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Air Force fighter pilot Rob “Waldo” Waldman learned how to overcome fear, anxiety, and self-doubt to fly combat missions that pushed him to his limits by disciplined training and the help of his wingmen. Wingmen are people with different backgrounds, skills, and experiences unified under one agreement—to never think or act alone. A wingman watches your back. In Never Fly Solo, Waldo threads real world experiences to encourage the development of a check-six culture. Check-six refers to the six o’clock position where the jet is most vulnerable—the pilot’s blind spot. - Steve Woda

Internet, and mobile Internet, use is on the rise. While China has the most Internet users and mobile online devices, the United States has the highest number of total connected devices. Online shopping, and advertising, are also expected to skyrocket worldwide. It’s a Web, Web, Web, Web world. And that’s just the half of it. According to a Dec. 9 report from research firm IDC, there are currently more than 450 million mobile Internet users around the world, and that figure is expected to more than double over the next four years, passing the one billion mark. - Steve Woda

I never worry about action, but only inaction. - Winston Churchill It's cheating to start a blog post with a quote from Winston Churchill. He was that good. But sometimes you need to cheat and I'm doing it today. People ask me all the time about the traits I look for in entrepreneurs and action orientation is at the top of the list. I'd much rather back someone who makes 100 decisions a day and gets 51 of them right than someone who makes one decision a day and gets it right. - Steve Woda

"It's okay if other people think you're God, but you're in trouble if you start believing it." David Cornwell, a sports attorney, recalled that quote as one uttered by his father, a surgeon. While Cornwell was speaking on Larry King Live about Tiger Woods' foibles, the quote has relevance to anyone in a leadership position, not just doctors and big name athletes. Sure, leaders have to believe in themselves — otherwise no one else will. Their conviction in their own abilities has to be strong as well as resilient, but such self-assurance cannot be allowed to become arrogance. So often when we see business leaders making poor decisions it seems as if their ego is speaking louder than their voice of reason. - Steve Woda

At one time or another, I’m sure you have heard the well-traveled leadership lesson called “A Short Course in Human Relations” (in case you haven’t , here’s a good little video reminder), which starts with the Six Most Important Words (“I admit I made a mistake”), and ended with the One Most Important Word (“we”). It’s well traveled because despite its contrivance, there are some great lessons there. However, it never stuck in my mind as much, or ultimately became as important to my leadership learning, as a little addition to that list I heard about 22 years ago. - Steve Woda

Google appears to be in a rush to get its holiday shopping done, having just acquired its fourth company in less than a month. On Friday, AppJet, a start-up co-founded by an ex-Google employee, revealed that it had been bought by Google. In October, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said his company would be looking more actively for acquisition targets. In 2007, Google acquired 16 companies. In 2008, it bought only two. AppJet makes an online collaborative Word processing program called EtherPad that allows real-time collaborative authoring similar to what Google offers in Wave. - Steve Woda

Asked why they left their past jobs, a group of high performers (at Wharton) didn't offer the usual "I hate my boss" or even "I don't fit." Their unhappiness with their former employers boiled down to questions of fairness. And there might not be a solution to be found in today's organizations. - Steve Woda

I have had the good fortune to be close to many successful entrepreneurs. And so I have a perspective as to what separates those who make it big from those who don't. Yes, the quality of the idea is critical, of course, as is the access to capital. And certainly being at the right place at the right time is the ultimate good fortune. But, if I had to put my finger on the one dominant factor of entrepreneurial success stories, it is the absolute total unwillingness of the entrepreneur to say "uncle." My premise is that if you put twenty entrepreneurs in a controlled environment, all with the same idea and the same access to capital, only some (if any) will take the idea to the moon. And those who do will be the men or women with the most resolve. - Steve Woda

My (highly intelligent and experienced) friend Chris Dixon just posted on the importance of VC brands. He makes many good points and you should read his perspective. But the issue Chris raises begs a more fundamental question: whether or not to take venture money, and if so, from whom? - Steve Woda

Suppose you are in the enviable position of choosing between offers from multiple VC firms. How much should you weigh the brand of the VCs when making your decision? I think the answer is: a little, but a lot less than most people assume. First, let me say the quality of the individual partner making the offer matters a lot. However, in my experience, there is a only rough correlation between a VC’s brand and the quality of the individual partners there. There are toxic partners at brand name firms, and great partners at lesser known firms. There are only two situations I can think of where the firm’s brand really matters. - Steve Woda

