More On Criticism
“If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me.” – Alice Roosevelt Longworth Im reading a newsletter on leadership that says since “no one likes to be told hes wrong,” the shrewd executive will do everything he can to make his criticism indirect. Ive…
READ MOREIs Your Product/Service Good? Don’t Ask, At Least Not Directly
What do you say when, after suffering through a very mediocre meal, the restaurant owner or manager comes over to your table, puts his hand on your shoulder, and says, “Was everything OK?” Do you ever say, “Glad you asked. Actually, everything sucked”? Or do you assure the nice man…
READ MOREHow to Create Personal Wealth
Donald and Mildred Othmer were ordinary Americans. Don was a chemical engineering professor in Brooklyn. Mildred was a teacher. They never did anything extraordinary and never had great luck at anything, yet they did amass a $750 million fortune before they died. They did it by following two principles that…
READ MOREHow to Educate Your Gut Instinct to Make ProfitableDecisions
“Decide, v.i. To succumb to the preponderance of one set of influences over another set.” – Ambrose Bierce (The Devil’s Dictionary) Yesterday, we talked about gut instinct — what it is and why it is so important when you work yourself up to the top ranks of business. Today, I…
READ MOREGet A Realistic View Of Your Productivity
Successful people are usually those that spend most of their time in productive pastimes. From least productive to most productive, there are four types of activity: 1. Destructive: fighting, drinking, suing, being angry, etc. 2. Fun but wasteful: watching television, reading fiction, shopping, drinking late 3. Knowledge building: learning almost…
READ MOREWhat I Learned About Leadership From Dance Lessons
Several years ago, I reluctantly agreed to take ballroom dance lessons. Im glad I did. When you begin a modern marriage (listen up, young ‘uns), you both go into it as partners. The arrangement you presume is that you are going to be in charge of some things and she…
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Life After 50: You’re Never Too Old To Succeed
Some say that life begins at 50. But if you are older than that, take inspiration from friends and these other oldsters who accomplished more after 70.
READ MOREScheduling Stress Breaks
If you work as hard as I do, you will be forever on the verge of a nervous breakdown unless you do something about it. One of the best things you can do is schedule at least two (and preferably three or four) stress breaks every working day. A stress…
READ MOREEasy Come, Easy Go
“Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex; you thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it and thought of other things if you did.” – James Baldwin (Nobody Knows My Name, 1961) In a recent Daily Reckoning message (www.dailyreckoning.com), Bill Bonner made an interesting point about money, one…
READ MORELiving Rich: Fake It Till You Make It: How To Tour An Art Museum
Nothing will enrich your life as much as the appreciation of art. By art, I mean the fine arts — painting, sculpture, and all that — but also the crafts (woodworking, needlepoint, masonry, etc.) and sports. If you want to Live Rich, you have to — absolutely have to —…
READ MOREThe Ultimate Organizer — A Records Locator
“We are all, it seems, saving ourselves for the Senior Prom. But many of us forget that somewhere along the way we must learn to dance.” – Alan Harrington (Life in the Crystal Palace, 1959) If you got run over by a bus tomorrow, would your next of kin know…
READ MOREHow Often Should You Change Things?
You know how bad I think most small-business periodicals are. Fortune Small Business might be the worst. Staffed by a boatload of (I’m sure) very smart and capable (mostly) young women, it is full of feel-good stories and equal opportunity reporting. There is also an inexcusable level of innocence when…
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