In business, we’re often told to emulate the other companies that are successful and we’ll find our own success. And that’s great advice. Until it’s not. Copying what’s working will only get us so far in life. It’s what we do next… What we work out on our own… What we choose… What we decide to stand for that determines …

We often deride competition. We think it makes our job harder, and it might, in fact, do that. But, the one thing it definitely does is make us better.

We all like to think that we’re the only ones doing our job right. We’re not. Like the oft quoted line from the Book of Ecclesiastes says, “there is nothing new under the sun.” We’re all working from the same play book. Using similar tools. Doing comparable things. Offering a product that’s close to everyone else’s. Like creating a new …

Too often we sit around and whine about all the new competitors in our arena. Wouldn’t it be a whole lot more productive if we totally blew up our business model and created something new? Something that all our competitors will be whining about once we’re kicking their asses? Yeah, that sounds a lot better than sitting around whining…

We all want to succeed in our business venture. That’s why we’re here. Hard work, dedication, perseverance, commitment to our goals: they’re all important in our future success. Wanting to succeed is important. So is having a “Plan B.” Because sometime wanting success simply isn’t enough.

In the beginning, we all focused on getting better. We read. We watched. We learned. We searched far and wide to move forward. Then something happened. We got good. And then something else happend. We stopped getting better. We settled for good, and changed our focus to profit. Seems kinda funny. If getting better got us this far, why stop …

We all want to hurry up and get done with our job. Time is money. Chop, chop. Get a move on. But we shouldn’t hurry so much that we’re rushed. It’s one thing to hustle, cutting out all extraneous motions while doing a good job. It’s something different to rush through our work so we can move on to something …

Almost all of us start out improvising. We’ve really got no idea what we’re supposed to be doing, so we just wing it. And for some of us, it works. We see some early success. We start to gain some traction. But, then we keep on going, totally unprepared for what’s coming next. Improv might be a cool way to …

It’s pretty straightforward when trying to solve a problem with something in our homes. Your roof is worn and leaking? Pay for a new roof. Your water heater isn’t heating the water anymore? Buy a new water heater. The carpet is dirty, tattered, and torn? Get some new flooring installed. Solving problems with inanimate objects is fairly easy. It gets …

We often find ourselves bemoaning the fact that we’ve got to deal with competition. If only I didn’t have to compete with all these other companies… But if we stop and think about it for a moment, it’s really a good thing that we’ve got competition. If we didn’t have competitors, it would mean that we’ve chosen to work in …