I recently wrote up a post, "Innovation Perspectives - No Shooting Stars." In it, I discussed the issue of organizations myopically focusing on only disruptive innovations to the exclusion of more incremental or sustaining innovations. In doing more research on the subject, I began thinking about the dynamics that apply when a firm pursues different kinds of innovation. A post by Venkatesh Rao, Disruptive versus Radical Innovations, was very useful for distinguishing between disruptive and radical innovations. Building on that, I wanted a framework for delineating innovations based on their technology and business impacts. Because they're not necessarily the same. The four quadrants below describe the dynamics for innovations according to their technology and market impacts: - Steve Woda

Facebook has joined forces with five Internet groups to help protect kids, the social-networking site said. "We believe that the only way to keep kids safe online is for everyone who wants to protect them to work together," Elliot Schrage, a Facebook vice president, said in a statement Sunday. "The formation of a board to advise specifically on safety issues is a positive, innovative and collaborative step toward creating a more robust safety environment, and we are thrilled that such a well-respected, trusted group of organizations has joined us in this endeavor." - Steve Woda

All leaders have a brand. Whether that term is used or not, leaders have an identifiable persona that is a reflection of what they do and how others perceive them. I call this the leadership brand. When it comes to cultivating a leadership brand, look no further than Oprah Winfrey, who recently announced that she would be ending her popular talk show in 2011. In a perceptive analysis, New York Times media columnist David Carr suggests that Winfrey's brand and the key to her longevity is a combination of things she didn't do as well as things that she did do. On the "don't do side," she did not over-merchandize nor take her company public; she kept control of her products and thereby her image, unlike Martha Stewart. On the "do side," she always stayed true to herself. As she told her business partner Gayle King years ago, "I don't know what the future holds but I know who holds it." - Steve Woda

It's holiday party time. And, if you are a boss, you need to pay attention to the natural laws of parties and leadership. Natural Law 1: The party changes when you arrive. It changes again when you leave. What you see is not the real party. It's "the party when you're there." Natural Law 2: You're still the boss. Do not suffer from the delusion that you're just one of the team. You're not. Everything you say or do will influence the people who work for you, just like every other day. Natural Law 3: The people at the party would rather hang out with their friends and relax a bit than listen to speeches from you or anyone else. Let the party be their party. If you must speak, consider a two minute time limit. Thank people for their contributions this year, wish them a good time, and shut up. - Steve Woda

Raising venture capital financing--as a first-time founder in particular--is a difficult task, even in the strongest of financial markets. At a recent conference, a panelist opined that over 95 percent of entrepreneurs decide not to raise venture capital. The response from another panelist: "Just like over 95 percent of my friends have decided not to date supermodels." Knowing what to expect can often be half the battle. The following are a few common misconceptions entrepreneurs often have when seeking early-stage venture capital financing. Myth No. 1: "By demonstrating the tremendous value of my idea, I will be able to demand a high valuation for my new company." - Steve Woda

Hey, Personal Branding, I have something to tell you: I don’t care. I just don’t care anymore. You have prevented me from having fun for the last time. I bought my URL domain and secured a couple of social media profiles. Your job is done, I’m moving on now. Because really, all that you’ve ever really taught us is stuff we already knew. Did we really need someone telling us how to be authentic or respectful? - Steve Woda

After conquering the search world, Google is now pushing hard to be a major provider of business software, tackling longtime dominator Microsoft over productivity and collaboration apps. But does this company, most famous for free consumer-oriented offerings like search and basic apps, have what it takes to be taken seriously by business? Can you really rely on Google Apps? Ken Godskind thinks so. The chief strategy officer at AlertSite moved his company's 45 employees to the Premier Edition of Google Apps in late 2008. He likes the fact that he gets not only e-mail but word processing, spreadsheets, a Web-based calendar, Web-based collaboration, Google Talk, and Google Video for $50 a year per user. That's a third or less of what he would pay to get the same from an internal, Microsoft-based environment. - Steve Woda

