The Economics of Customer Service
I once “fired” a client – let’s call him Jerry – who had paid me more than a million dollars and wanted to keep on paying me more than 20 grand a month. In every aspect but one our relationship was terrific.
READ MOREDo You Have a Cell Phone? How About a Laptop?
Followers of Christian Hill’s “World’s Least Expensive Investment Portfolio” who took advantage of his recommendation last May are sitting on a nice 80% gain. And the fun is not over – there is still money to be made with this stock. (I’ll get to that in a moment.) You probably…
READ MOREThe Language Perfectionist: Dogging the Wag
As readers of this column know, I have a habit of searching for errors and anomalies in the media, adding my own puckish retorts, and preserving the results for posterity. Below is a fresh collection of recent bloopers and mischievous rejoinders. This set originally appeared in Word Ways, “The Journal…
READ MORE7 Ways to Spot a True Sense of Urgency
“I can’t believe she just gave up,” commented my doubles partner Fran. All I could say at the time was, “It is so incredibly sad.” It went down like this… We were at three-all in the first set of our tennis match. We broke our opponents and took the lead…
READ MOREWhat We Don’t Like
Social media is the buzzword these days for online marketers. But most gurus in this field want you to trust that a few Facebook friends or “tweets” will magically transform your business.
READ MOREFollow the Leader?
The kindergarten teacher handed out a coloring sheet and gave what she considered to be simple instructions: Color the duck yellow and the duck’s umbrella green. But when little Betsy turned in her paper, the teacher asked, “Didn’t you understand the directions, Betsy? You colored the duck red and her…
READ MOREKnowledge Redeployment
My first love is learning, which is why I keep my brain on autopilot when it comes to absorbing everything around me and extracting lessons from what I see and hear. It borders on an addiction. Extracting knowledge, however, is not enough. You must be able to apply what you’ve…
READ MOREMore Water Through Technology
Yesterday, I discussed the pressures being put on the global supply of fresh water. Nearly 1 billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water – and as the world’s population grows, the situation will only get worse. A growing population also means more mouths to feed, and the need…
READ MOREThe Next Oil
Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s statement that the wars of the 21st century will be fought over water may strike you as absurd. Perhaps ridiculous. After all, most wars of the 20th century were fought over oil. And our appetite for oil hasn’t slowed. All indications are that demand will rise 25% in…
READ MOREThe Language Perfectionist: It’s Personal!
Can you spot anything wrong with the following three sentences, all found via online search? “I personally can’t see us not doing any more shows again.” “Personally, I prefer to write about literature, but, yes, I recognize that these sorts of entries are the bread and butter of this blog.”…
READ MOREEliminate Fuzzy Thinking Forever
Lacking confidence… Feeling unsure about what you should do next… Jumping from one marketing strategy to another… Being unclear about when you’ll reach your business goals… All of these issues (and many more) can be traced back to one of the biggest challenges struggling entrepreneurs face: a lack of focus.…
READ MORETime to Turn Lemons Into Lemonade!
So let me tell you a true story… The year was 1976, and life was NOT good in America. And it wasn’t just because disco was king and we suddenly found ourselves sporting silly-looking leisure suits. America’s name was being dragged through the dirt worldwide. In the preceding 24 months,…
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