Things don’t always work out the way we want. In fact, they hardly ever go according to plan. And then we get upset. What if, instead of getting upset, we simply built a little buffer into our process? After all, we know that something is going to happen that we can’t predict. Why not plan for it? The true man …

Especially when we first start out, it may feel like we’ll never achieve success. But never is a really, really long time. Maybe if we just changed our point of view a bit, and let “never” morph into “eventually.” Eventually, we’ll find success. Doesn’t that sound a lot better?

“It’s good enough” is the enemy of progress. “I know what I’m doing” keeps us from getting better. “This is exactly what my customers want” is a way for us to hide. Change is risky. Change is difficult. Change is scary. We’re wired to be afraid of anything that’s different, but it’s the only way to get where we really …

We often assume that it’s obvious why we do and say the things we do. And we all know the old saying about what happens when we “assume.” Instead of assuming, wouldn’t it be better for everyone involved (for both us and our clients) if we simply took a few extra minutes to make sure that everything is crystal clear? …

Are we on repeat, living the same work day over and over again? Could we simply change the names, dates, and addresses and no one would be able to tell the difference in our work? Let’s face it, we often find ourselves in a rut, watching our lives play out, each day a replica of the one before. Unless we …

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. John Lydgate Trying to please everyone is a futile endeavor. You’ll end up tired, frustrated, and burned out, and you still won’t achieve your goal! Better …

In today’s information age, it’s now easier than ever to learn new things. The library’s still free, and now it’s at our fingertips. Despite that, there’s hardly anybody there. It’s amazing the lengths we’ll go through to keep from learning something new, even when it’s right there for the taking. If you are not willing to learn, no one can …

Recent winter storms, and the inevitable power outages that go along with them, remind us that our cities, towns, and municipalities hardly ever spend money to do preventative maintenance, to upgrade their systems before they absolutely have to. We can attribute some of this to human nature: we often find ourselves so overwhelmed with our day-to-day duties that we rarely …

What’s the most important job that we do? The next job is the most important job we do. Even if no one is watching. Regardless of how important the client. Despite the fact that we’re not feeling it today. Setting aside how big the job is. In spite of the fact that we’re preoccupied. No matter what we’d rather be …

If we’re a small enterprise and things go wrong, we learn about it immediately (and are usually quick to take action to fix the problem). Once we’re no longer so small, and become further removed from the customer experience, we may find that we don’t respond to feedback in the same way. Maybe we just don’t hear it. Maybe we’re …