Blog
Rite of Passage
For the first half of our life, passages are fairly easily marked. We go to school, get a job, find a mate, raise a family and contribute to our community. But a strange thing happens on the way to the finish line. The built in "life detector" begins to ask why are we...
Are you kidding me? 2,630,000 hits in .07 seconds
"Jack of all trades, master of none" turns up more than 2 ½ million hits with a Google search. The phrase is the title of a book, a CD, a blog, a TV sitcom, and I'm certain a number of other things. Thinking about this old standby as it relates to small independent...
Hotcakes & Outtakes
“Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.” Jimmy Buffett (A Pirate Looks at Fifty)
Spam and Salutations
Remember Aunt Edna? The one who pinched your cheeks and mussed your hair every year at the annual reunion? You liked playing with her marble collection, and the awkward hug was the price of admission. Remember Uncle Frank? He grunted a gruff "howdy," none too glad to...
Soil and seed can be like the chicken or the egg.
What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the...
Put this on your tombstone
"Death from overwork" has become so common in Japan that it's been given a name: karoshi. There is hope. You can greatly reduce your risk of karoshi: * When your calling becomes your career… * When you're committed to causes you care about… * When your core...
Of Course You Should Count Traffic
You need to understand the importance of tracking the number of opportunities you have to serve Ms. Jones. This number is indicative of the health of so many of the things successful retailers are doing each day. It is also a number that can be gathered and acted upon...
Idiom: Security
Homeland Security. Security blanket. Social Security. Security system. Security is our most basic human need. If we feel insecure we are unable to love, to work, to shop. Yes, to shop. Certainly you remember the uncertain anxiety in the days following 9/11 and...
Poker, Furniture, and Life…
From the 1998 Matt Damon and Ed Norton movie "Rounders," about the underground poker world of Boston, we can take to heart one of the best business quotes of all time: "A lion survives by being a lion and a mouse by being a mouse." It seems lately during almost every...