Marcus Aurelius said, “Our actions may be impeded… but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” This simple but profound maxim became Ryan Holiday’s impetus for writing The Obstacle is the Way, a brilliant book I highly recommend you read at least once per year. Today, if you’re honest with yourself, there are at least a few big, hairy obstacles that delay and impede your…
Monthly Archives:August 2022
Today, Millennials spend 93.5 hours per month inside an app. Years ago, I made a bold claim that “those who are unable to control their attention will have it bought and sold by those who can.” Facebook has become one of the biggest media companies on the planet, selling billions of dollars of advertising to its user base each quarter. My prediction was correct, but it is not limited to technology companies and apps. There are new investments in old-school technology to help combat this unique time in history where no one seems to have control of their attention. Germany is spending…
The Smithsonian magazine reported recently that archaeologists uncovered an ancient Roman bathroom, decorated with suggestive mosaics, meaning dirty jokes were built right into the walls. Just like bathroom humor has been around since the dawn of time, there are many things that never change, even in today’s fast-paced, always-on, hyper-connected society. For example, your patients will always want to know certain things from you before they buy, before they refer, before they pay in full, etc. Each year, Jeff Bezos and Amazon ask, “What do we know about the consumer that never changes?” This is an extremely telling secret hidden in…
In a large study of over 5,000 workers in Spain, the University of Madeira discovered that employer-provided training has the same effect on job satisfaction as a 17.7% net wage increase. I’ve been teaching for years that your employees don’t always want more money in order to increase their engagement and overall job satisfaction with your company. The ability to learn something new or achieve mastery of a skill they have already learned but have not yet perfected are both critical components to job satisfaction. Our surveys with top clients after in-office trainings and live seminar boot camps that we provide also…
If you observe the most productive and most successful people on the planet, you’ll notice three very important similarities in how they achieve results. It doesn’t matter if the person is an entrepreneur, doctor, lawyer, politician, religious leader, actor, teacher or any of a million different occupations. Those operating at the top 1-5% of their chosen field or profession have these three traits in common: First, they are intentional. You’ve heard me say, “Nothing really great ever happens by accident.” Warren Buffett, Bob Iger when he led Disney, Tim Cook at Apple, Michael Jordan, Judd Apatow, Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook…
Most small business owners are used to giving answers, not asking questions. If you followed around some of the world’s top CEOs and leaders, you would find the exact opposite is true. The best leaders are great at asking questions, so that the best ideas win and the best answers quickly become evident, even if they arise from the least-expected team members. Management expert Peter Drucker was well-known for asking smart questions like, “What changes have recently happened that don’t fit what everyone knows?” Read that question again and let it sink in for a minute. Most leaders start their meetings with assumptions,…
Five years ago, Nir Eyal wrote a book called Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, which helped startup tech firms understand user psychology. He discussed the research on slot machines, which use variable rewards and pleasures that come at unpredictable intervals. If you haven’t read, Addiction by Design, it is both amazing and alarming. In response to pressure from psychologists and child development specialists, tech industry insiders have blown the whistle at Google, Facebook and WhatsApp, becoming critics of the very tools and addictive apps they spent years developing. In his latest book, Eyal admits that there will be a movement to be…
In a wonderful conversation this week with a 5-10 year startup now producing over $40 million in annual revenue, spitting off lots of profit, I was pleased to hear the co-founder admit he struggled with a common problem I see happening right now in professional practices throughout the world–the problem of capital deployment. It’s hard to imagine the fact that 20% of the U.S. dollars in circulation right now were printed in the last 12 months. Monetary supply is through the roof. Consumers are out spending again. I observed a sold out crowd at Wrigley Field a few weeks ago,…
In coaching, consulting and reviewing the reports from our on-site trainers, human capital challenges are at the top of the list of items we’re hired to fix. As I’ve done with most systems, challenges and opportunities in business, I help my clients and trainers develop and deploy “litmus tests,” or quick “yes/no” tools to help guide next steps. Here’s one you might put to good use when your next employee challenge or frustration arrives. Ask if this is an issue of character or circumstance. Our data indicate: underperforming employees are rarely an issue of character. These situations are almost always…
Danny Meyer, the famous founder of Union Square Hospitality and Shake Shack, calls mistakes the greatest renewable resource on earth. As humans, we make mistakes all day long. I made at least 20 mistakes just trying to write this article. Like waves in the ocean, there are always more mistakes coming. The real question, Meyer says, is what will we do with them? “Assuming they’re honest mistakes and don’t lack integrity, how do we end up in a better spot for having made a mistake and addressed it really well than if you had never made the mistake in the first place?”…
