Essays

… writes everyday … builds successful businesses … goes to inspiring conferences … helps my employees reach their goals … is always home for dinner … goes to church every week … reads 50 books per year … lifts weights three times per week Being the kind of person you want to be starts with […]

Learn. Learn everything you can. Read books. Take courses. Find mentors and teachers. Write about what you learn. Document it well. Reflect on it. Internalize it. But don’t stop there. Learning in a vacuum is worthless. It’s the application of the learning that leads to change. The cycle of learning and action and learning and […]

Let’s say you make a product that costs the customer $.99 to buy. Your cost to make the product was $.49. Your gross profit on a product sale is $.50. Let’s say it costs you $.25 to gain a customer through marketing and advertising efforts. Your net profit is $.25, right? Those unit economics work […]

If it costs $1.00 to make and market a product, and you sell the product for $.99, you have a problem. That seems obvious. What’s not so obvious is this: the more products you sell, the more money you lose. No amount of $.01 losses will add up to a profit. Make sure your unit […]

There are many obstacles to running a remote team…. just as there are many advantages. But the single most important factor in keeping the team functional is this: information has to be shared as soon as it’s available and with as many people as possible. Information assymetry is a ticket to politics and rework in […]

One short, simple question. And yet, it catches people so off guard. It’s not normal to hear an open-ended question about what’s most interesting to you right now… or what’s motivating you… or what’s exciting in your life. That’s what makes it the perfect question to spark meaningful conversation. Click to tweet this post.

In 2015, Netflix announced an unlimited maternity and paternity leave policy within twelve months of a baby’s birth. And yet there were detractors (there always will be). “What about the people in the dvd distribution centers?” “What about the customer service representatives?” Yes, of course those parents deserve to be treated well too. Of course […]

Intentional parenting leads to more well-adjusted children and more fulfilled parents. The biggest obstacle to intentional parenting, in many cases, is the conflict between work life and home life. If you provide for a family, and your family depends on your income from your job, your incentive is to generate as much value from that […]

Plenty of leaders lead teams and organizations effectively while also maintaining poor personal habits… And yet there is a growing interest in the research world on the effect of physical fitness on leadership potential. In a recent article in the journal The Academy of Management Perspectives, Taking the Leadership High Road Charles Manz reviews the […]

Somewhere deep inside of you is a wealth of talent, just waiting to be developed. With a strong set of values, a few core beliefs about the world, skills to pay the bills, and the right people to surround yourself with… you could do work you love, day in and day out. It’s not as […]