While entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, one commonality binds them all together: the willingness to take a risk.

This Dun & Bradstreet Credibility infographic (below) encapsulates many of the struggles and fears that small business owners have to overcome, including the ultimate risk of closure or bankruptcy. If you hear that Mark Zuckerberg is 28 and think that your opportunity to strike out has passed you by already, think again: Most company founders are middle aged, according to the infographic.

For every millennial worker (or manager) who has complained about lack of ease, the hard economy, or the trials of working with a challenging customer, here’s a motivational story for you.

In 2008, Josh Skolnick, now 28, was a 25-year-old career landscaper who had started a multi-crew lawn service while still in high school. He was no stranger to hard work, and his innate proclivity to entrepreneurship was clear even then. But it was the challenge of dealing with the hard demands of a customer that led to his most profound business win.

New entrepreneurs who want to survive, and optimize the growth of their startups, need to think globally, and act locally, from day one. This approach, popularly known as “glocalization,” means you have to design and deliver global solutions that have total relevance to every local market in which you operate.

Recognizing this is as much about culture as about language, ensures an understanding of regional motivators, cultural taboos and local customs – so that your solutions are ideally designed and marketed to deliver value that has genuine local relevance.

If you expect to succeed in the thrill-a-minute, roller coaster ride of a startup, let me assure you it takes more than a good idea, a rich uncle, and luck. In fact, the idea is often the least important part of the equation. Most investors tell me that they look at the people first, the business plan second, and only then at the idea.

If you want some tips to beat the insurmountable odds, take a look at the following concepts, adapted from Richard C. Levy’s book, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cashing in On Your Inventions.” He was talking about inventions, but I think his concepts apply perfectly to any entrepreneur starting a business:

Turns out the United States economy grew substantially more slowly than initially estimated between April and June of this year, a torpid 1.3 percent. Lagging growth is not just a short-term problem. America's economic growth has been sluggish since the onset of the Great Recession and even before, so much so that leading economists and commentators like Paul Krugman and PIMCO’s Mohamed El-Erian suggest that America is facing a "lost decade" of economic growth.

But America's overall economic growth rate is essentially a composite of its many different cities and regions. Last week, TIME's Rana Foroohar noted as much:

I think that post election, the economics and job creation focus is going to move to cities and what’s happening at the local level. ... We’ll move from a simplistic conversation about tax cuts versus spending, and we’ll start admitting that we really have no idea why US GDP growth is as slow as it is, and there’s no one way to explain the 2 percent economy (which is really a 5 percent or 0.5 percent economy depending on where you live). And, we’ll have to start experimenting with lots of different paradigms. That will happen at the city level.

You might have seen the commercials online or on TV: Bing has been waging a marketing war on Google, claiming that blind users prefer Bing's results over Google's by a 2-to-1 margin.

But has Microsoft's search engine really advanced enough to pose a credible threat to Google? While you can test the comparison on your own at BingitOn.com, I've identified strengths and weaknesses for both. Either engine may have an edge depending on your personal preferences.

A few years ago I was working in a job I loved with a company that was doing highly sophisticated technical work. I loved my technical role and the challenges and freedom it afforded me but I felt that there was a whole other side of the world that I didn’t understand.

I enrolled in a part-time MBA program in a business school and got to working on case-studies, networking and all that good stuff on nights and weekends. My relationships became tired and strained and I literally sweated through managing both a technical career and a demanding academic curriculum. It took me some time (almost 5 years!) and I graduated with an MBA.

When you’re an entrepreneur, burnout is an occupational hazard. It’s easy to get so consumed by business, you put the rest of your life on hold.

Entrepreneurial drive is a good thing, but only in moderation. Eventually, too much work and too many long hours will exact a toll on your body and soul, not to mention your relationships and your business.

When you burn the candle at both ends, sooner or later your flame will flicker out. That flame -- your passion for business -- is one of your most valuable assets. It’s hard to reignite once it’s extinguished, so protect it instead.

There is a lot of talk these days about what women don't do. We don't head Fortune 500 Companies. We don't sit on corporate boards. We don't hold key political seats.

Forbes reported that 4% of America's largest companies are run by women - that's 20 out of 500. France had to make a law to force men to appoint women to corporate boards, while the U.S. lags far behind. Although women hold up half the American sky, only 17 senators out of 100 are female! Hillary Clinton has done a remarkable job as the third consecutive female Secretary of State, but why isn't she president?

State life sciences industry association, Pennsylvania Bio, has acquired a Philadelphia life sciences career training center and is transforming it into a statewide institute. The goal is to develop a curriculum and training program to build a life sciences workforce better equipped for increased collaboration between universities and the healthcare industry.

The Life Science Career Alliance will become the Life Sciences Institute and will be financed in a public-private partnership. It will also be affiliated with the Coalition of State Bioscience Institutes.

If your startup needs funding to take it to the next level, you might want to consider angel investors.

Angel investors are typically high-net worth investors who invest smaller amounts and with less stringent guidelines than you’d usually get from a venture capital firm. So while it might be a lower-pressure way to get funding, you still need to have a sound business plan and present it well.

