It isn’t often we get good news from Afghanistan.  So you can imagine my delight when reading a rare exception, as reported in this week’s New York Times.

Meet Meena Rahmani, a 28-year-old Afghan woman who recently opened the country’s first bowling alley.  And while much of the country’s businesses are closing, Ms. Rahmani’s six-month-old business is booming.

All in a country which has been riddled with extreme violence since before she was even born.

Rahmani came up with her business idea soon after returning to Kabul from living in Canada. She noticed there was almost nothing for people to do affordably to have fun and unwind.

Thus Strikers was born.  Hidden off a main road in Kabul, with security guards and systems in place to keep people peaceful and enjoying themselves, Strikers has quickly become a hotspot in Kabul for the locals.

Most of who previously knew nothing about bowling.

What is particularly unique about Strikers is the fact it was created by an Afghan, not a foreigner.   It was built with Afghan money, not foreign aid.  And perhaps most significantly, it is owned and run by Ms. Rahmani, directly challenging the country’s deep bias against women.

In fact, she manages 25 of her all-male staff, whom have learned to respect her.

Yes, Meena Rahmani is achieving the UnReasonable. (Read more…)

I was starting to get fidgety in my seat in the café the other day as I listened to an entrepreneur I had been introduced to.

Not because I saw many flaws in her business idea or what it was going to take her to launch it.  Nor was it because she was struggling to get it off the ground.

In fact, she knew what she needed to know in her industry.

I got fidgety because she actually knew too much.  And because of this she wasn’t open to outside ideas.

And that is dangerous as an entrepreneur. (Read more…)

I was nervous as I rounded the corner heading to John Jay Criminal School of Justice in NYC last week.

I was invited to mentor and coach a group of 30 or so entrepreneurs just completing a major part of their training.

But these weren’t just any entrepreneurs.

These were men who completed serving 1-20 years behind bars for serious crimes.

Defy Ventures, a new non-profit here in New York City, whom will be showcased in Inc Magazine’s June issue, works with men recently released from prison.  To have made it into Defy’s program, these guys were screened heavily for their potential of being successful as an entrepreneur.

What I learned is some of these guys spend their many hours behind bars reflecting on what they had done in their past.  And are very motivated to turn their lives around and doing something positive when they get out.

But the odds are against them.

In fact they are mostly unemployable… not because they don’t have an education or skills, but no one wants to hire someone with a criminal history.

As a result, many turn back to crime, because they don’t see a choice.  And they don’t have the necessary support to get re-integrated into society.

So within six months, over 60% of them find themselves back in prison.

But not these guys, where my initial nervousness didn’t last long.

Last Week's Defy Entrepreneurs with founder Catherine Rohr

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George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin

In late February Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old black male, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic, in Central Florida.

And while recent evidence suggests Zimmerman did not act in a racially-motivated way, this tragic story has our nation up in arms yet again over the issue guns and race.

Zimmerman claimed self-defense, which immediately kicked in Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, the broadest protection of self-defense in the country.  Which, so far, has prevented Zimmerman from being arrested for the killing of unarmed Martin. (Read more…)

Last Friday, I sat among others in the waiting room of an incredible organization that helps people with hearing loss. The Center for Hearing and Communication is a century-old not-for-profit that has been instrumental in helping me hear and relearn to communicate after my near-death experience in 2002.

Disturbing the quiet of patients waiting to be seen, a woman stormed into the reception area, and proceeded to lecture the receptionist about some perceived service inadequacy.  Evidently she’d received misinformation from the organization’s website.

The woman demanded to speak to the supervisor and wrote down the names of everyone at the reception desk. As employees worked to calm her, those of us in the waiting room did our best to ignore the scene and not judge how she was treating the staff. Because we’ve all been there. At those times when you feel someone else’s stupidity has cost you something, you’re angry, feeling entitled, and entirely wrapped up in your drama.

The woman had barely left before another dramatic scene started.  This one much more profound. (Read more…)

Even before I opened my eyes, I knew I was screwed.

Opening them only confirmed it.  The guy I was traveling with had drugged and robbed me of everything I had.

I was in a dangerous city in a foreign country, didn’t speak the language and now with no passport, travel visa or money.

And of course, he left me with the hotel bill for the room we had been sharing for almost a week.

The next two weeks were rough. (Read more…)

Throughout his entire life he felt he fooled the world into thinking he was special.  In fact he was dumbfounded that people actually cared anything about his personal life.

Even after he had received the Nobel Prize, was considered the second most popular and trustworthy man on the planet in the ‘30’s, a key creator of the State of Israel, facilitated the end of World War II, an inventor with many patents, and of course, was declared a genius, the father of modern physics, and labeled the most important scientist in history.

All this meant little to Albert Einstein.

(Read more…)

Monday evening I was getting increasingly nervous as I saw the 21 entrepreneurs’ faces turn from excitement to dread.  The guest speaker was on stage telling my students why being an entrepreneur really sucks!

And Gary meant it.

Gary Whitehill, a good friend, is one of the top entrepreneur advocates in New York.  His rapid growth has now gotten his Entrepreneur Week events to a global scale, where he just completed his first event in Santiago and next week in Athens.  In the near future they will be in a different city every two weeks.

I asked Gary to join us to share his experiences on what it is like out there today and how he’s managed to build his company and brand so quickly and successfully, regardless of the economy and what the naysayers are selling the public.

And while Gary started off by warning the class he would tell them the real skinny and curse his way through it, by the end of the hour, the students were bouncing off the walls with knowing they needed to make a serious shift in their business practices.

As we start 2012, many entrepreneurs look to do the same thing.  Here are some to consider taking with your business:

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