Last week, I drove to Pacifica, a beach community just south of San Francisco, where I climbed a large rocky hill as the sun descended on the horizon. It painted a typically astounding California sunset across the Pacific Ocean. What did I do next?

What any normal person would do in 2011: I pulled out my iPhone and began snapping pictures to share on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

I spent 10 minutes trying to compose the perfect shot, moving my phone from side to side, adjusting light settings and picking the perfect filter.

There are methods and techniques used by the highest-paid and most successful people in our society to get paid more money for what they do and get promoted faster to higher levels of authority and responsibility.

When you begin to use them yourself, you put your entire life and career onto the fast track. You will make more progress in the next couple of years than the average person makes in 10 or 20 years. Here are 7 ways to get started:

1. Find a High-Growth Industry

You can make more progress toward getting paid more and getting promoted faster in a couple of years in a high-growth industry than you might in five or 10 years in a slow-growth industry.

After winning rare bipartisan approval in the House of Representatives, a package of bills aimed at kick-starting the market for initial public offerings and other financing options for start-up companies may reach a Senate vote in a week.

The Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups bill, or JOBS Act, would help young companies by exempting smaller businesses from some regulations imposed after the tech stock bust of 2000, said Kate Mitchell, chairwoman of the IPO Task Force, a group organized by the National Venture Capital Association. Former venture-backed start-ups account for 12 million U.S. private-sector jobs, according to an NVCA-commissioned study.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about whether or not “Follow your Passion” is the “worst career advice ever given”. Particularly applicable to Millennials, who have heard this advice repeated from those who perhaps didn’t follow their passions early enough in life – this is a relevant debate.

So when I began thinking about the “worst advice ever”, several random – even contradictory – thoughts came to mind.

Perhaps you’ve had some of these same reactions and opinions?

Gov. Terry Branstad's reforms of the state's economic development and education programs both include creation of "innovation funds" in which private dollars support public proposals.

"Innovation" is a buzzword in the Branstad administration, heard almost as frequently as the phrase "predictability and sustainability," and both funds are a good representation of the administration's desire to bring the expertise and capital of the private market into the public realm.

But they face increased legislative scrutiny now that the governor has called for tweaks to the tax benefits offered to private investors in one program and made the creation of the other part of the massive education reform plan.

Technology has always played a key role in driving the U.S. economy forward. But over the past decade or so, it is not just the big players — government, Fortune 500 companies and research universities — that are benefiting. Personal computers, broadband Internet and now smartphones have put cutting-edge technology into the hands of small-business owners, nonprofit leaders and entrepreneurs, creating immense opportunities for each person to do what he or she does best.

Quick, picture a startup sensation.

Did you see 27-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg? Or maybe Ben Milne, who created two successful companies in his 20s, including the mobile payment darling Dwolla? Or Ben Silbermann, who 10 years after graduating from Des Moines' Roosevelt High School helped launch one of the fastest growing websites ever with Pinterest?

But if you look beyond those headline-grabbing names, you're more likely to find a baby boomer launching a new business.

It has been a whirlwind last few days in the crowd-funding world. For those of you who have not yet tuned in to this, there is legislation afoot, backed by the President and (so far) the House, that would enable, in effect, mini- IPOs as a way to fund startups. Forget everything you know about the rules of equity financing for seed-stage startups.

What’s coming: So long as you raise less than $1M, and individual investors don’t put in more than a small amount (somewhere between $1,000 and $10,000, depending on whose bill you are talking about), then you are A OK to go raise the money. You can do a general solicitation (e.g. Facebook blast). AngelList could be opened up to everyone. Your local paper could publish a list of local businesses looking for capital. This is a game change.

You read correct! You can now head over to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) page on the DOE-Office of Science web site and learn more about the topics to be released in the April 3 program funding opportunity announcement (FOA). Topics include:

• Advanced manufacturing
• Biomass
• Buildings
• Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies
• Solar
• Vehicles
• Water
• Wind

To describe one of my first loves as a ‘big bag’ might be a little misleading, but it is quite true.

Like any other 16 year old, relationships were  important to me. I wasn’t necessarily looking for love, but 30 years later the hairs on my neck still stand on end when I think of that memorable first encounter. It was like this…

Nottingham

I’m in the city centre. It’s a busy autumn Saturday afternoon and the light is fading. Wandering through the last shop before catching the Number 72 bus back home, my gaze suddenly fell on this most beautiful of creations. Emotion swept through me and all logical reasoning went to pieces. I knew we were destined to be together and nothing was going to get in my way.

Larta Institute, the Los Angeles-based commercialization assistance hub, says that the current, localized and cluster-based models of assistance offered to high-growth entrepreneurs do not meet their needs in a time of increased global competition and opportunity. It describes instead an evolving "Network-Centric" model as offering the best way to organize and measure assistance programs targeting such entrepreneurs.

Larta CEO Rohit Shukla discusses this "Network-Centric" model in a paper selected to be presented at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's International Research and Policy Roundtable, March 11-12 in Liverpool: Supporting high growth entrepreneurs: The Network-Centric approach to entrepreneurial assistance. The Roundtable kicks off the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, which attracts entrepreneurs, thought-leaders, economists and policy-makers from more than 100 countries.

Finding a co-founder for your company is like getting married: you need a solid understanding of the other person, and often a prenup.

