To Build a Fire "Come on, Come on, COME ON!" I muttered as I stroked the bow of my freshly carved bow drill, twisting the soft pine piston into the cedar base plate. My bare left foot stabilized the base. I drilled frantically, trying to warm up after a freezing, rainy night in my haphazard debris shelter. The night before when the weather was clear, I made a sturdy lean-to structure out of fallen limbs and dry leaves which I'd...

During my internship at NASA this summer, my mentor, a software engineer and former entrepreneur, told me that the role of an engineer is to take a product from an idea up to about 80% completion. At that point you can patent it or turn it over to the business team. Either way, your hands are free--you move on. This was the moment I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I realized I didn't want to quit before the product...

Get a job, having actual...