Caught an interesting item in The Economist earlier this week. It was a story about Barack Obama called Explaining the Riddle.

I had no idea Obama was something of a “comeback kid”. His life was very different eight years ago. He’d lost a congressional primary in Chicago, and both his political and personal bank accounts were empty. He couldn’t get a floor pass and had to watch the proceedings from a big screen in a car park. And the rental car company had even rejected his credit card. Haven’t we all experienced our own version of these… shall we just say “down times”?

But just look at him now! On August 28th Mr. Obama will deliver his acceptance speech before an audience of 84,000 people at a local football stadium, Invesco Field, all embracing the spirit of his platform based on the twin promises: change and hope. This year, he is the Democratic convention.

He hasn’t just gripped America’s imagination, the entire world is captivated by this coming Presidential race. When it started, few believed he’d be able to beat the tremendously powerful Clinton machine. But he did.  And even if he doesn’t win this race, he’ll still have his place in history.

Being an entrepreneur, whether here or in the developing countries of the world, requires a person to similarly step up in confidence and with courage. To hold certain beliefs about the possibilities for the future.

Like Obama, we must refuse to let circumstances dictate what we can achieve and become. We are the harbingers of change and hope. We’re just not running for President.

Read an interesting piece by Bob Ostertag in The Huffington Post recently. He was commenting on how the Obama campaign had harnessed the power of the internet to provide a vehicle for accepting campaign donations requested in the $25-$50 range. (Not unlike the small requests we ask of our SMARTSTART|Giving supporters.)

Seems things are going so well, sources from Obama’s campaign think he could bring in $100M in June alone! This gives me hope Alex and I are really onto something!

To put this power of the internet into perspective, (more…)