"When we are tired, our performance doesn’t degrade equally. Instead, when you lose a night’s sleep, the parietal and occipital lobes in your brain become less active. The parietal lobe integrates information from the senses and is involved in our knowledge of numbers and manipulation of objects. The occipital lobe is involved in visual processing. So the parts of our mind responsible for understanding the world and the data around us start to slow down. This is because the brain is prioritizing the thalamus—the part of your brain responsible for keeping you awake. In evolutionary terms, this makes sense. If you’re driven to find food, you need to stay awake and search, not compare recipes."

The Truth About Sleep & Productivity

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The GoPro Army

Sh*t Entrepreneurs Say →

• “I’m not your typical entrepreneur.”
• “Trust me. Someday equity will be a lot more important to you than salary.”
• “R & D is only for people who don’t have a clear vision.”
• “Our culture is the most important thing.”
• “I can’t tell you what we’re working on. Just know that it will be huge.”
• “If it’s not at least a $5 billion market it’s not worth our time.”
• “All we need now is funding.”
• “Hey, didn’t I see you at CES?”
• “We’ll just pivot and nail the next iteration.”
• “Trust me, it will scale.”
• “Customers are definitely willing to pay a premium for green.”
• “Our company? We’re like the Groupon of… no, wait.”
• “When you consider the bigger picture that’s just a rounding error.”
• “Once we launch they’ll be forced to react to us.”
• “We’re targeting a global niche.”

Read all 45 here

7 Things Highly Productive People Do →

You have more important things to focus on than, um, focusing. Get back on track with these tips.

1. Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks.
2. Stop multi-tasking.
3. Be militant about eliminating distractions.
4. Schedule your email.
5. Use the phone.
6. Work on your own agenda.
7. Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals.

Read full article

Are Your Employees Destroying Your Business? →

Most of us spend a lot of time thinking about and cultivating our ideal business tribe, but hardly any time creating our best possible foundational tribe. Why is that? 

We need a strong foundational tribe in order to be able to create an awesome business tribe. It’s basic common sense: if you feel alone and unsupported, all of your endeavors, business and otherwise, are going to be a heck of a lot harder. Our foundational tribe is the engine that drives us to run our business, complete the marathon, publish that book or take that vacation. Pretty important tribe, huh? 

So ask yourself this: when you think of the average of the five people you spend the most time with, are you happy with that idea? Or do the names you come up with disturb you a little? 

Maybe it’s time for some tribe cleaning.

–Annika Martins, writer

The 5 Hardest Jobs to Fill in 2012 →

Although the economy continues to face many challenges, the startup and tech industries are very much alive.  The IPO window slightly opened up for companies like LinkedIn, Pandora, Groupon, Zynga, and Carbonite.  We saw monster rounds of funding for companies like Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox.  The appetite for seed and angel investing was extremely active.  Tech incubators and accelerator programs kept popping up.

So, what are the most competitive areas for talent these days?  Here’s a look:

Software Engineers and Web Developers

Creative Design and User Experience

Product Management

Marketing

Analytics

Read more

5 Leadership Lessons from Newt Gingrich →

Kevork Djansezian/Getty

Love him or hate him, here’s what you can learn from the GOP’s new front-runner about running your business.

1. If you mess up, fess up.

2. Drop the phony, formal business talk.

3. It’s your over-sized ego, stupid.

4. Get on message and spread it like wildfire.

5. Remember, campaigning is not equal to leading.

Read full article

"In the midst of this frenzy for innovation, we may be ignoring a simple psychological reality: While most people claim to love creativity, in reality many fear it and react negatively to those who think outside the box."

Jessica Stillman, Do You Secretly Fear Creativity?

9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money →

Don’t show ‘em the money (even if you have it). Here are nine better ways to boost morale.

1. Be generous with praise.
2. Get rid of the managers.
3. Make your ideas theirs.
4. Never criticize or correct.
5. Make everyone a leader.
6. Take an employee to lunch once a week.
7. Give recognition and small rewards.
8. Throw company parties.
9. Share the rewards—and the pain.

Read article

"Little start-ups are ridiculously overfunded…The market is ridiculously overcrowded with early-stage investors…A lot of these early-stage investors will fund literally anything…This results in a talent drain, where the best talent gets diffused and work for their own start-ups…For young entrepreneurs, it’s really not helpful for some guy to come along and write you a check."

Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder and Facebook president