According to scripture, Jesus Christ was forced to carry the very Roman cross upon which he would be crucified. There is an eerie correlation to this story and the life many of us lead today. We work hard to build the companies that then lay us off so they can make the numbers work that year. I am not for... Continue reading

Instagram announced a change to their privacy policies granting themselves ownership over all the pictures posted on the platform, including the right to sell pictures without permission or notification. They also grant themselves the right to make private pictures public, also without permission or notification. And, as if that wasn't enough, announced that they are not liable to any class... Continue reading

I try, try, try and fail. Only then will I learn and improve the way to do things. I go, go, go and trip. I stand up, brush off my knees, look back at what I tripped over so I know what to look out for in the future. Now I don't have to trip over those things again. I... Continue reading

In 1975 a young director with no big films credits under his belt, set out to make a horror film. Steven Spielberg wanted his film filled with violent and gory shark attacks. He wanted us to watch as this massive animal, built to kill, would attack his unsuspecting prey. But there was a problem. The mechanical sharks that were supposed... Continue reading

One definition of a prostitute is someone who sacrifices their good name in order to make a buck. But what do you do when someone else is driven by the sale but it is your reputation that suffers as a result? This is the risk run by any company that relies on a third party to sell their product. Franchisees,... Continue reading

The economy is in a shambles. There is a total lack of leadership. Hope is at a minimum. The people feel out of control and, without a sense of optimism for the future, they lash out at anyone who is different from them. These are the conditions that existed in the 1930s that gave rise to Hitler and an extremely... Continue reading

On this July 4th, it is important for us to remember what we are celebrating. Yes it is the birthday of our nation, a day for family, BBQs and fireworks. But the reason we have this birthday to celebrate is because of the undying belief of some remarkable people who lived before us. Our founding fathers and their supporters believed... Continue reading

“Our customers are our number one priority,” is the oft heard mantra of so many companies these days. “We put our clients first,” is uttered by so many CEOs one loses track. But there’s a problem with putting customers first. It means that employees come at least second. Customers should never be the priority…people should be the priority. Some of... Continue reading

Lt Col. Mike "Johnny Bravo" Drowley is an Airman in the United States Air Force. Lt. Col. Mike Drowley believes there are fates worse than death. It is his undying commitment to others that guides his actions and decisions. He has bravery like few others we meet in normal society. He has humility like few others we meet in normal... Continue reading

On this particular night, Michael ordered the soup. “Is it vegetable stock or chicken stock?” he asked the waitress. “Vegetable,” she replied. “Are you sure,” Michael continued, “I can’t have it if it’s chicken based.” “It’s vegetable,” replied the waitress again confidently. My friend Michael is a strict vegetarian. He loves going out for dinner with his friends and never... Continue reading

It’s hard enough that we have to talk about our strengths to others, but our weaknesses? That’s just the worst. Even more confounding, we’re only asked to talk about our weaknesses and our strengths in an interview, but after we get the job, we’re rarely ever asked to talk about what makes us so great again. Our weaknesses, however, seem... Continue reading

Starting as a shoe salesman in the 1950's, Ben Prober went on to own a very successful chain of women's shoe stores. The prices at his stores weren't the cheapest. The selections weren't that much different from any other shoe store in town. And the stores themselves were pretty basic. They were nice enough, but nothing that our design-and-experience obsessed... Continue reading

I felt sick. I wanted to curl up in a ball and be alone. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I was ashamed. To most people, what I did would seem a trifle, but to me it was much deeper. I gave a talk to an organization that violates the very core of my beliefs. In my mind, I... Continue reading

You need to talk to someone you can trust. There are two men standing there, one is wearing a long black robe with a cross around his neck. The other is wearing a t-shirt with a skull on the front and a pair of ripped jeans. The question is, whom do you choose? Got it? Now, I should also tell... Continue reading

In this day and age of soundbites and instant gratification, we often forget the value of spending time doing something of value. We live in a world in which a YouTube video longer than 5 min is considered too long and the ideas that are supposed to change the world are only given a maximum time of 18 minutes on... Continue reading

I spend nearly every single day talking about what it means to live your Why - to live with a sense of purpose, cause or belief. But what happens when we wake up one day without a sense of purpose or cause? What happens when we used to have clarity and it slips away? That is what happened to me.... Continue reading

Dear Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, Larry Page and other CEOs of large American corporations: I am sure you all saw the news when Steve Jobs died. The spontaneous, international show of mourning was nothing short of amazing. My question is, do you think we will cry when you die? The irony is that Jobs was more like you than like... Continue reading

“We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks,” said David Darnell, co-COO of Bank of America, “and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee.” This is a standard line when a plan to gouge customers backfires. In the case of Bank of America, they didn’t propose, as Mr. Darnell attempted to explain, they... Continue reading

“We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks,” said David Darnell, co-COO of Bank of America, “and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee.” This is a standard line when a plan to gouge customers backfires. In the case of Bank of America,... Continue reading

There have been many occasions when I’ve been on a plane and we hit some bad turbulence that my heart started pounding. I am not a nervous flyer, per se, but sometimes I imagine elaborate scenarios of all the things that are going wrong in the cockpit and it freaks me out. I’ll hear strange noises sometimes, and think it’s... Continue reading

Martin was a scrawny kid when he was in high school. He wasn’t that tall and he wasn’t that strong. He didn’t excel at any athletic activities and was an average student. By normal high school rules, Martin would be considered a target. A target for bullies, a target for ribbing from other students or even teachers. But no one... Continue reading

In the early 1980s, Steve Jobs and a few Apple executives visited the Xerox Corporation to see a new technology they had developed. It was called the Graphic User Interface or GUI – it allowed people to interact with a computer through a series of pictures and icons instead of having to know .dos or some other computer language. At... Continue reading

Fact: every single company cares about their customers...the difference is how they care about them. I live on a block in New York City that has a Food Emporium on it. It is a sad excuse for a supermarket. The produce is very poor quality, the layout of the store is disastrous and the staff would much rather be somewhere... Continue reading

Today we've lost a lighthouse. Steve Jobs, the man who stood for so much more than sleek design or innovation, the man who stood for people, is gone. He was singularly devoted, not to technology, but how people interacted with technology. It wasn't for us to fit into a world of computers, it was for the computers to fit into... Continue reading

Jill is an entrepreneur. She is a big thinker with big ideas. She is also an idealist. She imagines a world in which companies make their impact on society their primary bottom line and the financial results that follow as their second bottom line. She is smart and articulate and her ideas are really good, but she's struggling to get... Continue reading