I was catching up with my friend Ian yesterday and our conversation turned philosophical (as it usually does when we are sharing a few craft beers). At one point he asked, "Do you think that American society is on the path to solving its problems, or are we not even asking the right questions?" This morning I'm thinking about how that same distinction can apply to us as individuals. We worry about coming up with the right answers, but we actually need to start by examining the questions we ask about our lives. The quality of our answers, in fact the possible answers we can come up with, are dependent on the questions. And I'm not … [Read more...]
Manage by Numbers, Lead with Stories
When you are in charge, you have two critical tasks to accomplish. It doesn't matter if you are a CEO, an entrepreneur, or a pee-wee soccer coach; there are two jobs that you need to excel at to succeed. First, you have to make decisions. Then, you have to get people to execute on those decisions. How Do Leaders Move People? That's it. That's leadership in a nutshell. It sounds simple because it is. When you get to the heart of all the strategy sessions and brainstorming and committee meetings, that's what a leader does: decides what to do and gets the members of the organization to do it. The art and science of doing these two … [Read more...]
Create a 19,900% Advertising Bump in 67 Seconds
A few months ago, I went to a birthday dinner for a friend at an Italian restaurant in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. It was a fun night - great conversation, delicious food, and pretty tasty wine. I'd never been to Saporia Trattoria before, but I had a good experience and I said to my girlfriend as we were leaving, "Hey, we should come back here sometime." Now, Chicago has a lot of great restaurants. So even though we enjoyed ourselves, it wasn't necessarily on the top of our list to get back. But I had signed up for their mailing list when we were paying the bill (I get excited when small businesses do marketing right so it's … [Read more...]
3 Questions to Ask Before Solving ANY Problem
A while back, I heard a stand-up comedian talk about the 3 questions you should always ask before you tell your significant other anything: Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said right now? Does this need to be said right now by me? The joke works because many of us don't think before we speak and act. (These questions are also great to ask in professional relationships, but that's for another article.) Solve Business Problems Intentionally A place you can see this lack of forethought in the business world is the rapid-fire manner in which entrepreneurs and business owners solve problems. For those … [Read more...]
The Story of my Success (So Far)
June 6, 1997. There's a common thought that the most important moments in your life happen without you realizing their meaning at the time. That's certainly tue with one of the turning points in my career. I didn't know it, but that day would go on to influence the direction of my entire professional life. Because that's the day I walked out of a non-descript office on the north side of Chicago and became a knife salesman. Yep, I sold knives. I sat down in people's kitchens and sold Cutco Cutlery. These days the company has grown to be a common brand name; but back then, few people had heard of it, much less thought about selling them. … [Read more...]
If I Were 22 I Wouldn’t Try to Change the World
Me giving advice to a 22-year-old is a lesson in irony; because I know that the 22-year-old me wasn't good at listening to other people's advice. I'd like to think that I've gotten a little better over the years, but I'm a work in progress. Feel free to take or leave what I have to say. So I guess that's my first piece of advice: decide on your own who and what to listen to. But after that, I guess my second thought would be: Don't try to change the world - Try to change yourself The earth has been here for over 4 billion years and countless humans have walked its surface. It takes a lot of hubris to think that it needs you to save … [Read more...]
The Magic Closet for Entrepreneurs … That Unfortunately Doesn’t Exist
If you grew up watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, you'll remember his daily ritual at the beginning of each show. He'd walk into his house, sing a song, go into his closest, change his sweater and shoes, and then go about his day. Of course, at the end of the day he'd go back to that closest to change back into his street shoes and sweater. And then off he went. (Though, come to think of it, no one really knows where he went...or why he had a second home that he stayed at during the day...) That outfit change while he was singing held a lot of significance. It's like he was changing into his work uniform. He went to his closest and … [Read more...]