Do you struggle with creativity in your writing?

Have you ever spent hours racking your brain trying to solve a creative problem, with no success?

Do you try to force creative moments through sheer effort?

The science shows this may not be the best approach.

Before we jump into the details, let’s see if you can answer these puzzles:

1. Marsha and Majorie were born on the same day of the same month of the same year to the same mother and the same father, yet they are not twins. How is that possible?

A few women pointed out that the upcoming MobileBeat 2012 conference has practically no women on the speaking page. Well, we think there are plenty of successful women running mobile startups.

Here are successful women entrepreneurs in the mobile space who have celebrated exits, managed major product launches and can speak to any number of mobile topics, from developing mobile apps to mobile advertising.

In the U.S., the weekends sandwiching the 4th of July are the most popular travel time of the year. The cherries are ripe, the pool water is swimmable, and flip-flops are starting to look like appropriate work apparel. Summer is finally, undeniably here, and so is (hopefully) your vacation. 

But even when you have the freedom to turn off your phone, forget the office, and rush headlong into the ocean, do you? Probably not. 

Too often in adult life, reality and wild abandon don't mix -- and that, says game designer Jane McGonigal, is exactly the problem.

The University of Michigan’s Tech Transfer office and the Michigan Venture Capital Association (MVCA) have announced that they will partner on a new, collaborative office inside Tech Transfer’s Venture Accelerator. The partnership, the first of its kind for the MVCA, will give the organization’s members direct access to the startups and technology spun out of university research.

U-M is known as one of the top research institutions in the nation, says MVCA associate director Manisha Tayal, and the prospect of bringing investors in close contact with university startups was very appealing. “Companies with strong technology are good investments, and the university’s tech transfer office is known for having very strong technology,” she explains.

With my ears still ringing from July 4 fireworks, I was drawn to the handy infographic mapping out states’ positions on expanding their Medicaid programs for low-income residents to comply with the Affordable Care Act.

With the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Medicaid mandate was changed to require states to agree to expand their Medicaid programs or face cuts to new Medicaid funding from the federal government. So states can choose to opt out.

Great names do some of the work for you. They market your company just by being out there: Last.fm, SoundCloud, KissMetrics and Groupon all come to mind. One of my favorite company names in tech is Wildfire, a company that makes social media marketing apps. Once you hear the name in context, the name will forever be stored in your brain. It clicks because it contains a strong hint of what the product does: it makes your promotion spread like… you know what.

Most of the names out there are just OK. They don’t make your life any easier or harder: Highrise, Yammer, Spotify. But it’s OK to have an OK name.

As an economics major and the son of a business school professor, I’ve been immersed in theoretical business for much of my life. Oligopolies, Game Theory, and Competitive Advantage have been popular topics of conversation at the Petri household’s dinner table since I was in a high-chair.

But what I’ve discovered in the past 5 or so years working at a handful of small companies and consulting with a dozen or so more, is that their challenges and solutions are strikingly different from the ones encountered in the classroom. Here are five lessons I’ve learned about entrepreneurship that you’d never find in a business school curriculum:

Do the best salespeople make the best sales managers? Almost unanimously, when we ask sales leaders this question, the answer is "no." Yet paradoxically, and too often, sales leaders look for candidates among the sales ranks and select the best salesperson for the manager job. They assume that because an individual was successful in sales, that individual will be successful in management too.

Of course, many great salespeople can and do become great managers. But this is not always the case. Too often, when a super-salesperson gets promoted to manager, one or more of the following happens:

From the Brazen Head to Apple's Siri, voice and speech recognition has come a long way. Check out the significant developments along the way.  

Perhaps the most important advancement was 1978's Speak & Spell from Texas Instruments, which made the concept fun and familiar for millions of children - some of whom might have gone on to create modern voice applications.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has authored a bill that would make it easier for new technologies to get off the ground.

The America Innovates Act would create an innovation bank to provide capital to universities and research institutions to help new discoveries get developed and commercialized.

Gillibrand said funding the most basic levels of these innovations would allow them to develop to become attractive to state, local and private investment.

Did you know that for years, the U.S. Patent and Trademark has operated almost entirely out of one location in northern Virginia? Kind of odd, seeing as out in California we’ve got that whole Silicon Valley thing going on. And Virginia is kind of far away.

But, no longer. The PTO announced that it is opening several new offices across the country. Can you guess where?

