Today, I am doing the Gotham City Book Club on their blog. It’s a vibrant business community in New York City. We are discussing all aspects of the book including:

Why you can’t always learn something from failure?

How do you balance ego and humility?

Forgeting the 10 steps and valuing action!

Is a good partnership a second marriage with out the sex?

And my mother as my inspiration!

I spoke on Friday at the Business Awards dinner at Schoolcraft College. I never had heard about the college until they invited me to speak at this dinner. It is a two year college of 24,000 students outside of Detroit. The students I met came from a diverse background of experience and ages.

When I was there, I learned about their new academic forgiveness program which I thought really allowed students to Bounce! If a student is returning after 10 years between the last time they went to school, they can exclude one semester or 12 credit hours from their go forward grade point average (GPA). This is a great way to allow returning students you want another chance at academic succss to be able to bounce- and be given another chance at success. I think this is truly innovative. Are other schools doing this?

As always, I asked Schoolcraft how they bounce:

I spoke today to 500 people in Chicago at Speed Coaching event sponsored by Open of American Express and SCORE. This event works alot like speed dating. You learn alot quickly! There are business coaches that help the business owners on different topics from finance to marketing throughout the day. The best part is that the event and the future resources are all free courtesy of the non-profit SCORE.

The lunchtime crowd that I spoke to was very spirited. It is not very often that I have the pleasure to present in Chicago since I travel so much. This felt like coming home. I saw so many people that have heard me speak before and I enjoyed reconnecting with them. Of course I asked them, How Do You Bounce?

Yesterday in Denver, I was the keynote speaker for the launch of a new social media networking site for small business called Slingshot. It was a classy event for entrepreneurs where Capital One pulled out all the stops with the room looking a like Main Street, USA. Slingshot is the new site for small business owners where they can go to connect with customers, vendors, find deals, learn and form new alliances. The network is available to everyone, but they are focusing on Denver and Raleigh so they can build value for each of these business communities before moving on to others. Slingshot is stressing that it is for local businesses to help each other.

After I spoke, I asked the attendees, with Slingshot, How Do They Bounce?

I met Jim when my first book, You Need To Be A Little Crazy came out in 2003. He is a huge supporter of small businesses. Here, Jim talks about the new book, Bounce! during today’s interview. He is most interested in the link between the cycle of success and failure. Give it a listen.

Dr. Jeff Cornwall, at Belmont University reviews Bounce! What I love about Belmont is that it teaches the business of music. It is located in Nashville, of course.

“Barry’s gift is that he uses humor to offer lessons that all entrepreneurs can learn from. During his last visit to Belmont, Barry offered some glimpses of what he planned to explore in his new book. Just like with his first book You Need to be a Little Crazy, this book is a must read for entrepreneurs at any stage of their development.”

I met Ramon Ray a few years back at a Fast Company event through Marshall Makstein, at Eslide. I like to think I know something about technology, but Ramon blows me away. Many times I feel like I am falling behind by the day. Ramon has a great technology report that can keep you up to date. He reviews my new book, Bounce! in the latest issue.I am one of the keynote speakers at the Third Annual Small Business Summit in New York on February 11th. This is actually the launch of the new speech on Bounce! It promises to be a high energy conference so join us. 

The Bounce! Virtual Book Tour kicks off this week on Liz Strauss’ world renowned Successful Blog. She is one of the best known bloggers in the country. I met Liz through Brett Farmiloe when I sponsored the Pursue The Passion Tour last year.

From her web site:

According to EatonWeb, “Liz Strauss is perhaps the most influential relational blogger on the Internet.” Her blog –Liz Strauss at Successful Blog — has been called both a destination and an event. Open Comment Nights, a Blog-to-Blog Conversation, a Blogger’s Cafe, single questions, and on-the-blog strategy sessions keep readers returning to conversations that often last for days. Her blog has tens of thousands of comments.

Liz led the vision behind last year’s SOBCon07 — THE Relationship Bloggers’ Conference that gained the attention of BusinessWeek, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Innovation Initiative of the Kellogg School of Business.

Check Liz’s Blog out and join the conversation all this week!

When I was speaking at Thunderbird School of Management in Phoenix today, I asked one question: How Do You Bounce?

After a 4 year wait, the kickoff of the Bounce! book tour kicks off at Thunderbird tonight in Phoenix. The international school of management has become an adopted alma mata for me (I went to Brandeis and Northwestern). I love the international students and it is located in one of my favorite cities in the country where I hope to live (and teach?) in about 10 years. Alot of the international interviews for the book originated from business students at the school. We have the first book signing tonight at Thunderbird and them I speak on Friday.