Are we hacks? The title “hack” often carries with it a negative connotation, but it shouldn’t be that way. A hack is someone who delivers exactly what a customer is looking for, often a little cheaper than everyone else. We need hacks. There are customers out there who are looking for hacks, actively searching them out, wanting to work with …

Starting something new, like a new business, can be frustrating. We try to pitch our idea, our service, or our product, but most people we encounter have no real interest in listening to us. If we walk into each interaction with the belief that we’re great, our product is great, our service is great, and everyone is going to love …

There’s a pattern to the way that most businesses handle customer problems: Deny, deny, deny, and hope they go away as quickly as possible. Most businesses today choose to do the bare minimum. What’s the least that I can do and still play by the rules? And, unfortunately, it often works. They still stay in business. The customers just keep …

We’d love it if everyone was on board with everything that we wanted. Wouldn’t that be great! The world would be such a lovely place! Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. No matter how right we think we are, we can’t make people agree with us. Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions. The best we can do is lay …

“Judgment—the ability to combine personal qualities with relevant knowledge and experience to form opinions and make decisions—is the core of exemplary leadership,” according to Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis in their book Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls. In today’s world, it’s not too often we’re called upon to exercise our judgement. The companies we work for, the organizations …

It’s easy to think we’re doing worse than everyone else. Hell, social media is happy to reinforce this belief 24/7. We’re always running behind, trying to catch up to some imaginary goal that’s always right beyond our reach. That coworker, that business, that relative, that industry, that stranger is doing better than I am, and I’ve got to catch up. …

Is there a best car? Surveys and marketing tell us there is, but is there really just one best car? If we need to tow an enormous trailer, is a Tesla Model S going to work? If we’ve got to get all 9 family members to dinner, is that BMW M4 Coupe really our best option? If we’re delivering pizzas …

We’d all like to be better. We’d like to get better at our job. We’d like to improve our relationships. We’d like to be more healthy; get in better shape. We’d like to be in a better place; mentally. We’d all like to improve our finances. We’d like to be better at holding our tongue, controlling our emotions, knowing what …

If we’re lucky, our business will one day reach that point. The point where what happens to one individual client really doesn’t matter that much to our bottom line. We’ve become too big to care about what happens to our customers. Well, of course we care about our customers. They’re the lifeblood of our business. No customers, no business. But …

Things don’t always go as planned. Even though we try and try, we’re quite often left with disappointment. But I worked so hard on that. It should have worked. It’s not fair. No, it’s not fair. It never is. Life sucks sometimes. Sometimes hard work isn’t rewarded. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes we end up getting screwed. …