As you review your goals, think, “why not today?” Eventually, waiting for the right time will become a string of unfulfilled tomorrows. If you want to accomplish something, make a plan and go for it. Just start and if it’s really important, you will find the time and effort to accomplish it.

Wellness is one of our goals and bikram yoga has become an important part of our lives.  We encourage people to try it and if you’ve been waiting for an “opportune” time, here’s your sign! Pure Bikram Yoga in Austin has a great Groupon deal beginning today, May 15th for a discounted class card.

Don’t let excuses keep you from reaching your goals. Just start!

How do you motivate yourself to accomplish your goals?

As you prepare your elevator pitch, think about the following questions:

• Who is your target audience for the pitch?
• What does your company accomplish?
• How can your company add value to other companies?
• Does your pitch use clear language that everyone would understand?
• Is your pitch 30 to 60 seconds long?

After creating a pitch, be sure to practice it and be able to deliver it with power and passion. Also be sure to update it every few months so it stays fresh.

How has an elevator pitch helped you?

• To enter the contest, please fill out the form below with your full name, company name, email address and the answer to the question.
• Participant contact information will not be published.
• You may enter as many times as you want, but your name will only be put in the drawing once.
• Only persons residing in the United States who are at least 18 years of age can enter.
• The winner will be contacted by email and will receive their prize in the mail.
• The contest starts on Monday, May 7, 2012 at 12:00 p.m. CST and ends Monday, May 21, 2012 at 12:00 p.m. CST.

 Good luck!

In our last newsletter, we shared the story of Caine, a 9 year-old boy in East Los Angeles, who started his own arcade – Caine’s Arcade – in the back of his father’s junkyard. In the three weeks since the video of his story was posted online:

• The video has reached over 5 million views.
• $195,571 was raised for Caine’s Scholarship Fund
• $250,000 matching grant was given to start Caine’s Arcade Foundation to help foster entrepreneurship in young kids

This week, we learned about Mallory, a 13-year-old in Connecticut, who is building a company around her invention: hiccup-stopping lollipops. After Mallory concocted a mixture that relaxes the nerves causing hiccups, she entered Hiccupops into the Connecticut Invention Convention, an annual competition for kids, and won prizes for innovation and patentability. Now, Mallory is working with students from The University of Connecticut’s Innovation Accelerator and Startup Connecticut, which is a regional affiliate of Startup America Partnership, to bring the product to market this summer.

Speaking of young entrepreneurs, check out the Annual Lemonade Day this Saturday, May 6th. Kids around the U.S. will set up lemonade stands in the spirit of entrepreneurship.

In what other ways can we build entrepreneurship?

Spanx, an undergarment company known for their pieces that help slim the body, grew through introducing the product to stores and word of mouth, especially when it made the list of Oprah’s Favorite Things and was endorsed by many celebrities. Now, Sara Blakely owns 100% of the private company, has zero debt, has never taken outside investment and hasn’t spent a nickel on advertising.

As this video and many informative articles have shared, Sara Blakely’s journey to success was filled with many disappointments, but in the end, her strong belief in herself and her determination in rising above failure has helped her earn her success. In closing, here are some motivational points from the video:

• Failure is not trying not the outcome.
• Pick yourself up when you fail.
• Even in failure, there is a gift. Find the gift and believe in yourself.

How can you succeed if you view failure from a different perspective?

1. Growing as a leader and gaining experience

While your job may focus on the same tasks and skills you do/use every day, serving on a board may require a different set of energy, innovation and expertise. You will need to focus on the business aspect of the nonprofit along with the people your nonprofit serves and the services it provides.

2. Giving back to the community

Serving a nonprofit you are passionate about is a great way to get involved, give back and strengthen the organization.

3. Being involved with a great community

Being on a board gives you the opportunity to build your network and relationships with those on the board and in the organization.

To find out more about nonprofit board service, attend a free ‘Board Service Excellence’ event tonight, April 25th, at the Austin Country Club from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

Next month, Greenlights for Nonprofit Success is hosting ‘Advanced Board Governance’ on May 10th. The session will be focused on strategies for recruitment, evaluation and deployment. You’ll leave the course with knowledge and tools for stronger board engagement in fundraising, recruitment, and other core aspects of nonprofit governance.

