belly? How do we stop accepting pedestrian performance, and begin roaring again. I think America, its companies and its people, must understand that it is staggering around the global landscape: a war here, a missed opportunity there, yet what’s most breathtaking about this phenomenon, is that the global community is watching our conspicuous descent, yet most Americans don’t realize, we haven’t got stuck in a ditch, we’ve fell into a crater with our pants down around our knees, and America’s rear-end is pointed up for the world to see.

What will it take to be great again? Now, if I am honest, America is still the best game in town, will be so for a long time, whether it wants to be or not. But does that mean America can be great again: does it even want to be great again? Does it have the urgency, energy, vision and talent to reconstitute the twenty-first century in its own image? Win the Future – with whom, with what: what would equate “Winning the Future,” and how do we know that – who say’s?

The problems is them, and the problem is us– I’ll explain.

America has two major problems: the policymakers and the people – one, who you should never trust, and the other which is too trusting.

The policymakers intentionally thwart innovative ideas and solid solutions, because it’s not in their interests to fix things – it’s in their interests to have things to fix. It’s not in their interests to win the game, because once the game ends, so does their power – so does their ability to personally profit from their positions. It is a politician’s ultimate benefit to keep the game going, to have no clock – inning after inning, because that’s how they remain necessary to constituents: that’s how they coerce their districts into sending them to Washington year-after-year, even though they’ve delivered on very little.

In my upcoming book, The Means to the Means, Developing Wealth, Power and Influence in Black America, I state “The fault lies with the American people, particularly black people, for trusting so blindly — so vehemently in politicians and in a political culture that has only considered their needs when they are forced to. The political structure is slanted towards already wealthy and powerful individuals and groups pursuing self-serving, and often racially biased and class-based platforms that increase their wealth and power….Black people give their politicians too much influence over their lives without making them accountable and demanding that their representatives put their constituents and communities before their personal agendas, especially when it comes to many politicians inexplicable motivations for seeking higher office, after having failed miserably in lesser representation.”

The other part of the problem is the American people: it’s like they keep playing the old “Three Card Monty” game, where you pick a card or pick a cup where you think the little red ball is under, you put your money down – you make your pick – and whoosh – you’ve lost – wrong card – wrong cup. ”Almost –my man” the guy running the game says – “maybe next time.” Damn that shellacking was fast.

The American people think that they’ve lost the game, never realizing that they’ve been hustled – never realizing that the guy, who kept winning when we first walked over, was teamed  with the guy running the game: it’s a scam. They made you a “mark” for two reasons: because they knew you didn’t understand that is was a hustle, and second because they knew by the time you found out – they would be gone!

Same relationship American people have with policy makers – let them make extraordinary promises – create plans with no budgets or create budgets with no way to pay for them – and the American worker, the American family reaches into its pocket, and says, “I’ll play just one last time,” and whoosh – it’s gone – scammed again. And just like the hustler on the street, the politician smiles at the American people, and says, “You should’ve known better.”

I have one simple plan for the American people: stop waiting for a plan – stop waiting on your destiny and create it yourself. There is no one that knows what you need most, more than you: the people who continually go without what they need, which makes life hard, so why not create the framework to get those things yourself and fire your intermediary.

If you want to reduce the debt, lower the deficit – what are you willing to give up – who will track the progress – and what will you implement to improve economic conditions, so that not only are you creating savings, but simultaneously developing new industries and new economies during your new found austerity – that you are now exporting far more than you import.

If you want to change education – why are the parents and teachers genuflecting to politicians about their children’s needs: I thought parents and all the other tax payers voted for politicians, and paid both teacher’s and politician’s salaries – so why do parents have the smallest voice in this discussion? Why haven’t parents and communities rallied around a twenty-first century teaching, learning and leadership mandate – one that they – the parents and communities own – one that they measure independently – one where they make decisions based outcomes, and not tradition.

If you want more jobs, why are you not researching and clarifying future trends and immediate  gaps that should be filled, so you don’t have to wait for your boss to downsize you or keep you around for much less? Why not create the opportunity for greater possibility, by being in the right labor conversation – one based on skill-sets, bottom-lines and global interconnectivity. Why are you waiting to be fired – why are you not compartmentalizing what you already know and what you just learned, and leverage that expertise into a new enterprise?

If you want lower consumer prices and improve infrastructure – what action are you ready to take to address America’s dependency on oil? How far would you go, and for how long – I mean – you need your car right? Whether you know it or not, oil is in every package and process that America depends on. When should America make a real commitment to replace oil – and with what – would you be for that?

And when are we getting our kids out of  Afghanistan? When are we going to force policy makers to stop playing politics with the lives of our young, so they can come home and build the future: come home and Win the Future? Many of America’s best and brightest are heroically engaged in an endless and unwinnable war – bring them home – right?  Who are we patriotic to: present politicians or future innovators, and by the way – how many politicians’ children are over there fighting their hearts out, while middle class and poor families disproportionately absorb the burdens of having to adjust to “never-will-be-the-same” sons and daughters returning home – some families adjusting to a permanent empty-seat at the dinner table?

