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As a professional speaker, I spend a lot of time in airports. In fact, I just returned from about two weeks on the road, and I noticed something interesting about people when they’re in airports. What I noticed was this:
A lot of people in an airport begin their sentences with the phrase, “With my luck…”
“With my luck…
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We’re well into January, and I’m guessing that by now you’ve already begun abandoning your well thought out and well intentioned New Years resolutions. And they were well intentioned, weren’t they? That’s because it’s so much easier to be optimistic when you’re looking at the new year through the rosy vapors of last night’s champagne. But then stark reality ...
People often ask me, “Bill, what’s the secret to a successful life?”
Okay, that’s a lie. People almost never ask me that. But, given that I’m a multiple Emmy Award winning TV producer, they do occasionally ask me what the secret is to being a successful producer. And you know what? It turns out that the factors that made me a successful television producer are also the factors that can make you successful in life. Because, when you think about it, ...
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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 ...
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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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“When everything is running smoothly, there’s no impetus to change, to grow, to progress. It’s only when things stop running smoothly—when they break—that we suddenly look at alternatives and discover, often to our amazement, that there’s a better way.”
Oh, I know—you’ve got enough problems to deal with without tinkering with the stuff that’s already working. “The water’s already choppy,” you ...
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We all love a risk-taker, don’t we? The business owner, the entrepreneur, the CEO who has a big idea, then boldly rolls the dice with a “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” attitude. We look at them with wonder and envy, and jealously applaud them when they make it big. We hear people tell us, “You have to take ...
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How many opportunities (including BIG ones) are you leaving on the table because you’re ignoring the small game?
I was just reading an interview with Paul McCartney’s bass player, Brian Ray (and what kind of pressure must that be—playing bass for one of the greatest rock bassists of all time?!). The interviewer asked the obvious question: “So, how did you get the McCartney gig?” I think Brian’s answer is a great business lesson for all of us. Here’s what he said:
“In ...
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How much time are you wasting trying to solve problems that could simply be eliminated?
I once spent nearly an entire summer trying to solve a problem. But when I finally came around to eliminating the problem instead, the “solution” seemed so simple! Here’s what happened.
I was the producer of a sketch comedy TV show in Seattle called Almost Live! We were a one-hour show, airing Sundays at 6pm (a terrible time for sketch comedy, by the way). In addition to ...
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I just got off the phone with a colleague who was complaining (whining, really) about the fact that nobody seemed to have any money to hire him. It’s the economy, of course. A few years ago, people had money, and he was being hired. Now, it’s dried up. Damn this economy!
To a certain extent, he’s right—things were easier a few years ago. But he was wrong when he said that nobody has any money. Because here’s the truth:
There’s always money ...
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