Not sure if board service is a fit for you? Greenlights for Nonprofit Success’s Board Summit is another great chance to learn about nonprofit board service. At this event, you’ll have the opportunity to network with 50 Austin-area nonprofits and see if you’re a fit for an organization. The event is June 7, 2012 from 6:15 to 8:45 p.m. at The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.

We recently learned about Caine, a 9 year-old boy in East Los Angeles, who started his own arcade – Caine’s Arcade – in the back of his father’s junkyard where he sells and ships auto parts. He took his curiosity of how things are built and started to explore and experiment with making his own machines. The result: a full-functioning arcade that attracted hundreds of people.

Here’s Caine’s story. For those of you with short attention spans, start at 5:40.

How can we keep convicted felons out of jail? How about by teaching them yoga? Inspired by her yoga school and its required community service requirement, Toni Carbone developed the Ascend Program, which teaches life skills such as nutrition, financial management, career counseling, and yoga to convicts. Judges direct prisoners to the program as part of their sentences and although the program was recently launched, its first group of graduates had promising results. We love seeing the connection between yoga and start-up company, especially in a unique way.

Did you hear about the Internet meme ‘Texts from Hillary?’ The Tumblr site poked fun at Hillary Clinton’s seriousness as she uses her Blackberry and captioned imagined conversations between Clinton and another prominent figures. Clinton got word of the meme, submitted her own comic and invited the creators, who both work in D.C. to the State Department to express her approval of the site. After a week of viral sharing, the creators decided to stop posting on the site, saying “Is it really possible to top a submission from the Secretary herself?” The site is still up for laughs, and here’s an example.

About 15,000 people gathered to see Tim Tebow, New York Jets quarterback, two Sundays ago, but not to play football. Tebow spoke at the Celebration Church Easter service in Austin in a 20-minute interview about being outspoken about his faith. People have dubbed Tebow “God’s quarterback” and “Tebowing” (the act of dropping to one knee in prayer) has become his well-known routine on the field.

Did you play the Mega Millions lottery a few weeks ago? The three winners in Maryland, who are self-declared as the “Three Amigos,” want to remain anonymous, which is pretty smart since they will each receive $35 million after taxes. While the three public school employees plan to invest and purchase new homes, each also have fun, splurge plans: one wants to take a backpacking trip through Europe with her brother; another wants to pay for his daughters’ college educations and buy his sister a house; the third wants to tour Italy’s wine country. Winning tickets were also sold in Kansas and Illinois. What would you have done if you won the lottery?

In Facebook’s biggest acquisition ever, the company bought Instagram, a photo-sharing network for $1 billion. A month ago, Instagram’s creators claimed they had no interest in selling, but it looks like the right price changed their minds. Since Instagram has only 13 employees, each employee is now $77 million richer. Instagram was exclusive for iPhone users until they released their long-awaited Android version two weeks ago. Facebook claims it will not make any more big purchases like this, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Facebook Empire keep expanding.

We hope we’re as spry as Johanna Quaas when we’re 86 years old. The octogenarian wowed the crowd at the 2012 Cottbus Gymnastics World Cup in Germany when she performed spins and jumps in her parallel bars and floor routines. While Quaas has a history of athletic endeavors and didn’t excel in gymnastics spontaneously, she proves in these videos that 86 has nothing on her.

In honor of April Fools’ Day, we bring you the story of one of the boldest con men in the early 20th century. George C. Parker sold New York’s monuments, which, of course, he did not own. Some of the monuments included the Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His favorite sell was the Brooklyn Bridge, which he sold twice a week for years. Parker convinced buyers they could set up barriers on the bridge to collect tolls, which they found out to be false when the police said otherwise. If you’ve ever heard of the phrase “and if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you,” Parker is who it was coined after.

Next time you’re texting while walking, be careful, you might run into a bear! A 400-pound bear dubbed “Meatball” (for the food he had been swiping from people’s fridges) had been roaming the California neighborhood for weeks before he was caught by helicopter camera scaring a man walking on the sidewalk, texting with his head down. Meatball was later tranquilized and released back into the wild as the “texting guy” gained his 15 minutes of fame.

