“Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in public and private life, have been the consequences of action without thought.” – Bernard Beruch I think I could edit the above quote to end “…thought without action” and it would be just as meaningful. It’s bad enough to … Read more
“Don’t mistake activity with achievement.” – John Wooden This qualifies as the understatement of the year, but we live in a world that changes at an almost unbelievable rate. It’s at the point where sometimes it feels like there’s no way our brains can keep up. And sometimes they probably can’t. One of the things … Read more
“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” – Aristotle Someone recently clued me in to an organization called The Energy Project. If you’re interested, click here to get to their web site. The gist of it is this: a huge percentage of people are disengaged, beaten down, unproductive, etc., and as leaders … Read more
“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” – George Patton Not that long ago I was visiting with a local business owner, one we’ve been fortunate enough to work with over the years. Eventually our conversation ended up on the topic of his management team. He got really excited talking about how great … Read more
“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.” – Winston Churchill As leaders, a big part of our job is thinking about the future. Unfortunately, too often that thinking becomes worrying, complaining, stressing, obsessing, energy destroying – you get the picture. I’ve been involved way too many management team meetings where all I did … Read more
“Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I feel like I’ve written about belief a lot lately. If you’re sick of it, my apologies. Unfortunately, I keep running into situations where it’s obviously an issue. I’m not sure why I didn’t notice this for the … Read more
“When you’re through changing, you’re through.” – Bruce Fairchild Barton I’m a huge sports fan. I’ve probably spent more time playing & watching sports than all my other leisure activities combined. It’s always interesting to watch teams that seem to have an identity. They know who they are, they know their strengths and weaknesses, and … Read more
“If you don’t think every day is a good day, just try missing one.” – Cavett Robert Over the past year I spent (wasted?) a fair amount of time trying to help a particular local business owner. Finally, after several months of misguided effort, I finally managed to end our business relationship. It took me … Read more
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” – Henry Ford We live and work in an environment where we are rewarded for getting things done. Crossing things off a list seems like it’s become our sole purpose in life. We even write things we’ve … Read more
“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” – Napoleon Bonaparte We’ve spent time in this space talking about the importance of planning, of thinking about WHERE you want to be before taking action, etc. Certainly there are too many businesses out there who lack focus … Read more
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