The Venture Edge

 I’m not a big believer in New Year’s Resolutions—probably because they tend to survive about two weeks after they’re made, if that. That’s not to say that the fundamental idea of promising yourself to do better in some aspect of your life is not a good thing—it is—but rather than set yourself up for failure, maybe New Year’s Eve is a good time to reflect on 2010, but, more importantly, to visualize 2011. Let me explain.

A client of mine in Texas recently asked me if I had ever read the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, mentioning that it was one of his favorites. I admitted that although an early-'60s, 1,000-page+ paperback edition of the book has graced my bookshelf for as long as I can remember, I had never gotten around to reading it. Then, when a colleague of mine -- Traci Fenton, founder and CEO of WorldBlu -- mentioned to me that she was about to read the book, I knew that my time had finally come. I dusted off that old, yellowed copy of the book and dug in -- reading it in 5 and 10 minute bursts while waiting to pick up my daughter at school each day.