Paid Vacations
For the past six years, I’ve had a little sideline job that’s allowed me to relax on Caribbean white-sand beaches, play golf on some of Ireland’s and Scotland’s best links courses, and visit more than 25 countries around the world. Not only do I get to go on these trips…
READ MOREHow Secure Is Your Business? What Are Your Top People Telling You?
In the months that followed September 11, Bush ordered a bunch of undercover audits of airport security. 783 were conducted. The results, according to an article I saw in USA Today, indicated an amazingly high level of incompetence. The president’s investigators were able to carry knives past screeners in 70%…
READ MORETaking The 20-Something Factor into Consideration
Every once in a while, some bright young kid I’m mentoring does something really stupid or really shiftless — something so wrong that it causes me to wonder if I’ve made a mistake committing my time to him. This happened yesterday. PSG temporarily closed a profitable operation so he could…
READ MOREAn Important Rule of Lasting Wealth
One of the most important rules of profitable investing (and profitable business too) is to get out of losing ventures quickly and spend more time and money pursuing your best opportunities. If you can follow the straightforward technique I’ll outline for you here, you’ll never lose another night’s sleep worrying…
READ MOREBusiness 101: When Change is Bad
For as long as I could remember, the direct-mail publishing industry was serviced by a newsletter titled (very smartly) “Who’s Mailing What!” It was written by Denny Hatch, an old pro, and was full of the wise and pithy observations you’d expect from an experienced insider. Recently, it was sold…
READ MORECreating – And Sticking With – A Standard of Employee Excellence
“To me, one man is worth ten thousand if he is first-rate.” – Heraclitus (Fragments, c. 500 B.C.) In a memo to one of my clients, I recommended that he create a policy for promoting a standard of employee excellence that would include his eliminating the worst 15% of his…
READ MOREHow Big Should The Type Be In Your Advertising?
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is that I don’t know which half.” – John Wanamaker One of the questions you will face when you review your direct-response advertising is “How large should the type be?” On the one hand, you want the type…
READ MOREA Starbucks Secret: How to Keep Good Employees
While I was traveling over the weekend, I picked up a copy of a good book in the Las Vegas airport called “Lessons from the Top: The 50 Most Successful Business Leaders in America — and What You Can Learn.” One of the profiles in the book is on Starbucks…
READ MOREPowercharging Your Networking
To solidify an acquaintanceship — that is, to get someone you admire to remember your name — you might want to try something brazen and calculating…such as sending a gift along with a personal letter. I was the subject of such a transparent and disreputable effort last week — and…
READ MOREDon’t Stop Just When Things Are Getting Good
In a recent e-mail essay, Gary North asks one of the most important questions of my generation: How does an older person get time back on his side? The answer, Gary says, is to give up the will-o’-the-wisp known as the retirement syndrome. You can keep working if you have…
READ MOREThe Problems With Starting And Growing Any Business
“In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits.” – Lee Iacocca (Iacocca: An Autobiography, 1984) When you start a business, you have three concerns — one conceptual, one financial, and one personal: 1. Is your business model viable? 2. Do you have…
READ MOREResist The Temptation To Do Less As You Do Better
A crow sat in a tree, doing nothing. A rabbit saw the crow and asked, “Can I also sit and do nothing?” “Sure,” the crow answered. So the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow and rested. A few minutes later, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit, and…
READ MORE