You aren’t crazy—there are good reasons why starting a business feels hard. Like any big change in life like getting married or having a baby, entrpreneurship has its ups and downs.
Once you get over the initial rush of your launch, certain that everything is going to go according to plan, you run into some snags.
Martha Beck, O Magazine columnist and author of Finding Your Own North Star, has a very useful framework for describing the cycle of change experienced by new entrepreneurs.See if you can identify which square of change you are currently in according to Beck’s framework here
In the year 2000 Victoria Hale launched the Institute for OneWorld Health, a nonprofit pharmaceutical company that develops drugs and vaccines for diseases that primarily affect developing countries.
Although infectious diseases account for only 10 percent of deaths in developed countries, they cause 60 percent of deaths among the world’s poorest people.
OneWorld intends to bring drugs to market at costs affordable to poor people and countries. It has set up a manufacturing and marketing collaborative to begin production of its first drug, which will treat visceral leishmaniasis, a fatal tropical disease transmitted by insect bites that currently afflicts 1.5 million.
Learn about her story in this episode of Uncommon Heroes, funded by the Skoll Foundation. More info: www.skollfoundation.org
The Film The Call of the Entrepreneur tells the stories of three entrepreneurs: A failing dairy farmer in rural Evart, Michigan A merchant banker in New York City A refugee from Communist China
Reverend Robert Sirico, author of The Entrepreneurial Vocation, joins Michael Novak, George Gilder and other experts in exploring how entrepreneurs shape our world.
Among all the interesting people who came to the Hub on Monday the Hub Connect, Jean-Yves Huwart of Entreprise Globale interviewed Alexander Riedl.
Alexander Riedl is the co-founder of the HUB in Brussels. The HUB is a community of innovative entrepreneurs who want to get connected with peers. There could be startups, people shifting their career, social entrepreneurs, long haul travelrs or just people with idea. The project they are building intend to bring some meaning.
The HUB in Brussels is part of an international network of other HUB in more than 15 cities around the world. All the members consider themself as part of that broad community.
Last Monday we celebrated the first Hub Connect event in the Hub Brussels.
We met many different people and shared food, drink, ideas and fun . The event aimed to get to know each other, share initiatives, express the needs and offers, generate new ideas, and make suggestions for future events or projects.
Hosted by Simone & Hendrik, the event was a complete succed. The experience was positive for all people who were there so… We hope to repeat soon!
The Big Ask again is an initiative of the Belgian film director Nic Balthazar, whose film “Ben X” won many prizes, in cooperation with the Climate Coalition and with the support of Alain Hubert.
The Climate Coalition is a broad Belgian platform, bringing together all the environmental organisations, various social and cultural associations, and North-South groups from across the country. Its mission is to pool the resources of its members. In 2009 it is focusing on the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
For seven years now, the European Young Entrepreneurs Awards, Innovact-L’Etudiant have, with the support of the European Commission enabled young students to implement their projects at European level. If you are a student with a creative idea for a business project, you can with a team or individually, take part in the seventh edition of the Innovact Awards for Innovation whose aim is to reward new and challenging projects. Your project can either be in its design stage, in progress or already launched.
The selection committee composed of professionals (heads of companies, journalists, scientists) and presided over by Luuk BORG, head of the Eurostars Programme Office within the EUREKA Secretariat will reward the candidates who – whatever the product or activity- show imagination as creators. All students can take part in the competition either individually or within the framework of their institution.
The winners will receive prize money and will benefit from media coverage in the following websites : www.innovact.com; www.letudiant.fr; www.lors.fr; www.l’entreprise.fr 1st prize: 3,000 euros – 2nd & 3rd prize: 1,500 euros.
In order to encourage their projects, the thirty finalist candidates will be invited to come (transport and accommodation free) on March 24 and 25 2009 in Reims to the 13th edition of the European forum for innovative growth companies, Innovact 2009. The Forum will gather 4000 professionals from 20 countries and 220 young European companies.
Deadline for receipt of application forms: Wednesday 14th January 2009 – For more information: www.innovact.com
Its central theme is to stimulate sustainable economic development through entrepreneurship. This event is your opportunity to:
Set the agenda during 2008 to facilitate sustainable economic development through entrepreneurship
Build enduring partnerships with people and organisations who have a shared in promoting a call to action or developing business ideas.
Who should attend?
You should attend if you are an entrepreneur, a social entrepreneur, a financier, a mentor or coach of entrepreneurs or if you provide any form of support to the entrepreneurial community. You should also attend if you are a policy maker with an interest in innovation and entrepreneurship or in economic development or if you conduct research in the area of entrepreneurship.
Once you get over the initial rush of your launch, certain that everything is going to go according to plan, you run into some snags. 
