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Jim Rohn once said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” While there are certainly exceptions to this axiom, there’s enough truth in it that it might behoove us to pay attention. And by “pay attention” I mean “pay attention to just whom we’re hanging around with.” Let me give you an ...
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I recently had the privilege of delivering the opening keynote address at the annual convention of Mensa. This can be a little intimidating, because the sole requirement for membership in Mensa is that you be a genius (in the top 2% of IQ). Granted, I’m a member, but I’m pretty sure I got in under some sort of affirmative ...
My dad is turning 91 today. He never planned to be around this long. Both of his parents died young (his father, my grandfather, died at age 42), so he just kind of assumed that he would too. But here he is, nearly 50 years later, still chugging along.
Most of us don’t plan to live until 91. Oh, we say we do—but we don’t act like it. We have no plan, and we certainly have no savings. Most of us ...
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I recently read a New York Times Magazine article that says that in the late 19th century there was a theory about how human beings improve in their activities. The theory said that a person “could improve at mental and physical activities until he hit a wall, which he cannot by any education or exertion overpass.” In other words, there’s a point for each of us where we can’t improve anymore.
Turns out that’s not altogether true. Current research, as the ...
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Creativity and innovation are the currencies of the future. This is not a surprise any more than it is debatable. The rate of change has never been as fast as it is today, and it will only get faster. Nobody—not even the so-called “futurists”—really knows what’s coming around the corner, so the only defense (which is also the best offense) is to nurture and cultivate the creative talent in your organization. Creativity is the ultimate skill set for dealing with ...
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I recently read a wonderful book called Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan. Since I’d written a book extolling the business virtues of the Beatles, I was curious to see how these two iconic bands stacked up in the world of corporate smarts. In some areas I found that their methods (whether conscious or not) were similar; ...
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Our business lesson today, boys and girls, comes from a spider (and not in one of those hokey “Charlotte’s Web” kind of ways). A spider, whom I’ll call “Henry” because that’s what my girlfriend and I named him, has built a web just outside my front door, right by the porch light. Now, given that most other flying insects (and ...
So there was this band from England. Not London. Somewhere up north—a place called Liverpool. They were a hit in their hometown, but hadn’t really made much of a splash anywhere else (except for a few clubs in Hamburg). They had gotten a recording contract, and even put out a record—a simplistic little song called Love Me Do. It ...
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What if, on the day John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met, Lennon (who was the leader of his own band, The Quarrymen) had said, “You know, this McCartney fellow is pretty good—but I’ll bet if I look around I can find somebody cheaper.”
If that had happened, there’s a very good chance that you and I would never have heard of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, or ...
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Yesterday I gave a keynote speech at a resort and spa nestled in the Colorado Rockies. (Hey, sometimes you get a resort; sometimes you get a Motel 3.) This resort had signs posted throughout the facility touting a luxury pedicure available in the spa. This was the last line of the sign:
Continue Reading →“A pedicure from [name of spa] will be ...