A word of advice to those of you who think you can grow a successful and sustainable business just by telling someone to believe you or invest in you without laying the groundwork. Unless you are willing to put in the work and embrace a more progressive, strategic, thoughtful, and patient approach, you will never be able to grow a sustainable business.

Making a different requires knowledge, getting experience, disappointment, and then doubling down and going at it again. Many who call themselves advocates don’t do that. I encourage you that if you truly want to make a difference; learn, invest your time as well as your money, and be patient. Do not merely yell loudly for your cause.

I argue that there is different, bureaucratic golden rule at play– the guy with the gold makes up the rules. Those with the power to dole out funds can influence and achieve their intended goals through the scoring criteria they use to evaluative proposals, who they place on the review section panels and who they chose to use. Through these mechanisms, they could (and perhaps do) influence what and who gets selected.

Research dollars matter most when they target questions, not just causes.

Progress comes when we stop driving down the middle and start finding the edge.

Convergent research advances science — convergent thinking can stall it.