The attendees have put their money where their mouth is with over $1B in investments to help industries and countries abandon oil and coal.

Big guns like Richard Branson, Bill Gates and other top energy and investment fund leaders unveiled a plethora of projects designed to fund efforts to lessen the effects of climate change.

The World Bank announced that it would cease financing oil and gas projects in two years.

The “America’s Pledge” coalition to honor the 2015 Paris climate goals now represents half of the U.S. economy.

Eight U.S. states will be developing electric vehicles. The Gates Foundation has created a hurricane relief investment fund for the Caribbean and another to help farmers to develop low-carbon technology and adapt to climate change.

The projects aim to speed up the end of the combustion engine to reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming.

In other words, as President Macron of France says, big businesses and successful economies of the future will be producing and utilizing renewable energy. If you were looking for a mega-trend to capitalize on, or an expanding market with no apparent end in sight, this is it!

Why not do your business on “main street” and go with the flow? Just imaging the opportunities that are presenting themselves in these otherwise detrimental circumstances:

Fire. We’re going to get burned! Much better fire protection, fire-resistant building materials, and fire-fighting equipment are in demand. How about better warning systems, temporary housing, and integrated disaster status information systems? And we are going to need better forestry practices, underground transmission lines, and better fire retardants.

Water. We’re going get thirsty! We need more and better clean drinking water delivery, destalinization, collection and storage systems. How about technology that saves water to be used for cleaning, manufacturing, and crops? Add water purification and water-free sewage systems.

Power. We have to get off the grid! This includes alternative and local generation devices, breakthrough battery technology, independence from wires for power transfer and communications, long-range electric and other zero emission vehicles.

Air. We’re choking! We need carbon sequestering technology. It will be in demand as carbon tax begins to become the norm as the world gets more serious about this situation. Replanting of the forests and rewarding for the preservation of trees are definitely on the agenda. Carbon scrubbers and alternative power plants for industry will be in demand as they begin to pay the true cost of production and compete with producers who are carbon neutral.

Food. We’re going hungry! We need to improve production and nutrition while reducing water and petrochemical use. Demand for food produced closer to consumers is increasing. New types of aqua culture and advance in protein production will take the lead as traditional farming and cattle grazing becomes unsustainable.

Flood. We’re going under! We need to move out of harm’s way, float, submerge, or literally stem the tide. We have entire cities that will have to be saved or abandoned. We’re talking dikes, piers, and elevation techniques. We need hurricane resistant buildings, disaster relief, and independent power, sanitation, and communication systems. And don’t forget first aid, evacuation, and mobile hospital technologies.

So, these are just a few opportunities envisioned due to the effects of climate change that are already upon us. They may have once seemed futuristic, but now our lives literally depend on them. Your new business can contribute to this megatrend. We hope this short list inspires some folks to choose a business that provides even a partial solution to these needs. The world as we know it is relying on your new technology to survive. And so is its population. Now, go get ‘em!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Now is the Time to Start a Climate Change Mitigation Business appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

In business, having a constructive and positive attitude is crucial to success. Having a negative and fatalistic attitude can bring on a self-fulfilling prophecy totally detrimental to business success. If you expect negative outcomes, then situations that hide an ultimate advantage will be judged solely and quickly on their apparently negative surface. You may never look deeper to discover the gold.

When we were delivering the Keynote speech for the International Conference on Entrepreneurship in Dublin a few years back, we had the pleasure of meeting a professor from the St. Petersburg State Institute of Technology in Russia. We got talking about the shape of entrepreneurship in his country. He said the biggest obstacle they faced was the negative attitude of the general public toward entrepreneurship. From their perspective, risk taking is fool hearty, destined for failure, and puts a burden on families who have to support failed entrepreneurs. Ouch!

You don’t have to go to Russia to find counter-productive attitudes that doom business success. We have our own home-grown variety. They are baked into the way we were raised, the neighborhood we grew up in, and the schools we attended. They have to do with whether or not you have seen enough success in your life to believe it’s possible. They have to do with whether or not you have a history of overcoming adversity, solving problems, and seeing things through.

