“The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.” – Kakuzo Okakura Change is constant. There is no part of our businesses that is exempt from it. Our customers change, our competitors change, or people change, our products change, the rules we’re required to follow change – there’s no end to it. … Read more
“We cannot become what we need to be without changing who we are.” – Max DePree The vast majority of the conversation in this space revolves around change. Changing environments, changing customers, changing markets, changing technology – there’s almost literally no end to the list of things that are changing around us and that we … Read more
“Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does.” – Warren Buffett Over the years I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time with experienced leaders, people who’ve been running businesses for a long time. Most of those people have seen and learned a lot over their careers, and while most of them wouldn’t admit it, … Read more
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” – C.S. Lewis I have a lot of conversations with a lot of leaders, and sometimes it’s easy to listen without actually realizing what’s being said. In other words, the details are sometimes so consuming that … Read more
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee I spend my time helping businesses and business leaders be successful. It’s an extraordinarily challenging and rewarding career. Every situation, every individual, every organization is different. No two days are every alike. When I first started doing this for a living, I … Read more
“We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.” – Marie Curie By now most of you have probably seem Simon Sinek’s talk about Why. It’s one of my favorites, but it’s not a “feel good” kind of talk. I don’t mean that it makes … Read more
“Vision without action is dreaming, action without vision is passing the time, while visions with action can change the world.” – Joel Barker As each year winds down, we always hear about New Year’s Resolutions and predictions for the coming year and top 10 lists of every topic imaginable – all built around the idea … Read more
“We are either progressing or retrograding all the while; there is no such thing as remaining stationary in this life.” – James Freeman Clarke Every year about this time we see published one list after another of predictions about the coming year. People will predict technological advances, weather, sports – anything you can imagine. It’s … Read more
“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” – Confucius Last week in this space I wrote about the reality that as leaders we can’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves (no more “learned helplessness”). The obvious follow up to that is that as leaders, … Read more
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought into a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell Time seems to fly by, and this year is no different. It’s already November, which means 2019 is right around the corner. Regardless of what kind of business you’re in, it … Read more
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© 2017 Cain Ellsworth & Company, LLP