Your friends and contacts are a key part of your life online. Most people on the web today make social connections and publish web content in many different ways, including blogs, status updates and tweets. This translates to a public social web of content that has special relevance to each person. Unfortunately, that information isn't always very easy to find in one simple place. That's why today we're rolling out a new experiment on Google Labs called Google Social Search that helps you find more relevant public content from your broader social circle. It should be available for everyone to try by the end of the day, so be sure to check back. - Steve Woda

Like many shiny new technologies, Twitter hit the radar screen of small businesses in the past year with hyped-up expectations, much experimentation, some wins and some disappointments. Marketers looking for innovative ways to reach out to customers, prospects and the public started singing Twitter’s praises. Others expressed a high degree of curiosity toward Twitter. But like any new tool, there’s good and there’s bad. Let’s assess the current state of Twitter.com by examining 3 things that are “Not So Hot” about it – and whether those should dissuade you from using Twitter: - Steve Woda

Think your kid is not "sexting"? Think again. Sexting - sharing sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone or online - is fairly commonplace among young people, despite sometimes grim consequences for those who do it. More than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting in some form, an Associated Press-MTV poll found. That includes Sammy, a 16-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area who asked that his last name not be used. Sammy said he had shared naked pictures of himself with girlfriends. He also shared naked pictures of someone else that a friend had sent him. - Steve Woda

Saturdays at Billy Lowe's beauty salon in Los Angeles' trendy West Hollywood neighborhood can get pretty hairy. Lowe will see up to 10 clients on a Saturday in his personal chair. He never double-books (meaning he sees people from start to finish), so one late client can snarl everything. The stress quotient ramped up on a recent Saturday afternoon when one of Lowe's celebrity clients called to say she would be at least an hour late for her appointment. Lowe has styled camera-ready heads from Ellen Degeneres to the cast of Desperate Housewives. He didn't get to that perch without understanding the needs--and stroking the egos--of his clientele. He couldn't make these folks wait because one foul-mouthed starlet couldn't manage her schedule. - Steve Woda

You want to spread the word about your business. But you also want to keep your innovative product or clever brand name safe from rivals, counterfeiters or rip-off artists. What to do? Safeguarding your company's intellectual property through patents, trademarks or copyrights will allow you to seek damages, a big deterrent to imitators. Here's a brief overview of all three types of protection. - Steve Woda

Apple (AAPL) is under fire from some developers for the way it vets applications that can be sold on its online App Store. Facebook developer Joe Hewitt goes so far as to say he's "philosophically opposed" to the very notion of a company deciding which applications can and can't be used on its hardware. The presence of "gatekeepers" in software development "sets a horrible precedent," he says. But in his first extensive interview on the subject, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing, outlines the many reasons Apple keeps close tabs on which applications can be downloaded onto the iPhone and iPod Touch. He also outlined ways the company is trying to become more flexible in its approval process. - Steve Woda

As the long battle over health care is rejoined in the Senate this week, experts remain deeply divided over whether the legislation would rein in soaring health-care costs or simply add millions of people to a system that is already driving the nation toward bankruptcy. Optimists say the $848 billion package drafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) contains all the most promising ideas for transforming the health-care system and encouraging doctors and hospitals to work more efficiently. They say it would eventually reduce both private premiums and the swelling cost of government health care for the elderly and poor. Even pessimists don't necessarily disagree. But they see scant evidence that those ideas would quickly bear fruit, and in the short term they fear that the initiative would leave Washington struggling to pay for a new $200 billion-a-year health program even as existing programs require vast infusions of cash to care for the aging baby-boom generation. - Steve Woda

Arthur Colby arrives at Quantico Marine Base by way of Groton boarding school and Dickinson College -- exclusive, private institutions that aren't exactly pipelines to the military. Officer Candidates School, he knows, will be unlike anything he's faced in his young life. At 20, Colby has a résumé crammed with hallmarks of the young and ambitious -- president of Dickinson's freshman class, internships with the Bush and McCain campaigns, a stint with a high-powered Washington consulting firm. He'd be well on his way to a bright future without the Marines. Instead, he's expecting six hellish weeks. Predawn hikes, obstacle courses, push-ups, sit-ups, all on very little sleep. But perhaps the biggest challenge he faces at Quantico is not so much physical as cultural. - Steve Woda

Arthur Colby arrives at Quantico Marine Base by way of Groton boarding school and Dickinson College -- exclusive, private institutions that aren't exactly pipelines to the military. Officer Candidates School, he knows, will be unlike anything he's faced in his young life. At 20, Colby has a résumé crammed with hallmarks of the young and ambitious -- president of Dickinson's freshman... more... - Steve Woda

