It’s amazing how we can for struggle days, weeks, or even months in a relationship before we’re really willing to have that critical, high-risk discussion about an offense—an area where we feel we were wronged, about a behavior we feel is unacceptable but we don’t stop and confront it with love. Instead, we treat it [...]
For years, I thought that the most frustrating thing I’d ever experienced in my professional life was the moment when I realized I was stuck. The deadline to submit part of a manuscript to a Publisher is looming, and after weeks of re-writes it’s Sunday night and I’m not quite there. I’ve looked over the [...]
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the future of education, both within the system and in the home. Not so much with what’s being taught—my three children have fantastic, caring teachers, and doing an incredible job with limited resources—but more so with the “system” in general: what’s being encouraged and made a priority vs. [...]
Every brand needs to identify and communicate its point of differentiation and its value proposition—however, many times the pursuit of “different” bleeds over into decisions about what services to offer, how to offer them, and what sacred cows to sustain. Consumers will tell you what they want and how they want it packaged, shipped and [...]
Today, all over the world, companies are searching for funding-the-life blood that can mean the difference between worldwide success and complete failure. For many, it simply means getting to that “next step” or becoming the next “big thing.” But the funding arena isn’t always as black-and-white as applying for a bank loan. From venture capitalists [...]
After 15 years in public office, André Bauer is now making some changes. But how do you take a very public career—with all its ups and downs —and reinvent who you are and who you will be? Want to subscribe to Business Black Box? 1 year for only $18. Click below.
A crazy thing happened a couple weeks ago. My SUV decided, periodically, to randomly blow its horn. Yes, you heard me correctly. The SUV decided, on its own. Not me…I promise, I never touched it. Now, I’m not the most mechanically inclined person, nor have I spent a lot of time under the hood of [...]
I had lunch recently with a great friend, Roger Rhoades, who has 30-plus year’s experience as a relationship counselor. Somehow we got on the subject of the difference between people who are spectators of life versus people on the field in the game, and the song “Centerfield” by John Fogerty came up. The chorus is [...]
If you haven’t followed the story of Alvin Greene, you should. In essence, the story goes like this: Greene filed as a Democratic candidate for DeMint’s seat in the U.S. Senate. He bought no yard signs, he showed up on no TV commercials. He didn’t campaign, stump or otherwise even appear in public. (Although he [...]
People who stay in one place too long, get offended, or refuse to recognize their own pride usually get their toes stepped on by those following a leader’s vision. For a vision to be fulfilled, leaders need people willing to constantly be moving, growing, changing, challenging “the way we always did things” and carving out new ground of opportunity and new turf. Those who complain about their toes getting stepped on are usually spending far too much time attaching their self-worth to the turf they’ve firmly planted their own feet on.