There you have it – if you want what you want – make it happen yourself. Stop going to people whose interests are antithetical than your own – and do something big and important. Coalesce around a movement and make it happen – raise the money yourself: strategize yourself: operate yourself: grow it yourself – you are already doing this for whomever you work for – why not do it for yourself?

The purest form of power is developed by those people with relatively little power or no power at all, who take ownership of their “now.” Those people, who move through and beyond it’s too big – it’s too powerful – it’s always been that way: they force something corrupt into being fair, force it into its best self for the people, and in doing so, they’ve created a whole new power structure. They don’t argue with something that isn’t working: they stop politicking with it, they stop financing it – they stop being a part of it: they make a commitment to the promise of the future, while relinquishing the past.

Why don’t you scare the hell out of everyone by being serious and having a plan that is ready and paid for? Scare the hell out everyone by meaning what you say, and really scare them by starting whatever you’re going to do without them.

You want learn how to fix America – follow the money – track what comes in and where it’s going – who gets tax cuts – who gets stuck with the bills. Do your own due-diligence and lead the way, and if you refuse to do your own bidding, don’t complain when you get what you get, as opposed to what you are supposed to have – as opposed to what you’ve already paid for. If you want to Win the Future, you need to get mad and get moving. The more you wait for the future, the more your past will close in on you.

Good luck.

Calvin Wilson
Founder and CEO
Upstart: Business and Management for 20-40 Year Old Professionals
calvin.wilson1@verizon.net
http://twitter.com/Upstart__Nation

I had the opportunity this past week to speak to a group of entrepreneurs about personal branding. As you might imagine, I was delighted to share my experience and its significance with the large crowd. Much like a prizefighter, I was warming up back stage, as I was getting ready to deliver a knock out talk to a packed room.

Shortly after I began, an older man in the back of the room raised his hand with a question. He asked, “Is this personal branding stuff nothing more than me just setting up a Facebook page and doing some of the Twitter stuff?” I could not help but laugh to myself at the timing of his question.

It occurred to me at that moment that the direction that I was about to head with my talk would have been a complete disaster. Why? I assumed that this group had a reasonable grasp on what personal branding was and were more so looking for some specific ways to leverage their brands to drive more exposure, attention and differentiation in the marketplace. I had planned to
discuss and highlight all the great tools now available do build a bulletproof brand.

I was fortunate to get that question early in my talk as I was about to take these folks on a road trip along an unpaved highway.

The majority of the group had no real concept of what personal branding was or why they should pay attention. It became even more apparent that there were quite a few folks who very skeptical about personal branding and its relevance for them. They showed up for one reason and that was to see and hear whether personal branding was nothing more than smoke and mirrors. That being the case, I guess I was David Copperfield for the day expected to dazzle people with one trick after another.

Nothing against Mr. Copperfield but I was never a big fan of pulling rabbits from my hat.

Instead, I did something a tad bit more provocative. I announced to the room that 50% of them would be out of business or barely in business if they continued to ignore personal branding. At this point, an eerie silence took over the room and I noticed that I now had everyone’s attention. I scrapped the slides, left the podium and went out into the audience to talk about the realities of the digital marketplace. It ended up being a great experience for me and the audience based on the feedback that I received after the talk.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. In my rush to tell the how and what related to personal branding, I almost forget to highlight the “why,” “why me” and “why right now.” Context is indeed king and without it, people are often not moved to act or listen.

The idea of maintaining one’s personal brand may be obvious to some, but certainly not everyone. We still have some work to do.

It is about progress not perfection!

John Vechey, co-founder of Seattle-based games maker PopCap Games, just sold his company to Electronic Arts for just under a billion dollars, so you might think he doesn’t have to fret about success any longer. But according to Vechey, it’s not success that CEOs need to be concerned about, but how they will deal with that success once it comes their way. Vechey, always humble, shared with our Inc. 500|5000 conference audience the seven ramifications of success that he’s struggled with over the years:

1 . “You won’t be the smartest person in the room.” When your company grows, it will ultimately outgrow you and you’ll need to hire people who can take it to the next level. Vechey hired a CEO–Dave Roberts–several years ago but, he cautions, “if you do a great job hiring, you will also have to do a great job of listening” to the people who are smarter than you.

2. “It won’t be your company anymore.” As you become more successful, your company becomes bigger than you.  That means you’ll ultimately lose control. “An example is that Dave Roberts hired a vice president that I didn’t necessarily see eye to eye with and I had troubles with that,” says Vechey. The CEO of a smaller company might have shown the VP the door, but Vechey knew that wasn’t in the company’s best interests.

3. “Only you can control self indulgence.” The more successful you become, “people won’t necessarily call you out on your shit,” says Vechey. “So I hired a professional coach because then your hiring someone to tell you you’re an idiot.” The lesson: the more successful you are, the more you need to step back and examine how you’re behaving.

Read the Full Article on Inc.com

Good luck.

Calvin Wilson
Founder and CEO
Upstart: Business and Management for 20-40 Year Old Professionals
calvin.wilson1@verizon.net
http://twitter.com/Upstart__Nation