We found it very telling that the largest percentage of Inc. 500 entrepreneurs had parents who were also entrepreneurs. This apparently shaped their attitude. At least they knew more about what to expect and that challenges could be overcome with patience, tenacity, and open mindedness.

Can you develop a “can do” attitude without that environmental support? We think so. But it requires listening closely to your own words, expressions, and comments. Terms like, “It’s just my luck,” and “This will probably fail,” and the ever popular, “Sh*t happens!” can erode your positive attitude and incline you to give up at the first sign of adversity. This can blind you to solutions staring you right in the face.

One of the ways we describe “The Barefoot Spirit” is that it is an attitude that says, “This is possible, and I am going to find out how. Sure, it’s going to require more work, more research, and more anxiety, but I can handle it!” The Barefoot Spirit doesn’t just hype you up rah-rah style like a pep rally. It provides actual tools you can use that help make success happen.

If you believe it’s possible and you have the tools, you are more likely to find success. For instance, “Who gets rich if I get rich?” Those are your strategic allies. “Who benefits when this problem is solved?’ Those are the strong players on your team. “Who has already solved this problem in other industries?” Those are your mentors. In other words, with the right attitude, you are not alone.

It’s easier to change your lexicon to positive self-talk and remarks when you know you have access to the tools that can help you handle the unknown. It’s not about luck, it’s about preparation meeting (and recognizing) opportunity. So, prepare yourself with a positive attitude and grab some time-tested and proven tools you can use!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Your Attitude Can Predetermine Your Business Success appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education (EntreED) promoted Congress to designate the last week of February to answer that very question. Dr. Gene Coulson, the organization’s Executive Director, has some educational programs he is encouraging. He wants to make young people aware of entrepreneurship as a career alternative in grades K-12.

Sure, in kindergarten and the 1^st grade it might be just a definition of what entrepreneurship is, how to spell it, and how it’s distinguished from employment. Exposure progresses and by the time the students are in middle school and high school, they will be aware of entrepreneurship as an option for their future. The key is every student learning more about entrepreneurship every year.

Some of the groups he works with encourage high school students to get involved in a business plan and other types of entrepreneurship competitions. Others bring in real entrepreneurs for the young folks to see, hear, and question. They thus expose the students to successful entrepreneurs who overcame their risk adversity, solved a problem, and improved the community.

Gene feels strongly that it’s the entrepreneurial mindset that really distinguishes the true entrepreneur from the business school students learning form and function. And that mindset can be encouraged at an early age. He says young folks need to take inventory of challenges and problems within their own communities, see them as opportunities, and imagine ways to solve them. Encouraging young people to begin to notice these problems and ask, “Who else do these problems effect?” is the beginning of ideation.

One member of EntreEd is the Generation E Institute which is promoting the “Entrepreneurs Interview” during National Entrepreneurship Week. During the event, middle school and high school students have the opportunity to meet local entrepreneurs and business owners. Smaller groups of students ask them questions in an informal conversational setting, then explain what they have learned to others.

This approach incorporates social skills, writing, communication, and public speaking – all essential entrepreneurial skills in themselves. But the contacts these students make will also become opportunities for future job prospects, mentor relationships, and community goodwill. Check out more ideas for the Generation E Curricula for K through 12 in Teaching Success: New Directions in Entrepreneurial Education.

We love this whole concept! These young people grow up thinking of entrepreneurship as a valid alternative rather than something reserved for the elite or well born. We feel that the entrepreneurial mindset can be taught and with that education comes the courage to take risks and see ideas through to success. It can help young people look at problems as opportunities and can give them the communication, social, and other skills necessary to engage and empower others to make their ideas a reality.

Gene is promoting these K-12 programs in the rural parts of Appalachia. Instead of resistance to these ideas, he was met with enthusiastic support. With the demise of the coal mining culture, the community has welcomed these programs. “Entrepreneurship is the only hope for this region,” they say.

Big companies and industries come and go. And when they do go, like coal in Appalachia, those who have been dependent on them for employment will be looking for solutions. Perhaps those solutions are in our schools right now! Let’s take out an insurance policy on our future. Let’s celebrate National Entrepreneurship Week by supporting ideas like those encouraged by EntreEd to build some great entrepreneurs!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post National Entrepreneurship Week – Early Exposure Builds Confidence appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.