When you start a company, you are usually in one of two camps: a veteran who has worked at multiple startups and knows the monster challenge you're up against OR a first timer who has limited startup experience but an abundance of passion for the idea you want to solve. In both cases, there's always a lot to learn, but for the strength and vitality of an ecosystem, it's particularly important how we handle educating the first timers. 

Many forms of media can become dated quite quickly. Even some of the best books, movies and music suddenly lose their luster after a few years whether due to cultural shifts or technological advances.  Despite being written in 1937, How To Win Friends and Influence Peopleis not one of those cases.  

Written in the middle of the Great Depression and before any of the advances in technology we all take for granted today, Dale Carnegie's book has stood the test of time.  I've reviewed quite a few books on this blog and each one I strongly recommend, but if you only read one book I ever review, make it this one. 

As humans, we all generally like to think we're rational, logical individuals. We also have a tendancy to assume other people also have logical behavior.  Unfortunately, that is far from the case. 

Lucky for us there are researchers like Dan Ariely. Thanks to his in depth studies of human nature and the choices we make, he's discovered some amazing trends and patterns that, as the title says, makes us all "Predictably Irrational."

The journey of an entrepreneur is a long and winding road. It’s a test of endurance and one’s ability to evolve and adapt.  I’ve always been one to observe processes and try to break them down. Looking at both my personal journey that is just beginning and those that are far ahead of me, I’d like to share my thoughts on what the major steps are in becoming a successful entrepreneur. And while we’re talking about the process of becoming one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, it's only appropriate to quote lyrics from one of the greatest rappers of all time, the Notorious BIG.

I've been in the awesome Boston startup community for almost a year and a half now and have learned more than I could hope to measure.  At the same time, I've seen where quotes, and tweets both have a knack for occasionally capturing the essence of a key lesson I have learned.  For this reason, I've compiled a list of some of my favorite tweets, quotes and other brief lessons I have learned during this time...

Ever wish you could climb in the brain of your customer to really understand what they're thinking? Want to know how to get the most out of your employees? Is there a secret underlying process that make use all alike in how we think?  While How We Decide is not a magic solution to all of those questions, it does provide fantastic and fascinating insight into all of them.  I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to better understand the underlying thought processes that make up the complex human mind. Read on to find a few of the key things I discovered in reading this book. 

I recently came across a post claiming, "Why Startup Founders Should Stop Reading Business Books." While I appreciate the sentiments of choosing your reading material wisely, I strongly disagree with the belief that you should not spend time reading anything but the most narrowly focused books.  Especially for first time and young entrepreneurs, they're an essential stepping stone in knowledge growth. I'd like to highlight the reasons I believe this here and also specifically address some of the other blogger's contentions.

 Yesterday's Momentum Summit was one of the best events I've been to in quite some time. The interview format of the main part of the event seemed to work quite well as great lessons and takeaways emerged from the entrepreneur asks entrepreneur format.  (We liveblogged notes you can find here).  However, as great as that was, the most important part in my opinion were the lunches.

During the lunch portion, groups of 8-12 startupers huddled around tables to talk to successful founders about topics of the founder's choosing. Some of those topics included David Cancel of Performable discussing the importance of A/B testing, Antonio Rodriguez of Matrix Partners discussing VC funding and at the table I sat at, Matt Douglas of myPunchbowl discussing "Startup-Deals That Build Momentum". (for a complete list of lunch topics see here).