A former Occupy Lubbock dweller is now a Lubbock entrepreneur making news with her new business: Fantasy Maid Service of Lubbock. Customers pay $100 an hour for one maid or $150 an hour for two maids. No touching is allowed. Oh, and the maids are nude. Police are watching the one-month-old business because of possible permit violations, but the business has been good for the entrepreneur who started the company because she was struggling as a waitress.

A new policy went into effect last week at The University of Texas at Austin that prohibits tobacco products on campus. The new policy was a result of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas announcing it would tie research funding to tobacco-free policies. This means The University of Texas can now apply for an additional $80 million in grants from C-PRIT. The University currently has $30 million in grants. The University is offering low or no-cost treatment programs for those who want help quitting.

Conan, the Louisiana chimpanzee, has undergone two vasectomies and recently fathered a baby born in February. He fathered another baby in 2007 after his first vasectomy. Unfortunately, Conan was not the only chimpanzee who had a vasectomy that didn’t work. Chimp Haven opened in 2005 and requires any chimp being sent to Louisiana to have a vasectomy because a national moratorium on chimp research. Chimp Haven opened in 2005 with 31 animals formerly used in medical or scientific research. Now, it has 132 chimps in 18 groups and room at its 200-acre site for nearly 70 more animals. Until a solution is found, all female chimps are now on birth control.

We were touched by this video we found on YouTube of Henry, an elderly man who has been in a depressed, unresponsive and almost “unalive” state. He was given an iPod containing his favorite music (religious) and immediately lights up, his face shows expression, his eyes opened wide and he begins to move his feet and sing. He became animated with the music. Now, he sings and moves all day while listening to music. He’s now able to answer questions he wasn’t able to answer before. The power of music!

WARNING: This video may cause you to shed a tear. Grab a tissue before watching.

Southwest Airlines’ focus on taking care of their employees, hiring people with the right attitude and valuing their employees as more than people but as people is all a part of their culture. As their mission to their employees states:

We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.

By creating this culture, Southwest Airlines ensures their employees will treat their customers with diligent servanthood as they have been treated by their company. The success of the company is not only due to the culture but the executives that make sure it is enforced, and Kelleher was the driving force behind creating the culture and a company that did things a little differently.

How do you take a lesson from Herb Kelleher and Southwest Airlines? Here’s how you create a company culture.

1. Decide the company’s core values and mission. This gives the company a starting place for employees to become involved in.

2. Get feedback from employees. Do they buy into the company’s core values, mission, and culture plan? What will they do to contribute to the culture?

3. Walk the talk. It’s not enough to tell employees what the culture is. Live it and be an example to your employees.

How does your company create culture?

Featured speakers include: Herb Kelleher, co-founder and former CEO of Southwest Airlines; Nando Parrado, survivor, Miracle in the Andes; George Nadaff, Founder of New Boston Chicken (Boston Market) and Kindercare; and Mary Ellen Weber, NASA Astronaut, World Record Holder. Lanham Napier, the CEO of Rackspace; Dr. William Cunningham, UT Systems and Lincoln Financial; along with a VIP lunch speaker at Whole Foods will also be presenting at the event.

EO is a dynamic, global network of more than 8,000 business owners in 38 countries. Focusing on supporting, educating, and encouraging entrepreneurs, EO provides continuous networking and learning opportunities. We love being members of EO Austin and mentoring members of EO Austin’s Accelerator program for younger entrepreneurs. If you have any questions about joining EO or Accelerator, let us know and we’d love to share our insight.

For more information about EO Austin, visit http://eoaccess.eonetwork.org/Austin.

Failure is an uncomfortable, unnerving, and disappointing experience, but through failure, we learn how to approach and avoid similar situations in the future. As Stibel says, it’s also a way to make sure you are expanding your boundaries and learning.

In the same aspect, business owners should hire people who aren’t afraid to fail, but know how to learn from mistakes and move forward. Business owners should also hire those who are not afraid to admit their failures, which demonstrates they understand failures are a part of the learning process.

What have you failed at recently? What did you learn from it?