When 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…
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…
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…
READ MOREBecome Wealthier by Investing in Real Estate
If you haven’t already begun investing in real estate, I’d like you to consider doing so today. If you are a budding real-estate tycoon, resolve to add to your empire this year. I love real estate. In the 10 or 12 years I’ve been actively investing in it, it has…
READ MOREHow To Keep Your Personal Information Private
You get privacy notices in the mail — tucked away inside statements from your bank, credit union, insurance company, stockbroker, mortgage lender, etc. — but chances are you don’t pay any attention to them. Well, you should. These institutions have a lot of information about you (your Social Security number,…
READ MOREBecome Wealthier by Investing Smarter
“Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.” – W.H. Auden Let’s assume you get the 10% raise (at least) that you resolved to get yesterday. And let’s say, just to keep the numbers round, that it amounts to $10,000. Here’s what you should do with it. 1.…
READ MOREResolution: Increase Your Income
Let’s start with some simple arithmetic. Joe Ordinary is 25 years old, makes $28,000 a year, and gets ordinary 3% to 4% yearly increases. Over a 40-year career, he makes approximately $2.3 million. Elwood ETR is not satisfied with ordinary. He follows the advice he gets here every morning and…
READ MOREHow Much Should a CEO Make?
“Greed’s worst point is its ingratitude.” – Seneca (Letters to Lucilius, first century) When I first read the statistic quoted above, I accepted it without thinking. Then my brother questioned it and I realized it was one of those trumped-up pieces of data meant to score a point. What is…
READ MOREHow to Hire and Keep the Best Employees
“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.” – Larry Bossidy Which of the following actions will give you the greatest success in hiring employees “for life”? * finding out…
READ MOREThe Smartest Home Improvements for Your Investment Dollar
“The surroundings householders crave are glorified autobiographies ghost-written by willing architects and interior designers who, like their clients, want to show off.” – T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (“Robsjohn-Gibbings Names the Biggest Bore,” Town and Country, January 1961) My wife has a mile-long list of home improvements she wants done … *…
READ MOREWhat Is the Biggest New Idea in Your Market?
“Who in Europe could have thought of the disappearing bed, a bed during the night, a handsome wardrobe during the day? Where else [than in the United States] could the rocking chair have been invented, in which a man could move and sit still at the same time?” –…
READ MORENobody Ever Ended a Meeting When He Was Doing the Talking
“What the customer demands is last year’s model, cheaper. To find out what the customer needs, you have to understand what the customer is doing as well as he understands it. Then you build what he needs and you educate him to the fact that he needs it.” – Edna…
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