As March Madness commences this week, I’m reminded of an old, grainy photo of Dean Smith after winning his first NCAA title in 1982. The photo features University of North Carolina Head Coach Dean Smith, Sports Information Director Rick Brewer, and Tar Heels James Worthy, and Jimmy Black. By looking at the photo, without having any context, you might assume they lost. Curry Kirkpatrick describes the photograph:

“Of a quiet, wan and thoroughly exhausted Dean Smith propped up and grogged out against a brick wall deep within the catacombs of the Louisiana Superdome on a hazy spring night in 1982…

The mission is a company’s purpose for being. The mission statement is usually one sentence-to-short paragraph explaining its culture, values, and ethics.

The following are mission statements from leading enterprises (via Investopedia):

• Microsoft: Empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.
• Chipotle: To change the way people think about and eat fast food.
• MGM Resorts International: MGM Resorts International is the leader in entertainment and hospitality — a diverse collection of extraordinary people, distinctive brands, and best-in-class destinations.
• Nike: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
• Walmart: We save people money so they…

The pandemic has brought unprecedented hardship to small businesses and their owners. COVID-19 has compounded inequities, driving underestimated entrepreneurs further into isolation. Current and formerly incarcerated returning citizens and the founders creating solutions for these audiences are coping with their own challenges that are magnified by the pandemic yet are being resilient in the face of adversity.

This is why we hosted a pop-up in partnership with the National Black Chamber of Commerce to discuss ways to address and remove barriers identified by entrepreneurs like implicit bias, network connectivity, and access to talent enablement programs. …

The pandemic has brought unprecedented hardship to small businesses and their owners. COVID-19 has compounded inequities, driving underestimated entrepreneurs further into isolation. Current and formerly incarcerated returning citizens and the founders creating solutions for these audiences are coping with their own challenges magnified by the pandemic yet are being resilient in the face of adversity.

This is why we’re hosting a virtual pop-up with the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Investing In Returning Citizens, to discuss ways to address and remove barriers identified by entrepreneurs like implicit bias, network connectivity, and access to talent enablement programs. …

Two days after MicroStrategy CEO introduced Bitcoin to over 6,900 enterprises and three days before the public announcement of Tesla buying $1.5 billion in bitcoin, my students were generating ideas for how corporations can use Bitcoin to their benefit.

In the Tech Consulting undergraduate course I teach, University of Maryland students practiced brainstorming — using divergent thinking to generate lots of potential ideas. To help practice this skill, I chose a challenging topic to brainstorm around, Bitcoin.

The students were given a team workspace with a company selected by me, including Snapchat, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Each team chose…

Cathie Wood from Ark Invest said on a recent podcast. She continued, “If you have a long enough time horizon, new technologies can be transformational.” One investor Wood mentioned who has built a reputation for seeing opportunity when others are skeptical is Bill Miller. Miller was an early believer in Amazon, investing heavily when most analysts were highly skeptical. Around this time, Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos took the TED Talk stage, comparing the dot-com boom to the early days of the electric industry.

Bezos believed society had only scratched the surface of the web’s capabilities and that the best…

I wanted to put together a list of blogs, videos, books, and podcasts that have helped me better understand Bitcoin. This educational guide is organized from basics, foundations & history; infrastructure & technology; markets & business models; additional resources; and a glossary of terms. This is not conclusive as I will be updating this regularly. Please share recommendations in the comments section.

Basics, Foundations & History

• Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto (2008)
• Why Bitcoin Matters by Marc Andreessen (2014)
• Planting Bitcoin: Sound Money by Dan (2018)
• The Bullish Case for Bitcoin by Vijay Boyapati (2018)
• Bitcoin…

Recently, the author of The Extraordinary Power of Leader Humility, Marilyn Gist, presented a guided discussion on how leaders create thriving organizations and achieve great results. I found it simply fascinating, especially since her research is grounded in her own experiences in corporate America.

Marilyn has extensively studied why leader humility is the essential foundation of all healthy organizations and validated her work with interviews of prominent CEOs of companies ranging from the Mayo Clinic and Ford to Starbucks and Costco. Below are a few of my top takeaways and key concepts from the enlightening discussion:

• Humility is a tendency…