Google Glass Project

Google Glass Project

  Here's something really, really cool - Google Glasses.  I just saw these and I can't wait to get a pair.  Or at least try out somebody's (they are expected to hit the market sometime this year at $1,500).  I don't think I'll be an early adopter. Google glasses...

Positive Reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement

Last week I heard a story about an elementary student who found a loaded gun in his school bag.  The young man notified his teacher and the school provided positive reinforcement of the behavior by publicly rewarding him for doing so. Magnify Positive Outliers...

Talent vs Skill

Talent vs Skill

I don't think that most people really get the whole talent vs skill argument. Talent you have naturally. Skill is developed by relentlessly laboring at your art. Naturally talented people who lack good work ethic fade quickly...think Allen Inverson.  Contrast Iverson...

How To Create Value

How To Create Value

Something is valuable only to the degree it is scarce.  Original art is scarce because there is only one.  Diamonds are valuable because they are difficult to locate, found in only a few places around the globe, and hard to unearth. Contrast this with what you do, or...

Delivering Value To Customers

Delivering Value To Customers

My friend, and mentor Joe Jones taught me an important lesson about delivering value to customers.  That in the selling process, typically the most concerned person about price is the sales rep. Competitive markets drive prices lower.  When companies fail to train...

Why So Few?

Why So Few?

Something to make you go...hmm!  Have you ever wondered why the world produces so few exceptions to the rule.   What's wrong with our system that we haven't had another Einstein, or Edison? We've got a world full of good athletes but so few great ones.  Why is...

Same old run of the mill

Same old run of the mill

We waste a lot of time, energy, and money, on things that are the same old run of the mill. We take the same old run of the mill vacations. Eat at the same old run of the mill restaurants    Watch the same old run of the mill TV shows, and films.   Why is the world in...

Creating A Connection Based Culture

Creating A Connection Based Culture

When your clients talk to others about the what they buy from you, it's likely not about the products or services.  When I think about the favorite places I've worked, I seldom think about what I sold, or the marketing I did.   Fortunes 2013 Best Companies to Work For...

How To Improve Customer Service

Yesterday I made a call to company I do business with and got a message I'm sure you've heard.  The old "Your call is very important to us" message. If my call is so important why not answer it in some reasonable timeframe? If my call is so important then why not just...

Choices

The following from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com graduation speech at Princeton. You have the following choices: Let inertia be your guide, or follow your passions. Follow dogma, or be original. Choose a life of ease, or of service and adventure. Wilt...

In High Demand But Short Supply

What the world needs now is....not another love song.  Instead the following are in high demand but very short supply. Real leadership - the Martin Luther King type. Real connectors - People who can really connect with others.  Not the virtual social media types of...

Moving With Purpose

Moving With Purpose

Move like you've got a purpose in life!  That's what Drill Sergents would yell at us recruits durining basic training if they caught us moving slowly (way back in 1987). We knew what our purpose was.  To become lean, mean, green, killing machines.  Everything we did,...

The Problem With Doing What You Want

The problem with doing what you want is is that the responsibility for commitment and execution is all on you.  There's no one else to point the finger at for your situation.  Adam tried blaming God when he said "The woman you gave me..." see Genesis 3:12. It's the...

Regaining Mental Clarity

Regaining Mental Clarity

When things are not going our way we humans can have a tendency to focus on the urgent not the important. Here are 8 things I do to help me regain mental clarity and focus on what's important. Get quiet and take time to renew my spirit:  In The Seven Habits of Highly...

How To Take A Nap

How To Take A Nap

For as long as I can remember I've gone to bed between 10 or 11 and gotten up before 5 am.  In fact if I sleep beyond 6 am (even on weekends) I feel my whole day is shot.  I know it sounds weird but remember I'm a former Army guy and it was drilled into me that "We do...