A new student-led initiative that recently launched at the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business is helping foster entrepreneurship.

The Bearcat LaunchPad business accelerator and incubator is the brainchild of third-year finance and entrepreneurship student Bhavik Modi, who hopes the program will help make Cincinnati a destination for aspiring entrepreneurs to start businesses.

New Mexico needs a statewide economic development plan to revive its economy, and that plan should be developed by the private sector and not the government, New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry President and CEO Beverlee McClure says.

“I’m starting to hear employees and business owners say, ‘Let’s get a plan,’ and maybe it’s time for the private sector to do it,” McClure said in an interview with the Business Weekly.

You know what visions I get in my dreams? Visions of falling off of buildings (and doing the full body spasm thing when I hit the ground). Some people, though, have the sort of dreams that change the world. Or at least result in Arnold Schwarzenegger films.

The Periodic Table

It's said that Dmitry Mendeleyev was on a three-day work bender when he finally gave in for a few minutes of shut eye. Instead of falling asleep for 17 hours like most sleep deprived people, Mendeleyev dreamt of an arrangement of elements that would change modern chemistry forever, then popped up about 20 minutes later to record it. "I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper ... Only in one place did a correction later seem necessary."

The 1950s heralded the outbreak of over a half-century of spectacular innovations by America’s best and brightest including the creation of an innovation ecosystem second to none – not to mention the invention of rock and roll music. By any measure, the United States became the dominant world power as a nation driven by innovation. So say the pundits and so say our nation’s leaders.

And at the core of that success was a social contract whereby the federal government funded basic research and discovery as the source of new ideas leading to those innovations, principally at state-supported and private research universities. So why is it that many in America are in denial of this basic truth? Why is it that American universities must once again defend a strategy that has been the envy of the world?

The answer is when they can hit a 20.71% Gross IRR and 2.16x Gross Investment Multiple. That’s according to an analysis done by Wiley Becker of Square1 Ventures, a venture capital fund-of-funds manager. Becker notes that VC FOFs have become overdiversified, which has led to poorer returns overall for the sub-asset class.

Do you think you’re an internet entrepreneur?

If you’re not too sure, this post might help you out a bit.

I have listed some of the traits that internet entrepreneurs share below, as sort of a test. If you notice yourself nodding from beginning to end, you can be pretty sure that you are an internet entrepreneur. If you’re laughing by the end of it, you are, without a doubt an internet entrepreneur.

Enjoy!

When you think of biotech hubs in the U.S. you think of South San Francisco, Boston, San Diego and…Brooklyn? Well, maybe not yet for Brooklyn, but a core group of investors, entrepreneurs, and scientists, with the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, are working to turn the Borough of Kings, along with two sites in Manhattan, into a New York-centric biotech center that could rival those in California and Massachusetts.

As Xconomy’s newly arrived East Coast Biotech and New York editor (and a Brooklyn resident), I was encouraged by the enthusiasm shown for New York’s nascent biotech sector at Xconomy’s October 4 forum, Reinventing Biotech’s Business Model for the Big Apple. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome, however—and given that the average sales price of an apartment in Manhattan has reached a gasp-inducing $1.48 million, the biggest problem is, of course, the cost.

WHAT:       19th Annual National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) Conference

                    (Click) View Agenda

WHO:         Christiane Schmenk, Director, Ohio Development Services Agency

                    Mark Kvamme, Chief Investment Officer, JobsOhio

                    Steve Case, Co-founder, American Online

                    Katie Rae, Managing Director, TechStars

                    Chuck Templeton, Managing Director, Impact Engine

                    Sean Green, U.S. Small Business Association

WHEN:       Monday, October 15 – Wednesday, October 17, 2012

WHERE:    Cleveland Marriott

                    Key Center

                    127 Public Square

                    Cleveland, Ohio 44114

DETAILS:  Join Ohio Third Frontier, host of the 2012 NASVF Conference, as we highlight the programs, resources, investors and entrepreneurs that make Ohio a leader in innovation. For more information visit www.nasvf.org.

It’s one of the most dreaded moments in the life of a creative person. The muse packs her bags, walks out the door, and doesn’t leave word as to when she’ll come back. Many of us, myself included, sink into a deep, dark despair filled with doubt and worry. Does she just need a weekend away, or has she gone on a round-the-world cruise? Hell, was she ever there in the first place, or have you been deluding yourself in thinking that you were actually talented.

The easy thing to do, especially when a deadline is looming, is to lose perspective. The harder but much more productive mindset is to realize that you--and virtually everyone you respect and admire--have overcome blocks in the past. You might even say that it’s part of the process. So have a lot of successful people you think never have such problems producing work. “Anyone who tells you they don’t encounter creative block is either not passionate about what they do or is stealing someone else’s ideas,” asserts the graphic designer Mike McQuade. He, along with 89 others, from Nicholas Felton to Debbie Millman, have contributed their encouraging words to Breakthrough!, a new book edited by Alex Cornell compiling advice on how to clear creative hurdles. Most seem to agree with this strategy: When you hit a wall, don’t stew; change course. And as soon as you find yourself engaging in some other activity and forgetting the muse, she just might reappear.