Shortly after his return to Apple in 1997, Steve Jobs defined the company’s purpose to employees. The brief video below captures the essence of this message. Belief in the mission matters. Do you believe in yours?
Legacy
July 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Fingerprints don’t fade. Especially those placed on the lives you’ve touched. If you can explain why we do what we do in fewer words, you win.
Three Words
July 21, 2010 By 3 Comments
Character counts. Always. Yet somewhere along the line, companies started to favor rhetoric and excuses instead of results and accountability. How do you know when a company lacks character? Simple. When discussing poor results, leadership: Makes excuses Rationalizes limited progress Formulates arguments to minimize accountability Not so with companies of character. They tell the truth. [...]
Shake It Up
June 8, 2010 By 1 Comment
My friend Shawn Murphy doesn’t follow. He leads. Shawn (@shawmu on Twitter) just launched the Wake Up and Shake It Up blog series. Need a push to think bigger than you have before? Here it is. The first post, Big versus Small, went live this morning. I think you know the author – check it [...]
Yes, But
May 29, 2010 By 4 Comments
How many times have you heard someone say “yes, but”? “Yes, I’d like to ship that for you, but you can’t use that box.” “That’s a good idea. I’d like to say yes, but this isn’t the time to try something different.” Somewhere along the line, people were conditioned to say no. What would happen [...]
Don’t Change Your Story
May 23, 2010 By 2 Comments
It’s frustrating to listen to people, companies, and politicians say they stand for something while at the same time they try to please everyone. It doesn’t work that way, no matter how hard they try to convince us otherwise. A company’s story can’t be about convenience, low-cost, premium-value, and great selection. A politician can’t talk [...]
Stop Reinforcing the Status Quo
March 4, 2010 By 3 Comments
Every day, people do the same thing over and over without questioning the policy or the system. Which is why new ideas are usually met with resistance. “That will never work.” “It’s never been done before.” “Don’t bother – we already tried that once.” “Nice idea, but can you prove that it will work?” “We [...]
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
January 26, 2010 By 1 Comment
Seth Godin is widely viewed as one of the sharpest marketing minds of our time. In my opinion, he’s more than that – he is a true change agent. His latest book, Linchpin, could not have come along at a better time. We’re in the midst of the 22nd recession since 1900, and so far [...]
Urgency
January 13, 2010 By 1 Comment
I’m in the process of launching a new business. And since I’m booked during the day working on other projects, a lot of the pre-launch work takes place late at night. This actually helped create a bond between me and my business partner – we were pleasantly surprised to discover that one could email the [...]
Leaders Don’t Cry
January 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment
When a kitten is confused or in danger, it will do nothing but cry for help. Sooner or later, it’s mother or owner will carry it to safety. Too many in business have the same attitude. That’s a problem. It’s a problem because although it looks like we’re starting to emerge from the recession, we’re [...]
