Every business has competitors. If you don't yet, you will. That's the nature of business. And well-accepted that the best way to beat the competition is to out-compete them. Or is it? It may sound counter-intuitive, but actually the best way to beat the competition is to ignore them. Why? Anchoring. Anchoring is when you overly-focus on one piece of information, and then your thoughts and actions are bound by that knowledge. For example,...

Generating sales doesn't have to be boring. In fact, some of the fastest-growing private companies in America are reaping success by tapping into niche industries, or inventing entirely new ways to make money. Take iHeartDogs.com as an example. The Anaheim, California-based website, which ranks No. 135 on this year's Inc. 5000, sells pet products and pup-themed clothing, such as T-shirts proclaiming: "I Love Big Mutts and I Cannot Lie." Collectively,...

A great corporate culture isn't something you can buy. It's organic; it has to be cultivated. Inc.'s Best Workplaces celebrates companies that actively strive to build vibrant and engaging cultures. More than 1,600 com-panies applied this year--three times as many as last year. Together with my company,...

Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are engaged in a very public disagreement about the nature of artificial intelligence (machines that can think) and whether it's a boon or bane to society. It's almost as interesting to follow as the Hollywood supercouple-of-the-month's divorce proceedings. Just kidding. Let's agree that the former is relevant, the latter ridiculous. Musk has been warning for some time now that AI is "our greatest existential threat" and that we should fear perpetuating a world where machines are smarter than humans. It's not that he's against AI: Musk has invested in several AI companies "to keep an eye on them." He's even launched his own AI start-up, Neuralink--intended to connect the human brain with computers to someday do mind blowing things like repair cancer lesions and brain injuries (for example). Musk fears...

Inc. asked the nation's fastest growing, private-company CEOs to fill out a survey, addressing a series of wide-ranging questions involving everything from President Donald Trump's policy initiatives to dealing with lightning fast growth. Among other things,...