A good many startups I know have been “successful” over a couple of years in overcoming the challenges of starting the business, including incorporation, services development, funding, and setting up operations. Yet they still haven’t achieved a healthy growing profit, even though this was one of the main reasons they went into business for themselves in the first place.

It’s no fun on this plateau, just “making payroll,” and watching some employees make more then you as the founder. At this stage you were expecting to be working on creating a good business valuation to attract future buyers, or at least funding college accounts for your kids.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the discovery -- or almost discovery -- of the Higgs Boson is that the whole thing worked: CERN's Large Hadron Collider was funded, built, turned on. It didn't create black holes. It wasn't sabotaged by the future. And most remarkably, the money didn't run out.

Because the money did run out on an American project: an American supercollider that would've been turned on earlier and would've been stronger than the LHC. It's called the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC). But first, Kurt Andersen.

This year's legislative session in Jefferson City proved difficult for economic development interests.

Take MOSIRA. The Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act would have begun the process of setting aside a portion of the tax revenue from the life science industry to be reinvested in science and innovation underpinning that industry.

In 2004, the Kansas Legislature implemented what Missouri is still struggling to approve. The Kansas Economic Growth Act funds the Kansas Bioscience Authority, or KBA, at around $35 million a year. KBA invests in the competitiveness of the life science industry in Kansas.

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is currently accepting applications for the i6 Challenge. EDA’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship will hold a special conference call for potential applicants to discuss the application process and answer questions on Thursday, July 12, from 1 to 2 p.m. EDT.
 
The application deadline is July 20, 2012. Up to six winning teams across the country up will be awarded $1 million each for innovative proposals that best create or expand proof of concept centers. Such centers promote U.S. innovation, foster entrepreneurship, and increase the commercialization of ideas into viable companies by creating networks of experts to support innovators and researchers, spurring sustainable startups, expanding access to capital, connecting mentors and education to entrepreneurs, and sparking job creation.
 
The competition is a partnership between EDA and Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Details of the 2012 i6 Challenge are available here.

There are a lot of myths out there about getting your articles into publications: that it’s self-serving, that people who do it are egomaniacs, or even that you have to brag about your achievements to get publishers to notice you. Despite all the misconceptions, it really is possible to get yourself published without coming across as a know-it-all who’s full of himself.

Get published

Despite what people say, getting published does not mean you’re self-promoting. If you look past that stereotype, you can treat getting published as an opportunity to spread your knowledge and expertise, providing value to the publication and to those who are reading it. You don’t need to brag about your personal or company success to write a good article, either. If you base each article on information rather than self-promotion, you’re actually helping people out and building your professional brand at the same time.

"Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell; more human than human is our motto." -- Dr. Eldon Tyrell (from the 1980 Ridley Scott film, Blade Runner) discussing the business of producing replicant humans.

First, a caveat. I attended only the second day of the two-day 2012 World Innovation Forum so I didn't get the full picture of what was presented. From what I understand, the first day's speakers talked more about the "human side of innovation" -- a subject I can easily warm up to.

His name: Antony Valentini; his crime: he’s a maverick physicist who works on a non-conventional research problem – cleaning up problems with the interpretation of quantum mechanics by returning to the old pilot wave approach originated by Schrödinger. Is this a smart move on his part? Nope. So far, Valentini has floated from one temporary position to another and currently is located at Imperial College London. No academic faculty position and no tenure for being a maverick outside the mainstream and outside the boundary of conventional wisdom.

Is Valentini an anomaly? Well yes, but not really. Most young scientists at the start of their career understand how to get their toast buttered and simply follow the path laid out by the scientific Establishment. In their hearts, they want to be risk takers and blaze new trails, but they wisely recognize that getting established is key to a paycheck and to obtaining those all important research grants. Should it be this way? Is this the best approach to creating transformative discoveries? Don’t we collectively have a responsibility to push young scientists toward independent, unfettered research instead of the “me too” drill of conventional wisdom?

Company: WODToys Location: Seattle, WA Product: Fitness-inspired baby and toddler toys

Ernest Ebio and his wife, both fitness enthusiasts who love to hike and lift weights, didn't like leaving their 11-month-old daughter behind during their workouts. That frustration led to a business idea -- Ebio decided to create a line of kids' toys modeled after gym equipment.

Ebio partnered with his brother David Catanghal to launch WOD Toys, which produces kid-sized barbells, medicine balls, and even kettlebells for infants and toddlers. The toys weigh between half a pound and four pounds each and are made of materials like plastic, polyester and leather.