Don’t Forget the Soft Side of Strategy
“Strategic management is not a box of tricks or a bundle of techniques. It is analytical thinking and commitment of resources to action. But quantification alone is not planning. Some of the most important issues in strategic management cannot be quantified at all.” – Peter Drucker Strategy is often a ‘catch-all’ term and it comes […]
The Secret to Happiness
27 Famous People Share Their Thoughts “My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?” – Charles Schulz The general consensus is that babies are born happy. Why shouldn’t they be? When they’re not, they […]
How Do You Price Your Value?
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” – Warren Buffet This has been a good year; but although business has picked up, and many especially in services industries are busier than ever, they’re not significantly profiting from their efforts. One factor that could significantly influence that is the way you […]
What My History Teacher Said About Potential and Permission
When I was in high school some time during the last century, my history teacher was late for class. Rowdy teenagers that we were, we seized it as a golden opportunity to goof off. While the girls were jabbering and laughing away some of the boys (not me of course), took the globe out of […]
Inspiration from Simon Sinek: “Start With Why”
It should come as no surprise that I’m a big fan on Simon Sinek. In fact, I’ve done presentations based on his ‘golden circle of human emotion,’ which explains the greatest motivation behind why people buy. Simply put, he proves that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. […]
Expecting Good
Tom Hopkins is a well-respected leader in the field sales training and executive consulting. In fact, he’s been doing it for close to 40 years. He’s written a lot of books on the subject too, all valid and insightful regardless of endeavor. My favorite quote of his is a very simple, yet opens up […]
6 Advantages of Putting Progress Over Performance
“True progress is to know more, and be more, and do more.” – Oscar Wilde The majority of us began our careers working for other people. In many cases our experiences led us to strike out on our own, and start our own companies. Whether our tenure as employees was satisfying or […]
Why Being Happy Inspires Success
Do you think success breeds happiness, or that happiness breeds success? So many people fall into the trap of saying, ‘I’ll be happy when….’. When what? Why not now? Our minds have a way of playing tricks on us. We see a picture of a successful business person, with a big smile, exuding all […]
About the Status Quo
“The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something.” – Seth Godin You didn’t start your business to maintain the status quo. You started it because you wanted to make a difference. But now that it’s been up and running for a while and actually making money, you find […]
Go Ask Alice: 25 Business Tips from Wonderland Help You Keep Your Head
Sometimes the best business tips come from unexpected sources. Like “Alice in Wonderland.” To me, Alice takes the cake. Lewis Carroll wrote it in 1865. Adored by children – and adults – it’s themes are as valid today as they were back then. And, beyond its seemingly nonsensical story, it provides some pretty down to […]