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If the idea isn’t executed, we never had it. Regardless of size, quality, passion, practicality, coolness or marketability, until we physically ship the idea out the door, it doesn’t exist. That’s why ideas are free and execution is priceless. That’s why finished is the new perfect. That’s why version done is better than version none. Because ideas were never meant to stay that way. The true measure of success…

We’re told to avoid clichés like the plague. Then again, clichés start to matter when personal experiences remind us why people said them in the first place. Warnings about silk purses and sow’s ears never quite make sense until we spend four years in a toxic relationship desperately trying to morph our partner a clone of ourselves. So what we learn is that most clichés do represent genuine empathy….

Some businesspeople are afraid to act like people. Especially owners who are often terminally certain, unwilling to admit wrongdoing and allergic to apology. And because they’ve been around for thirty years, they never listen to anybody because the company has enough customers where they can afford not to care. Why personally respond to negative online reviews in a manner that blows people away and creates new customers for life?…

Most people have a business they need to build a brand for. I had brand I needed to build a business for. This was never my intention. I never made a formal decision to approach my enterprise in this manner. But ten years into it, I’m now starting to realize how much more lucrative it is to work from the inside out, as opposed to the outside in. When…

Do a great job and wait for the phone to ring is a broken business model. It’s complacent, passive and largely unsustainable. And unless you’re incredibly famous, independently wealthy or impossibly lucky, you need to find a strategy that provides surer footing. Otherwise your name will disappear. Not knowing any better, I actually tried this broken model for a while. And although I found moderate success, I knew I…

The rub about hiring yourself is the absence of blame. When it’s just us, there’s nobody to point fingers at. Should we fail to discipline ourselves, fall short on our goals or ship mediocre work when we know we could do better, there’s no assistant to hide behind, no intern to scapegoat and no coworker to blame. No matter what happens, it’s our fault and ours alone. This is…

I’ve left a lot of money on the table. When I think back to all the projects, pitches, partnerships and potential opportunities I said no to over the years, I’m it sure it adds up to a nice chunk of change. But why dilute the enterprise? Why create something just for the money? Why say yes to a project just because it’s easy, popular or worst of all, monetizeable?…

The speed of the response is the response. In an impatient world where everything matters and everybody’s watching, the smartest thing we can do is get back to people promptly, not just when we can. Even if the answer is no. Even if the answer is I don’t know. That we actually responded immediately is rare enough to be remarkable. That we actually showed up and dared to care…

There’s an inverse relationship between size and surrender. I learned this from my friend Devon, a veteran of the landscaping industry. He tells a story about running the marketing department of a large organization. Like many corporate behemoths, his company leadership scrambled to stay in control of what every employee said. Every time they logged on, checked in linked up, there was always some manager looking over their shoulder,…

Thought leadership is not an accident. If you want to position yourself as a person worth paying attention to, you have to bring some original magic to the table. Fearlessly giving your gifts to the world,breathing rarified air into people’s lives, through every piece of content you publish. Start by having a stance on why the world doesn’t make sense. Take time each day to rant about the injustice…