Who is Managing the Business of America: The Market, or the Business Leader

It is with ironic interest that I see the media hyperbole regarding the market and investors. It seems investors are our bell weather for the state of the economy. If the market is up everyone is
happy. If the market is down we all get nervous. Yet I ask myself why?

Today’s Wall Street Journal whines that investors are worried. Well pardon me, so is the business leader. They want to build a business. They have customers and ideas. They can’t get financing
because the investors are worried.

…

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“Well, I Did My Part”

I heard a pilot say something the other night that says a lot about the culture he works in. For futurists I think you may be able to predict the  future of the
airline as well from this comment.

Our flight was late and it was taking an extra long time to bring the gate checked bags up. The passengers were grumbling on the sub-freezing jet-way when the pilot says “Oh they are sure running
slow with your bags, well …

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Whats the cost of not listening” Trillion$

I had the opportunity to listen to a TED presentation titled “Want to Help Someone: Shut Up and Listen”, by Ernesto Sirolli. He was speaking about the challenges he had when he first started
working in developing countries distributing aid and “helping” people develop crops and businesses. He could not understand why; for example, the natives would not plant gardens. His team would
demonstrate and the crops would …

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Relationships – Product – Money: the formula for success

 I had lunch with a good friend this week who has just sold his business for a pile of money. He was speaking about the philosophy that helped him and his team,
reach the success they did. They focused on three things:

1.   Relationships with their customers
2.   The product, “could they deliver the product they promised?”
3.   Money

What is important is that they focused on them, in this order of …

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Nice Guy’s (and Gal’s) Finish Well

By now you have heard, one of the heavy weights in the field of personal development a giant, Zig Ziglar passed away on November 28, 2012. If you are like me you have already read many of the
tributes and memories, so I won’t rehash them.

Rather I want to point out the common thread that ties all of these together; Zig was a genuinely nice guy.

•    He wrote 13 books
•    Zig elevated the art of professional selling
•    …

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So you are connected; Now what?

A few months ago I sent a LinkedIn job lead to a young man I met 2 years ago. A friend of mine asked me if I could give him some advice at the time on selling. We then connected on LinkedIn. And a
few months later I sent him this job lead.

Four months later he replied to the job lead. And he was grateful and said some very nice things, but it was four months later. What does that tell you? What it tells me is that while he is on …

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