Google Inc. is allowing publishers of paid content to limit the number of free news articles accessed by people using its Internet search engine, a concession to an increasingly disgruntled media industry. There has been mounting criticism of Google's practices from media publishers - most notably News Corp. chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch - that argue the company is profiting from online news pages. In an official blog posted late Tuesday, Josh Cohen, Google's senior business product manager, said the company had updated its so-called First Click Free program so publishers can limit users to viewing no more than five articles a day without registering or subscribing. - Steve Woda

Google Inc. is allowing publishers of paid content to limit the number of free news articles accessed by people using its Internet search engine, a concession to an increasingly disgruntled media industry. There has been mounting criticism of Google's practices from media publishers - most notably News Corp. chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch - that argue the company is... more... - Steve Woda

It has become many celebrities' favourite way to share their thoughts, however mundane, with the world. But now internet phenomenon Twitter has become the most popular word in the English language, according to researchers. The microblogging website - which allows its 20million users including Stephen Fry and Demi Moore to transmit 140 character messages across the globe instantly - beat Barack Obama into second place in a survey of the most-used phrases this year. - Steve Woda

It has become many celebrities' favourite way to share their thoughts, however mundane, with the world. But now internet phenomenon Twitter has become the most popular word in the English language, according to researchers. The microblogging website - which allows its 20million users including Stephen Fry and Demi Moore to transmit 140 character messages across the globe instantly - beat Barack Obama into second place in a survey of the most-used phrases this year. - Steve Woda

I'm wondering if Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Wave is like a concept car for Google. We'll never see it in production--but all of its features and capabilities will emerge in other products released by Google and other companies. Google Wave solves some very real business problems. But I think even Google will have trouble getting companies to adopt it. Google says Wave is "what e-mail might look like if it were invented today." If you haven't tried Wave, you probably think that's an empty marketing slogan, that it sounds catchy but means nothing. But if you have played with Wave, you see that it's actually the best possible description. If you took a bunch of Web 2.0 geniuses, locked them in a room, and asked them to invent a system that solves the major problems with using e-mail in a business environment, you'd end up with something like Wave. - Steve Woda

I'm wondering if Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Wave is like a concept car for Google. We'll never see it in production--but all of its features and capabilities will emerge in other products released by Google and other companies. Google Wave solves some very real business problems. But I think even Google will have trouble getting companies to adopt it. Google says Wave is "what e-mail might... more... - Steve Woda

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of that little thing called Twitter, is showing off his latest project, and Square is trying to turn iPhones into a mobile payment hub for merchants. It's a very interesting idea, but, like Twitter, I'm wondering how it's going to make real money. The idea sounds simple and quite amazing: Square is providing merchants with hardware that integrates with the iPhone's audio input jack for swiping credit cards. There are no contracts or monthly fees, customers can get their receipts e-mailed or eventually texted to them, and frequent customers can even get virtual reward cards that can, for example, give a customer a free cup of coffee on their tenth purchase. The hardware is going to offer some security by enabling photo verification, and a video demonstration over on TechCrunch (embedded below) shows it can potentially be a quick way for businesses to start accepting credit cards. - Steve Woda

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of that little thing called Twitter, is showing off his latest project, and Square is trying to turn iPhones into a mobile payment hub for merchants. It's a very interesting idea, but, like Twitter, I'm wondering how it's going to make real money. The idea sounds simple and quite amazing: Square is providing merchants with hardware that integrates with the... more... - Steve Woda

I have just spent an intensive week coaching executives in a global organisation, asking my clients the simple question: are you an "In" or an "Out" leader? By that, I mean, how much time and energy are you spending in (or with) your team and how much time out in the wider organisation? It might seem like a simple question, but executives rarely take the time to think about it. It's important to do though, because this single question could answer many other questions that you — or your boss — have about your style and effectiveness. - Steve Woda

I have just spent an intensive week coaching executives in a global organisation, asking my clients the simple question: are you an "In" or an "Out" leader? By that, I mean, how much time and energy are you spending in (or with) your team and how much time out in the wider organisation? It might seem like a simple question, but executives rarely take the time to think about it. It's... more... - Steve Woda