It was as close to a miracle as you can get. Just when all hope seemed lost for Wind Youth Services, the only homeless teen shelter in Sacramento, a financially-solvent fairy godmother swooped in to save the day.

Jeff Pettigrew prepares the inside padding of a casket at Pettigrew & Sons Casket Co., a family-run business in Sacramento founded by the late Fay Pettigrew, who is Jeff’s grandfather.

California Treasurer John Chiang’s decision to ban Wells Fargo & Co. from underwriting state debt isn’t interfering with demand for the securities of the municipal market’s biggest issuer.

For a sense of how fungible the label “financial adviser” has become, talk to Mike Chamberlain of Chamberlain Financial Planning & Wealth Management, which has an office in Sacramento. “’Financial services industry’ is a very broad term,” he says, “and I don’t like being included in it.

With California’s public school finance system undergoing dramatic changes in recent years, some public school districts now rely more on education foundations to supplement the districts’ budgets for traditionally school-funded resources and enrichment programs.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund, is ratcheting down expected investment gains over the next decade as low interest rates and a gloomier stock market depress returns.

“Balancing the stage” is a common theater term. It refers to the arranging of the actors and set in a strategic way to produce a desired effect. A director can create a feeling of order or of chaos with the choices they make. For the audience, balance is crucial — a stage that lacks balance will pull focus and distract from the story the company needs to tell.

Have you heard the riddle of a father and son who get in a horrible car crash that kills the dad? The son is rushed to the hospital and the surgeon exclaims, “I can’t operate, that boy is my son!” The listener’s expectation is challenged when the riddle’s answer is given: The surgeon might be the boy’s mother.

As many will attest, the entrepreneurial journey is often a case of survival. It has been described as overwhelming, full of trial and error and harsh lessons. Despite all the hard work invested, the process, when improperly handled, can often impede one’s ability to succeed.