Postcards

How to build a startup: her best advice

Startup fever is in the air.

Well, it was this morning, at least, when too many people packed too small a room in Manhattan's Soho to hear women entrepreneurs and other experts talk about launching businesses.

Most at the breakfast were young (Next to me: a poised twentysomething who told me, first thing, that she works for a big health care company and "I want to quit my job.")

The best advice came MORE

Coach Wooden's words of wisdom

My friend Sam Courtney turns 21 tomorrow. I didn't go to his celebration in Washington this weekend, but I sent some advice--from John Wooden. As I told Sam, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, who died on Friday at age 99, carried these words from his father wherever he went:

"Be true to yourself. Make each day a masterpiece. Help others. Drink deeply from good books. Make friendship a fine art. Build MORE

Recovery...What recovery? More pain ahead

by Patricia Sellers

So much optimism in the air....and yet, so many people seeing black clouds.

Last week, I told you about the gloomy economic view of Meredith Whitney, the influential financial-services industry analyst.

This morning I had breakfast with Cheryl Bachelder, the CEO of AFC Enterprises (AFCE) and president of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. That's right, the chicken chain. Like Whitney, Bachelder sees more pain than gain in the year ahead.

"Now we have MORE

Career advice from a Google vet: 10 guidelines

Ever since I met Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Google's (GOOG) former President of Asia-Pacific and Latin American Operations, a couple of years ago, I've been fascinated by her far-flung career path. Singh Cassidy worked at Merrill Lynch (BAC) out of college, then went to Amazon.com (AMZN), and then OpenTV and News Corp.'s (NWS) BSkyB. Eventually tapping her inner entrepreneur, she co-founded Yodlee, a financial-services Internet startup, and then landed at Google, where she MORE

Google's new commerce boss: 12 lessons

When former eBay (EBAY) executive Stephanie Tilenius emailed me yesterday to tell me that she's the new VP of Commerce at Google (GOOG), I was, I admit, surprised and a bit puzzled.

Tilenius is a former Internet hotshot who did it all. She led eBay's Korea and Asia-Pacific operations, ran eBay Motors, built PayPal to $1 billion in revenue, and after that headed global product and eBay North America. When she MORE

2010 resolution: Slow down for success

I've never been big on New Year's resolutions, but a year ago, 15 minutes before 2009, I resolved to friend--a Charlie Rose fan--at a party in D.C.: "I'm going to DVR Charlie Rose every night."

Three weeks later, I found myself sitting next to the TV interviewer at a dinner in New York. I told Rose about my New Year's resolution. "So, are you doing it?" he asked.

"Uh, no, I MORE

Power Point: Treat your boss like a child

"The top four tips to keeping your office from being a corporate playpen are best described by the acronym C.A.L.M.: communicate, anticipate, laugh and manage up."

- from "10 ways to manage bad bosses" by Lynn Taylor of CareerBuilder.com. Under stress, we revert to childlike ways. That's Taylor's theory, at least. And while this guide purports to advise on handling bad bosses, it's actually helpful for anybody who's dealing with workplace MORE

Men and women at work: Can we talk?

Guest Post by Sharon Meers, co-author of Getting to 50/50

Do men resent powerful women?

One of the most intriguing statistics in "A Woman's Nation," the recently released survey by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, is this: 69% of women think men resent women who have more power than they do. Only 49% of men agree.

Who knows who's right. What we know for sure is that men and women MORE

Power Point: Steve Jobs, message master

"A key Jobs business tool is his mastery of the message. He rehearses over and over every line he and others utter in public about Apple, which authorizes only a small number of executives to speak publicly on a given topic. Key to the Jobs approach is careful consideration of what he and Apple say -- and don't say. "

--Fortune's Adam Lashinsky on Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs. Lashinsky's cover MORE

Power Point: What drives Steve Jobs

"There hasn't been a day in Steve's life that he doesn't get up, think about the company he works for, or what he's going to do next. These are things that drive him."

--Bill Campbell, Intuit (INTU) chairman and former CEO, about Steve Jobs--Apple's (AAPL) CEO and Fortune's "CEO of the Decade," on the cover of the current issue. Once Apple's VP of marketing and now on the board, Campbell  claims MORE