Losing Trust

Oftentimes in life (and in business) we’re faced with a situation where we’re just not sure how things are supposed to go. Either we’ve never experienced these particular circumstances before or our understanding of them is so limited that we’re in no position to offer a strong position. It’s at this point that we’re faced with a choice: do we …

That’s the Fact, Jack

Conspiracy theories are all the rage right now. People love them. They prey on our need to easily understand things in a difficult-to-understand world. They often (but not always) contain some semblance of fact, but not enough that they can be proven to be true. And the people that believe in them don’t care whether or not they’re legitimate, they’re …

Heavy Lifting

We all love to offer our opinion on someone else’s work. We’ve got no problem telling people what we think. We’re eager to put in our two cents. Nobody, on the other hand, is willing to do the hard work of building something for you from scratch. Ask for help creating that new product and we’ve likely to get nothing …

Pricing Anxiety

Pricing what we do is a business decision that’s fraught with anxiety. What if I charge too much? Will people be willing to pay for what I do? What if I charge too little? What about how much my competitors are charging? For the most part, what we charge for our services doesn’t matter. Most people aren’t looking to see …

Love It or Not

Do we still love what it is we do? It’s a question that, eventually, we’ll all face. If our answer is “no”, then we’ve got to decide what we’re going to do about it. If what we do is still paying the bills, so to speak, then the answer might not be to do something different. The answer may be …

Going for the Win

Starting out in any new venture can be tough. We see all these successful people doing all kinds of different things. We’ve been taught to look to those people who are industry leaders and copy the things that they’re doing, but how are we supposed to know which things to copy? We can’t do everything they’re doing. We’re new to …

That’s Just How It Works

While no one can know the future, it sure seems like we’re coming up on some hard times. Signs are indicating that things will get worse before they get better, and there’s little anyone can do but wait to reach the other side. Everything about life is cyclical. Ups and downs; highs and lows; bulls and bears; peaks and valleys. …

What They’re Paying Us For

Depending on what we do for a living, some of us provide our customers with good news while others deliver bad. Think about the car salesman: I’ve got great news! We’ve got that one on the lot and you can drive it home today! Compare that with the auto mechanic: It’s not good. We’re going to have to rebuild the …

Exactly the Same

We’re always being told that we should learn from others. Find a mentor. Emulate a successful person in your field. Follow in the footsteps of greatness. Learn from someone else’s mistakes so you don’t make your own. Unfortunately, those lessons never really line up with our situation, do they? There’s no book with our problem outlined for us in exactly …

Just Because We Can

Many of the people in our sphere (our friends, our coworkers, our competitors) are moving forward, doing what they need to do to get better. Whether it’s officially going back to school to finish that degree, learning something new from a book or an online class, or upgrading the things they use in their business, they’re putting themselves out there …