During a busy time at work, I took two days off. Because I wanted to spend time with my son- my youngest- who deserves as much of my time as anyone else in this world. Who was being honored for his service to his school.
Today is the first day of Pesach- the holiday of freedom.
May you all remember the value of freedom and insure that others you see have that same right.
Continue reading Happy Pesach/Passover
It’s that time of year. Spring cleaning. Many of you may not know how old this tradition really is. It started out some 3000 years ago- when it was a commandment to remove all the chametz from one’s life. Now, chametz literally means “leavened items”. Because the holiday of Pesach (Passover), which celebrates the liberation of the Jews, also involved a commandment to destroy all the chametz in one’s possession. One is not permitted to see any chametz in one’s domain for the entire holiday.
Continue reading Hurry up…It’s time!
Leadership. Management. Don’t get confused- they are different and every enterprise needs both. And, rarely are they found in the same person at the same time. It comes down to the raison d’etre for each organization. Vision, Mission, and Goals. Leaders set the vision and develop the strategy for the team. Vision is why the enterprise exists in the first place; strategy is how the enterprise plans to execute to achieve that vision, given the reality of the market, competition, regulation, and trends. Managers direct people to obey; leaders motivate people to achieve more than they thought possible.
Continue reading Leadership <> Management
Oh, I know I am going to tick a lot of you off right now. But, facts are facts- and, fantasies are ok, but not when they defeat your ability to grow your business. And, this common belief has been under my suspicions for decades. Now, the data demonstrates that my intuition was correct.
Continue reading You’ve got high hopes, high apple pie in the sky hopes…
If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I am a big “phan” of the Phillies. And, nowadays, teams trade their people at the drop of the hat. (To be honest, that is not a Phillies trait, but it does happen.) Last year, Jayson Werth, our right fielder was a free agent and though he could get a big boost in pay. He did- but now he’s a Washington National. (I do see every Phillies game here in DC, where I live, as well as in Citizen’s Bank Park. I may not root for the Nats, but I still follow Jayson.) 
Continue reading I want you to read about baseball? Really?
I used to commute from Charlottesville (VA) to Long Beach (CA). Yes, really. It started out as three days in one place and four in another. It escalated (degraded?) into alternating 8 and 30 hour segments for some two or three years. (It’s how I learned how to sleep on airplanes- and get lets of work done on them, too.) But, it’s also how I learned to get plenty of planning done on my 75 minute drive (don’t figure out what speed that was) to Dulles Airport.
Why do I bring this up? Because, I have been driving to and from Citizen’s Bank Park every week or so, for years. And, on one of the rare occasions that I did this trip solo, I got a lot of thinking done, too. (Good thing- we’ve been working on a new concept. This gave me plenty of time to get the edges honed down.) I also figured out what makes my work with helping new and existing companies so exceptional. (I obviously have no problems with hubris 🙂 .)
Continue reading Techie? Businessperson?
That quote from John Donne is some four centuries old and still provides guidance to us. No matter how good, how smart, or how talented we think we are, we cannot succeed alone. We need trusted advisors- whether we call them our inner circle, our family, our board, or our friends- or any combination thereof.
Continue reading No Man Is An Island…(Neither is Woman)
I just had the wonderful experience of having two of my three children, my son-in-law, and my fifteen month old grandson sharing a baseball game (his very first, I might add) with me. While I love baseball (ok, maybe just the Phillies), I love my children more- much more. And, my 15 month old grandson reminded me of something very important during that game. Of course, as is true for every parent and grandparent, I recognize that my grandson is very smart. He has an extensive vocabulary. While he pointed out “ball”, “flag”, among his many other words, he saw something I forgot was actually found in center field. “Tick Tock,” he said. No one really knew that he knew the word for clock- but he recognized what it was.
Continue reading Time Management- and Vision, Mission, and Goals
Last week, I differentiated between what is our Vision, Mission, and Goals. We tend to focus on those goals- we have something in mind, hone in on it, and drive relentlessly to complete it. We put together these goals to achieve the success we desire in our lives. Others may have goal(s) in mind, but life (or lassitude) helps divert them (or us) from focusing and completing that goal in a reasonable amount of time (and reasonable is in the eye of the beholder). But, we all understand that we need to develop goals, plan to achieve them, and get what we want from life.
Continue reading More about Vision, Mission, Goals- the order of development is critical