Whenever something bad happens, we tend to focus all our attention on that issue: the thing we overlooked, the deadline we missed, the statement that we never should have made. While those things are important, we’d be much better served by looking back at the multitude of decisions we made before that fateful moment, that led us down the trail …

Politics. One of the numerous definitions of politics (from Cambridge.org) is “the activities of people who are trying to obtain an advantage within a group or organization.” In today’s always on, always live, always broadcast to the masses world, everything is politics, and everyone is angling for that advantage. What if, just once, someone would do something for the benefit …

We’ve all got them: a list of things we want to do, things we want to be, things we want to accomplish. We may have them handwritten in a journal, stored digitally somewhere on our phone, or ever-present in the back of our mind. But, they’re there. The problem is that, all too often, that’s exactly where they stay. We …

“Who’s it for?” is a powerful question. It determines what it is we’re going to do. It guides us in the direction that we should follow. It advises us on how to get there. It influences exactly how far we’re going to push. It controls how successful we’re going to be. And it’s amazing how many of us have no …

Clarity is defined as “the quality of being clear and easy to understand, see, or hear”. Clarity is an important concept, arguably the most important concept for a small business owner. It affects everything we do, and should infuse every aspect of our business lives. Without clarity, it’s almost as if we’re rowing a boat with only one oar. We …

No one likes making mistakes, but unless we actually do make mistakes, it’s often difficult for us to learn. Author Bryant McGill said “A person who makes few mistakes makes little progress.” We’ve been told since we were small that we should learn from our mistakes. So, is it possible that we’re not making enough mistakes? Does a lack of …

We should all aspire to learn as much as possible from our mistakes. Putting this idea into practice, however, remains a difficult hurdle for most of us to overcome. As humans, often with fragile egos, we try everything in our power to guard our self-image. Our default mode is to try and justify anything we do that could possible be …

Thinking back on when we started our new venture, things were likely different than they are now. We were new. We were hungry. We tried everything we could think of, every trick and technique we could get our hands on, try to get things moving in the right direction. But once we achieved some level of success, things changed. We …

We all want to be good at whatever it is that we do, but the sad fact, the harsh reality, the underlying truth that none of us wants to hear is that we really can’t be good unless first, we’re bad. All of us begin our careers with very limited skills. We have to start out as a bad inspector, …

It seems that we’re all afflicted with the same innate, inborn, biologically driven negativity bias. We can have 20 people tell us that we did a great job, but let one person be less-than-satisfied and we’re liable to dwell on that one negative comment for years to come. If we’re ever to achieve success and be happy, we’ve got to …