Dreamit Ventures and Capital Factory helped entrepreneurs at SXSW with both elements of the equation at a speed dating event for co-founders this weekend.

“The goal of the three-minute conversations was to identify people you want to have future meetings with,” managing partner Kerry Rupp said. “Afterward we shared everyone’s LinkedIn profiles with everyone else.”

Finding a partner is not necessarily finding someone you like, she said.

Creating new ideas is the first step to innovation, but it is not enough these days.  Marketers need to generate excitement and support for their new opportunity.  Don't make the mistake of thinking "the idea will sell it self."  Just the cleverness of the concept and the revenue forecasts are not enough to sway others.  Leaders have many investment choices to create growth, so you need to position your investment opportunity properly.

That is where the power of storytelling can help.  Effective storytelling captures the hearts and minds of your target audience.  It makes your innovations stand out about the rest.  That's why many embrace it as a critical leadership tool. Storytelling is now mainstream in the business world.  At Nike, senior executives are called “corporate storytellers.” 3M banned bullet points and replaced them with writing “strategic narratives.” Procter & Gamble hired Hollywood directors to teach its executives storytelling techniques. Business schools have storytelling courses to their curriculum.

Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Director Samuel Aronson has been named 2012 Laboratory Director of the Year by the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC). The annual award recognizes federal laboratory directors who have made significant contributions to technology commercialization in their organizations.

“I am tremendously honored to be recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer,” said Aronson. “Brookhaven Lab has made great strides in increasing the impact of our research by expediting the translation of our discoveries into market applications. I feel fortunate to have played a role in that process, and in strengthening Brookhaven’s research and development partnerships with industry.”

Since becoming lab director in 2006, Aronson has significantly expanded emphasis on the development and commercialization of Lab technologies through patents, licensing, and collaborations with industrial partners, bringing in new sources of revenue and valued research and development relationships. He has played a key role in bridging the gap between basic and applied science, leading to accelerated transfer of Brookhaven technologies to the marketplace. Between 2009 and 2011, 112 inventions were disclosed, 30 patents were issued and 116 commercial and research licenses were executed.

It seems like every day there is a new accelerator starting somewhere in the United States. Entrepreneurship is hot, and because accelerators like Tech Stars and Y Combinator have been successful, other places think this is the path to prosperity. But is it?

At the Angel Capital Association (ACA) conference I was at I solicited the opinions of several angels. It’s a hot topic. My own angel organization, Hyde Park Angels is hugely supportive of our local accelerator, Excelerate Labs. We also will have an office at 1871, which is not an accelerator but a co-working space.

Every company should have a Board Of Directors. At the start it can simply be a one person board consisting of the founder. But it should not stay that way for long. Because if you are your own board, you won't get any of the benefits that come with having a board. These benefits include, but are not limited to, advice, counsel, relationships, experience, and accountability.

The shareholders elect the Board of Directors. But there is usually a nominating entity that puts directors up for election by the shareholders. If the founder controls the company, then he/she is usually that nominating entity.

There is a good chance that you will fill out an N.C.A.A. basketball tournament bracket for an office pool sometime in the next three days. There is an even better chance that you spent the last four months focused on your family and career, not glued to ESPN. Therefore, you have only a passing familiarity with most of the teams in the tournament, and your bracket selections are just a series of guesses.

Those guesses say little about your basketball acumen but speak volumes about your personality. A tournament bracket can reveal more about a person’s character than handwriting analysis, or even phrenology. Read these five classic bracket archetypes and select the one that best fits your tournament strategy. Then, discover what your bracket tells the world about you. Warning: this system is so accurate that it can feel as if we opened a window to your very soul, so make sure you are seated comfortably

There are some careers that we say are a “calling” such as teaching, being a doctor, nurse or a priest or pastor.  Whenever we encounter people in those kinds of professions, we give them a little extra understanding.

But what about entrepreneurs and small business owners?  Would you call entrepreneurship a “calling?”  I’m sure many of us would shout out a resounding “YES!”  After all, what might have started out as a way to spend more time with family and have more control over your schedule quickly turns out to take more time and cost more money and require more patience than any job ever did.

Business leaders from around the world are gathering in Liverpool, England, this week to talk about the development of global start-up businesses.

Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin, will be one of the keynote speakers at the conference focused on helping entrepreneurs succeed in an increasingly innovative environment.

Conferences like these are not the only ways that entrepreneurs are getting the help they seek, however. Start-Up Chile has become one of the leading global initiatives encouraging entrepreneurship, prompting their invitation to participate in the conference.

Mens et Manus – mind and hand is the motto for MIT Sloan School of Management and something that is taken particularly seriously at the schools’ Global Entrepreneurship Lab. “Students aren’t thinking so much about getting a job in a big company, they are thinking about how to apply the skills they are learning” says Michellana Jester, manager of the action learning programmes at MIT, and they are able to do this to great effect through the G-lab.

Launched in 2000, G-lab links teams of second-year MBA students with small to medium-sized companies in Africa, China, India, Latin America and southeast Asia. Working in groups of four, the students then share their knowledge, experience and research with these business owners over a set three to four month period – with no fees incurred by the company, aside from airline and accommodation expenses when the students visit for the last three weeks. For the first three months, all the work is done remotely and for free.