Hyperthymesia is a condition where individuals possess an extremely detailed autobiography memory. People with hyperthymesia remember a ridiculously large number of their life experiences and spend an excessive amount of time thinking and ‘living in’ the past. When I mentioned this particular disorder to an employee, he said that he thought it would be a great thing to have. He was tired of forgetting everything.  (by the way, this is the same guy who came up with the title of my last speech – “I have no recollection of those events, Madam Senator”.  What does that say about him?).    I told him he was crazy for wanting to remember EVERYTHING.   Personally, I think one of God’s greatest gifts to humans (especially aging humans) is diminishing memories. (the other one is diminishing eyesight – ladies, I’m sorry but although the 100X magnifying mirrors are helpful, they also make me realize exactly why I need younger friends to tell me I need to put on more moisturizer and carry a tweezer more regularly). So, think about it – Individuals with hyperthymesia can recall almost every day of their lives in near perfect detail, as well as public events that hold some personal significance to them. When they encounter a date, they “see” a vivid depiction of that day in their heads.   The first person diagnosed with hyperthymesia described her memory as “non-stop, uncontrollable and totally exhausting” and as “a burden”.  She essentially is permanently living in the past. I don’t know what[…]

Wikipedia defines “intrapreneurship” as “the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization.” These days, we see and hear the words ‘innovation’ and ‘innovators’ all over the place. The government regularly asks for approaches and methods that are innovative in Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and large companies increasingly invest time and money into innovative intrapreneurial programs. When you search TEDx talks for ‘innovation,’ you come up with over 1,800 videos. Large companies are certainly the pacesetters when it comes to embracing corporate innovation. Intuit organizes multi-day “lean start-ins” that bring employees together from across the company to teach them how to create new products, services, and business models. They do this using what they describe as ‘rapid experimentation.’ Whirlpool has innovation mentors they call “i-mentors” who use innovation tools to help business teams challenge the standard way of doing business. But even if you are a small business with a small budget, you can leverage innovation to your advantage and create a clear-cut return on investment for your efforts. I will admit that when I started my company, I was lazy when it came to performing the day-to-day business tasks. I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel and I didn’t want to waste time on things I considered to be boring. If I had a need like tracking of contracts or simplifying a reporting process, I would search for a tool online that could make my life easier. I got to a point that I would[…]

When I first heard the term “serial entrepreneur,” I had no idea what it meant. It was only after my attorneys yelled at me for not keeping them in the loop with all my incorporation activities that I realized that I had become a serial entrepreneur. But what made it not so great was that I was an ADHD serial entrepreneur. I was starting companies before I ‘finished’ the previous ones. Evidently I’m not unique in that aspect and there are pros and cons to this entrepreneurial path. We all can understand why having one successful company makes it easier to start a second one, but what we often don’t realize is that if not done correctly, you risk not only jeopardizing the new company but the successful one as well. If you can successfully juggle the management of more than one company, you can create many advantages such as diversity, partnership and a brand extension. Diversification with a second business can make sense in many aspects when scalability is a concern. Diversifying with a complementary offering can potentially stabilize the overall entities by blending cash flow generated from independent revenue sources. Jon Gillespie-Brown, a serial entrepreneur and author of “So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur,” describes diversity in business by likening it to a stool. “If you’re running a smaller business, it’s tough to have a one-legged stool,” Gillespie-Brown says. “Having a couple legs gives you diversity, both in customers and in the stages of the business. In[…]

I am proud to support this documentary film project. She Started It tells the story of women tech founders in the US and Europe, and aims to highlight successful role models for young women to encourage more girls towards entrepreneurship in the technology industry.