Omaha I am often asked by entrepreneurs what skill set I feel is most important in the business world. The obvious ones like leadership, decision making and the art of delegation are all keys. However, I think that understanding the skills involved in negotiating can be quantified and acquired easier than some of the others and may be the key to most everything you do in the business world. I don’t claim … read more

Omaha The Silicon Prairie Region needs to increase its population. Omaha has lagged fast growing cities like Austin for the last 50 years. In 20 years, one key indicator of success as an entrepreneurial an innovative hub will be whether the community has added people. Places like Silicon Valley and Austin have shown meteoric increases in population alongside their increases in reputation. Within that scope … read more

Omaha Grandma Fisher gave me a pretty good set of rules to live life by. All in all, her simple folksy logic has served me well over the years. When it came to being nervous about giving a presentation or a really important meeting, her advice was simple and to the point. Just remember…they can't eat you! I really can't tell you why but I always thought about that beforehand and it calmed me down … read more

Omaha I have been noodling a little. No, not this kind: wikipedia.org/wiki/noodling … yikes! The kind in the photo above. Grandma Fisher always warned me that this could be dangerous; however, I think I survived it without a lot of cerebral damage (you can't damage what you don't have). What I have been noodling about is how to get our local infrastructure kick-started for start-up companies. From what I can tell, in order to have what they have in other … read more

Omaha I was fascinated with Mike Liddy (technical co-founder of FDR) and his ability to dissect problems into subsets and attack them. He had a very simple process that was very effective. Mike would come into a meeting (invited or not) and just observe. I still remember the first time I ever met him; it was right after I joined FDR and we were trying to decide what approach to take to handle a certain … read more

Des Moines Our PR guy asked me if the second sentence is necessary. I personally believe it is. Why? Because if you think about it… It's more likely your going to buy a banana than a bitcoin and yet… Even reading this you’re probably spending time trying to wrap your head around what the heck cryptocurrency is and the extension of what it means to our economy, banking system, and trade… Is that is kind of… Mind blowing… And when minds are blown… You get hype… "OMG what is happening. Is virtual … read more

Omaha This is something I have shared a number of times over the years with entrepreneurs (and others) that find themselves in the position of leadership. It may be that you report to a board or maybe just a traditional reporting role in a business. (At the end of the day, everyone has a boss in one form or another). My mentor at FDR (First Data) told …  read more

(This is a gust post by Greg Meyer of Gist.) If you're in the business of building a community, part of the strategy probably sounds like this: "go to [anchor city] and [another anchor city]. Have a meetup and get to know our users there. Then, we'll be able to depend upon them to spread the word, just like in Kevin Kelly's 1000 True Fans article." The reality, as you probably know, is a bit different. Getting the Word Out: As part of our effort to launch Gist, we talked to hundreds of people in … read more