Recent posts related to

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Recent posts related to

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Who’s Your Marlon Brando?

By John Wood | 11/5/2009

Recently on Turner Classic Movies, I watched a documentary simply titled “Brando.” There was a moment in it that sliced through my heart. It didn’t come from the legendary movie actor himself, though.

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Make Life Easier: Find One Thing You Have in Common With Your Foes

By Mark Morgan Ford | 11/5/2009

We all have “enemies” — unpleasant individuals we can’t avoid because of work or social obligations. As a general rule, we deal with them by staying away as much as possible. When we must interact, we speak as little as we can. Just the facts and goodbye. However, there’s a…

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The Self-Confidence Question

By Peter Fogel | 11/4/2009

I have an entrepreneur friend who is an engaging speaker. He always gets high marks on audience evaluations. On stage, he comes off as quite confident. Watching him, you’d think he was loaded with self-esteem. In fact, the opposite is true. And at a recent presentation, he let his audience…

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5 Ways to Make Your Meetings More Productive

By Mark Morgan Ford | 11/4/2009

1. Start on time. 2. If there’s someone with a reputation for tardiness without whom the meeting can’t take place, schedule a briefing with him 15 minutes beforehand. If he gets there on time, use that 15 minutes to discuss the big issues. If he’s 15 minutes late, he won’t…

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Have You Done That One Great Thing? NO? What Are You Waiting For?

By Mark Morgan Ford | 11/4/2009

Time passes so damn quickly. And as you get older, it speeds up so much that, if you don’t do something about it, your life will take place without including the person who’s buried deep inside you. You know the person I mean. The dreamer. The bright, starry-eyed optimist who…

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Who Do You Work For?

By Mark Morgan Ford | 11/4/2009

As a development manager for a real-estate project I consult with, SB takes direction from three people: a profit-center manager, a project manager, and me. Most of the time, our advice and recommendations work together. Sometimes, however, we disagree. And when we do, it throws SB into a frenzy. SB…

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Summarizing Is Death

By Mark Morgan Ford | 11/2/2009

In all forms of expression, summarizing is lethal. But that’s what many copywriters do. At the end of a sales letter, they methodically recount all the important points they just made. What happens is that the energy of the copy is dissipated, the blood drained off. A much better approach…

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What Is the Tipping Point for Online Success?

By Bob Bly | 10/30/2009

KJ, like many of my subscribers these days, wants to get into Internet marketing. But she feels frustrated and unable to move forward. “Where should I begin?” KJ asked in her e-mail. “What was your tipping point to online success?” My answer: “The tipping point in Internet marketing success is…

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A Word To Use Next Time You Get a Chance

By Mark Morgan Ford | 10/30/2009

I learned a lovely word today: MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is an irrelevant interest grabber — a story whose purpose is to draw attention to itself and away from something else. It comes from a plot device invented by Alfred Hitchcock. He borrowed it from a shaggy-dog story that goes something…

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My Heart Went Out to Her… and Then Came Back!

By Mark Morgan Ford | 10/30/2009

Profiled in The Wall Street Journal the other day: A single mother, hit hard by the recession. She can barely keep a roof over her family’s head. Her salary was cut by 60 percent. And buying even the basics is a struggle. A story we’ve heard again and again. “How…

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A Concatenation of Confusables

By Don Hauptman | 10/30/2009

In my reading, I frequently encounter misused and confused words. Here are five recent sightings, most from major newspapers: “Anyone who passes even feint praise on anything containing Adam Sandler…” The writer means faint praise — not very much. A feint is a deceptive or diversionary action.

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The Truth About Happiness

By Dr. Srikumar Rao | 10/29/2009

We seek it here, we seek it there. We seek happiness everywhere. Yet it eludes us. All of our activities — our pursuit of fame and fortune, our quest for meaningful relationships, our drive to build or change things — are directed searches for this ephemeral state. We get there, but…

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