Not long ago, a young man named Tucker came over to my house to give me an estimate on a home repair. I didn‘t have to talk to him for very long before I realized he had a severe stutter. Every third or fourth word he spoke was accompanied with an awkward pause while he […]
Can I get personal with you for a minute? From the moment I first saw the Monkees on TV as a kid (if you don’t know who that is, ask your mom), I knew that I wanted to be a singer. As soon as I could, I learned to play guitar and began writing songs. […]
Not long ago, my wife got all excited about the new season of Dancing with the Stars, so she signed us up for a dance class. The class turned out to be, um, less than ideal. It turned out that our teacher had no actual teaching ability and her dancing partner seemed to thrive on […]
If you made a list of your top priorities at work, how far would customer service be from the top? If I called the people who work with you, would they tell me that you are pretty good at customer service, or would they tell me you are great at it? Great customer service isn’t […]
Working as a keynote speaker for the past 20 years has allowed me the opportunity of talking to a lot of presidents and CEOs of successful companies. When I get in front of such people, I’ve made it habit to ask them, “Why are you so successful? What did you do right with this company?” The […]
Your customer shouldn’t have to interrogate you just to get a solution for her problem. She shouldn’t have to pin you to the wall and force you to sell her something. She shouldn’t have to chase you down to give you her money. You would think this would be a fairly obvious concept, but for […]
There are essentially two ways that people discover their purpose. One way is not better than the other, and either way is better than sitting around waiting for your fairy godmother to tell you what it is that you’re here for. The passion-based method Take a couple pounds of passion The first way to find […]
One of my favorite movie scenes of all time is in The Matrix. Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) sit facing each other in old leather armchairs. The room they are in mirrors the chairs perfectly. In what appears to have once been upscale decor, old paper peels off the wall and every surface […]
I have become a fan of Guy Goma’s! When he was mistaken on live television for Guy Kewney, technology expert, he had a big decision to make in the space of about 2 seconds. Does he explain the error on live TV and possibly embarrass the reporter, or does he go for it at least try […]
In the past, I have mentioned the subject of discipline when I talked about learning to play the drums. Anyone who has ever learned to play an instrument or paint or play a sport knows that type of discipline—playing a phrase over and over until you get it right, running a play until it is seamless, […]
