I cannot imagine a more complex time to lead a business. I have been saying this for many years now. Yet, somehow, each new year manages to deliver the previously unthinkable along with escalating levels of complexity with which to contend. What’s more, this trend toward the increasingly complex shows no sign of abating. How do we respond? As entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurism is often romanticized for its creative, independent, and risk-tolerant cachet. And of course, when things go well, for its economic rewards. However, hidden beneath the bravado of this veneer is the reality of the experience. The fact is that entrepreneurism is a perpetually uncomfortable journey devoid of guarantees. This is because entrepreneurs don’t seek structure; they seek to create it. To do so, they must become comfortable with the ficklest and most unforgiving of companions: uncertainty. Every day they wager effort, money, reputation, and self-esteem backed only by their vision, intellect, and tenacious personal conviction that they can create something better. Not only for themselves, but for those who will follow.

n today’s media landscape, misinformation runs rampant, local news is declining, and polarization is on the rise. In addition, large corporations obsessed only with increasing profits are absorbing smaller outlets at an alarming rate. At times, the future of all news and information can seem bleak due to the damaging homogenization of operations, but new models are emerging. For example, collaborative networks that focus on solutions-based journalism are prioritizing communities and revolutionizing news media. That benefits reporting and the bottom line.

Collaboration is integral to the health of news and the health of democracy. I believe we must foster partnerships that reach across institutional, organizational, and societal boundaries to tackle complex problems with creative solutions.

see the word “collaboration” getting tossed around a lot—employers are constantly encouraging employees to collaborate and work as a team. The interesting part, in my opinion, is that while people might be working together, they aren’t actually contributing to meaningful collaboration. True collaboration requires a different approach and a different mindset.

The importance of collaboration in the workplace has never been greater. Our ability to connect with coworkers has changed; thus collaboration has changed as well.

ollowing several centuries of rapid increase, demographers predict that the human population will peak in the 2060s and then begin to decline. As of 2020, population aging and decline is already under way in 25 countries.

I’m an urban planner, which means I’m the product of a field that developed to manage rapidly growing cities. If our collective future is going to involve shrinking, what does that mean for how we structure our cities and our economy? It’s a question that hasn’t seen nearly enough airtime, which is why I spent 15 months in Japan in 2020 and 2021 as a Council on Foreign-Relations Hitachi Fellow searching for answers.

Shrinking cities (and towns and villages) are a national issue in Japan, which hit “peak people” at 128 million in 2008. Since that point, deaths have exceeded births. Government projections estimate that Japan’s population will decline by about 30 percent by 2065 to 82 million people, or the size of Germany today.

In my quest to learn how shrinking municipalities are preparing for older, smaller futures, I visited cities, towns, and villages, interviewed local officials and organizations, and read local and national government plans. Most of the municipalities I visited had been losing population for decades, and many had shrunk by 50 percent or more from their peak.

Meaningful lives are enabled by a clear purpose, but for decades I had not fully appreciated my purpose.

or nearly two decades, I was convinced I would die before my 50th birthday. I was not sick, nor had I learned from a carnival prophet that my life was soon ending; rather, the women in my family die young and I had no faith I would be different.

I spent quite a bit of the years leading up to my 50th preparing for my ultimate demise. I didn’t know how death would greet me, but I was certain it would come, and I acted accordingly. I took the time to write instructions regarding my retirement, life insurance, mortgage, etc. I always made sure there was a second person at work keenly aware of the status and other details of my assignments and projects. I consistently organized, labeled, and/or discarded items in closets, the garage, etc. I selected the music for my funeral and made sure my dear friends knew of my wishes.

his may not come as a shock to you unless you live under a rock, but video is everywhere— YouTube, Facebook Live, TikTok, Netflix, Hulu, etc., etc., etc. Video is, of course, used to entertain, educate, and eradicate—sorry, I couldn’t resist the alliteration because as I write this article I am also trying to eradicate some ground squirrels. Of course, video consumption has its roots in video creation followed by video distribution—mainly streaming. Hang on to this thought because it’s the premise for my diatribe.

Scour the internet and you can’t help but find statistics that validate what you (and I) are doing, namely, turning to video when we need something. Why is this? Well, it comes down to biology. Ninety percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. Wow, that’s a heck of a statistic! But not so fast… What I find interesting is that, while this stat is quoted all over the internet, no one can actually find the true source of the information. But it sounds great, doesn’t it, and it is probably based in reality. And truly, we can all believe it because when we need to do something, like eradicate ground squirrels, we turn to YouTube.