There’s a Japanese white pine bonsai in the National Arboretum in Washington DC that is 391 years old. It was planted in 1625, and it survived the bombing of Hiroshima. Six generations of the Yamaki family have cared for it. When I think about that tree, I have tremendous respect for the commitment, skill, and…
I was talking with a friend who owns his own business. I often tell him that he’s my business hero – he makes a terrific living for his family and significantly impacts his clients – and does it all in less than 20 hours a week. But that’s a story for another day… Anyway, He…
There’s no right way to run your business. No one can tell you that you have the wrong goals. Do you want to be famous? Do you want to be influential? Do you want to have a huge audience? Do you want to maximize your financial rewards? You can do that. Do you want the…
I started life as an engineer, designing aerospace control systems. When we would start to design a new system, the first question we’d ask is, “If this project fails, what happened?” We’d look for the riskiest, most uncertain part of the problem and try to solve that part first. If we could solve the hardest…
What if, at some time in the future, your dreams of business success come true? Imagine you’ve got a successful business that brings in good money. What more do you want out of life? What goals do you have, or would you have, if your money needs were taken care of? Because there’s got to…
Question of the Day: What is your primary business objective for this coming year? (Bonus question: What strategy do you intend to use to achieve your objective?) Hit reply and let me know!
Imagine you are driving through a snowstorm at night. The snow is swirling in your headlights, the lines on the road are obscured, the road is slippery. How do you respond? Do you speed up and try to get through the snow quickly so that you can get to your destination before it gets worse?…
After Tuesday’s message, you’ve narrowed down your expectations for 2022 to just the most critical initiatives, things that have to be accomplished. Good work! Now let’s make sure that they happen. How have you done in past years? Looking back over past years, what percentage of your annual goals got accomplished? Not how many did you…
Do your goals for this year involve starting a bunch of new initiatives? Expanding your marketing efforts? Landing new clients? Offering new services? Of course they do! I’ve never seen a company founder whose goals were, “Let’s do the same things as last year – just a little bit better.” What do you think your…
Agency owners are laser-focused on profit and productivity. And rightfully so, if we’re not productive, it’s hard to make a profit, and without profit, it’s hard to have an agency! But we need more than profit and productivity Think about your work, was there ever a time when it was produce, produce, produce, all day,…