Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing, and it doesn’t help that everyone seems to have their own version of what’s right. How do we know if we’re on sound footing with our “right” or if we’re simply looking out for our own “rights”? If it’s something that feels good, that’s acceptable to everyone involved, that (from our own …

When things go wrong, what’s our default reply? It wasn’t me. Do we try to push it off on someone or something else? Do we instinctively attempt to pass the buck? Do we quickly move to the next thing, leaving the fallout for someone else to clean up? I’ve got this. We don’t hear (or speak) those words often enough. …

If our job is to provide our customers with information, we face a dilemma: transferring knowledge from our mind into the mind of someone else. It’s quite likely that our customer doesn’t have the same understanding of our industry that we do. If they did, they wouldn’t be paying us, now would they? It can be difficult to communicate important …

We see it everywhere, in every facet of our lives. Increasingly, more of our interactions are being dictated by price. Online, we can even sort by price. Show me which one is the cheapest and that’s the one I’ll get. It’s strikingly ironic that when all we’re measuring is the fee charged for something, we end up with very little …

Being cautious in our lives (and our businesses) is a noble goal. Steering clear of things that will cause us pain (physically, psychologically, and/or monetarily) is always a good plan. But, like everything else in our world, we can take it too far. Acting out of an abundance of caution it’s called, and it’s often defined as “precautions taken against …

We’ve all heard the expression “jack of all trades but master of none.” It’s meant to describe someone who can do many things, but doesn’t excel at any of them. It would be great if we could be a master of all trades, but there’s not enough time in the day to learn the skills needed for that feat. Knowing …

Our success will hinge, as it always has, on the leadership of our (most) junior Marine. Gen. Charles Krulak General Krulak was speaking about the Marine Corp specifically, and the armed forces in general, in this article, but just as easily he could have been talking about our business. The way our business comes across to our clients is contingent …

Too many times in our life we find ourselves stuck, wanting to go through with something (a project, an exercise, a new business plan) without having all the specifics worked out. We know where we want to go, but we’re not entirely sure how to get there. Sometimes we do need to know every detail before we jump off. It’s …

It’s hard. It’s hard to do something that matters. In our McDonalds fast food, drive through ATM, DoorDash, buy now, pay later, instant gratification world, no one wants things done right. They just want it right now. Give the people what they want. Or, at least that’s what we’ve been conditioned to think. Don’t let them fool you. There are …

“How much do I have to do to get by?” seems to have become the mantra of our modern society. People want to do as little as they can and still collect their paycheck. Far too few people are interested in going the extra mile. In a world where being “good enough” has become the standard, what would happen if …