There is alot of hype around entrepreneurship. I don’t buy into the rags to riches stories since in between, there is always alot of hard work, heart ache and some luck.

Scott Jordan is a true American entrepreneur. I had the good fortune of working with Scott many years ago in Chicago when he first got started. He was a lawyer that was frustrated with trying to carry all of his gadgets, so he decided to do something about it. Investing his own money in an industry he did not know alot about, Scott created the first Scottevest  jacket was born where you could carry all of your devices concealed and comfortably. He was at first concerned that he could not get any of the major retailers to carry the product. This did not hold Scott back- he went directly to the public garnering unprecedent media with his product in every major online and offline publication. Fast forward to today, where Scott now has an entire patented line and his products are available at major catalog companies. There aren’t better clothes to live and travel in!

Scott is featured in the new Bounce! book and I am now honored to join is board of advisors which includes Steve Wozniak, founder of Apple and Kenneth Klopp, founder of North Face.
 

CNN Money writes last week about where the tax and regulatory climate is best for for small business. They quote Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s latest ranking which puts, drum roll please: South Dakota at the very top. It does not tax personal income or capital gains, corporate income or  capital gains. Fuel is cheap. A little far away from those of us that like the city life, but hey, you can’t have everything.

Now number 2, Nevada has all the advantages taxwise of South Dakota but sales and gas taxes are among the highest in the nation. Water can be scarce and whatever else comes with gambling. But heck, the entertainment here is alot better than South Dakota.

Where does your state rank? Illinois is not in the top ten!

My wife tells me that birth is painful. I intellectually understand that but it wasn’t happening to me when she gave birth to our sons. I was only there in the delivery to be yelled at.

Today, is the soft launch of the new website (my third since 2000) that will go along with the new book, Bounce! which will be release in January. It has been a painful project to reorganize and rethink all the content from my “Frankensite” that we developed 5 years ago especially with the Web 2.0 technologies that are now available. I decied to go with Wordpress throughout the site so it would have the optimal technical design. The site is now a start.

I want to thank Susan Nigrosh (web), BJ (I don’t even know her last name, but the wordpress maven), Laura Roeder (Design), and Mary Jane Grinstead (editing). I want to thank Katherine Stoica in advance since she will be keeping the website updated and dynamic.

The most difficult part about working with so many people with a variety of expertise is to coordinate all the skills and opinions. This project was no different. Thank you to all of you for cooperating working together and showing me what teamwork is all about.