I wrote this last year for Shawn Murphy’s Wake Up & Shake It Up series. The article is now part of an e-book from Achieved Strategies. Here’s what it takes to create a business of value: Think big; act small. This is the best business strategy that I know. Sound easy? I’m sure it does. [...]
Going, going…
July 20, 2010 By 1 Comment
Gone! A grand slam! My son’s first baseball game was more exciting than expected. After spending the first four innings watching a back-and-forth struggle, one of his favorite players hit a grand slam – the giant home run that changes the outcome of a game. Not surprisingly, the media coverage that evening focused almost exclusively [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Solve the Right Problem
September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The way I see it, most big companies have two problems. The first is the problem itself – poor customer service, me-too products and services, uninspired marketing, miserable employees, and layers of bureaucracy. The second problem is that they solve the wrong problems. More often than not, companies focus their energy on improving the current [...]
Problem Solving 101
September 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Abraham Lincoln was fond of riddles. One of his favorites: “How many legs will a dog have if you call the tail a leg?” Most people, of course, thought that the answer was five. Lincoln always replied that the answer was four, not five, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg. [...]
Don’t Settle
August 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Not that long ago, I worked with someone who decided he no longer liked his circumstances. In what seemed like an instant, he opted to change the direction of his career. I was impressed with the speed of his decision. “Why wait?” he said. “I’d rather do work that matters.” He looked at me. “You [...]
Naive and Positive
August 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Entrepreneurs regularly approach me with business ideas. Too often their plans, while filled with energy and enthusiasm, have little substance. Wishful thinking without a map. Like most entrepreneurs, I believe in thinking big. But there is a difference between a naïve entrepreneur and one that is relentlessly positive for the right reasons. Positive has a [...]
Paul vs. Brad
July 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Paul Giamatti is one of the great leading men in Hollywood. And while he doesn’t look like the person we generally think of as a movie star, that doesn’t change the fact that he is one. Brad Pitt, on the other hand, looks like a leading man. Every budding star wants to be just like [...]
Foolproof
July 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Everyone wants the foolproof formula. Something that’s been done before. Proven to work. That’s ridiculous. Great success stories usually begin with “no one thought it would work.” They never start with “they copied something that’s been done before.” If that were true, weekend karaoke singers who could carry a tune would make it big. It’s [...]
