Posts by Mark Morgan Ford
Give Gifts That Mean Something and You’ll Be Remembered For Them
Charity often pleases the giver and weakens the recipient, but gifts are another matter. The occasional gift (occasional, as for a birthday, Christmas, etc.) — even an extravagant one — can sometimes have a lasting positive effect. Such was the result of a gift my godmother, JK, gave me many years ago. It was my…
Read MoreIt Pays To Help Your Competitors
Most books on the subject treat business as war. Your competitors are your enemy. Beating them out of market share is your goal. If you can get them to go out of business completely, you’ve triumphed. I don’t share that view. And I’ll tell you why. War is a terrible, painful, and ultimately destructive endeavor.…
Read MoreHow To Handle Irate Customers
Only after an angry customer believes that you understand his problem and sympathize with his plight will he be willing to believe that you really mean to help him. This is especially true if he’s been run through a customer-service drill that resulted in nothing happening. One way I’ve found to convey my sympathy is…
Read MorePay Attention To Your No. 1 Job
According to most “serial business builders,” bad hiring and firing decisions are among the most important mistakes entrepreneurs make. These include: 1. not spending the time and energy to recruit the very best employees 2. not paying close enough attention to an executive’s performance 3. waiting too long to fire someone Think about the…
Read MoreSomething To Ponder
Something to ponder: All your clients, customers, and employees have a hidden mission — and that is to reduce your profits to zero. It is a cynical thought, but it’s true. The moment you let up on the pressure to produce, sell, save, and improve, your bottom line will begin to shrink. If you let…
Read MoreWhat to Expect from Stocks and Bonds
My friend and colleague Steve Sjuggerud recently studied 100 years of investing returns for 16 countries and found that stocks yielded an annualized gain of 9.2% a year in U.S. dollars, including dividends. U.S. stocks did a little better, returning 10.1% a year. Bonds, Steve says, brought in 4.4% globally and 4.8% in the United…
Read MoreWhen You Shouldn’t Fire Your Weakest Link
As an executive working for a business I didn’t own, I fired employees right and left. It was clear to me that my primary duty was to the business — and when someone working for me couldn’t cut the mustard and could be replaced rather quickly by someone better, I didn’t feel I had any…
Read MorePromise #9 for the New Year: To Become Wiser by Reading ETR Every Day
You are a very busy person. And so I appreciate the fact that you take the time each morning to make reading ETR a priority. The single most productive thing I do each day is the work I do writing ETR. It’s energizing because it gets me thinking positively first thing in the morning. It’s…
Read MoreMake Your Personal Life Richer This Year
What are your hobbies? If you say “watching sports on television,” I’ve got news for you. That’s not a hobby. It’s a habit, and a bad one at that. A hobby is, or should be, something that makes your life richer. The kind of hobby Winston Churchill was recommending is one that might: *…
Read MoreETR’s (Borrowed) Rules for Good Eating
“The glutton digs his grave with his teeth.” – English proverb 1. Don’t eat foods that are bad for you. These include foods that, although they may taste good, make you sick, give you stomach problems, or make you tired. Many people are sensitive to dairy and wheat products but either don’t know that they…
Read MoreBecome Healthier with Healthful Exercise
Keeping yourself healthy should be a priority in your life, even if it isn’t your topmost concern. To accomplish your other life goals, you need a working body and an energetic mind. You have to be able to get up early — the earlier the better — and work with vigor and intelligence throughout the…
Read MoreBecome Wealthier by Developing a Second Income
Today, I would like you to resolve that — if you haven’t done so already — you’ll develop a second stream of income this year by getting yourself into a side business. The business can be home-based or housed in an office. It can be run by you or someone you trust. It can be…
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