I love that people today are asking more and more questions.  I have to wonder if this is true because social media engages us to think about things we wouldn’t necessarily ponder on our own.  This in turn begs a question in itself—as in, are our thoughts truly ours?  Or is our point of view formed by something we’ve read, or experienced, or perhaps based, at least in part, on someone else’s ideas? Well, I’d say yes, yes, and most likely—yes.   "Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the only one who asked why." Bernard Baruch We all see life through the lens of our own experience.  When we engage others with different experiences, we create an environment where...

Have you ever looked back at your first attempt at doing something? If you’re like me, I tend to focus on how badlythat first effort went.  What was I thinking …or better yet, what wasn’t I thinking?! But on the flip side, consider all those things you are good at in life.  As Malcolm Gladwell tells it, the rule goes like this: it takes 10,000 hours of intense practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials.  If you’re among those who’ve enjoyed the benefit of circling the sun as many times as have I, you’ve probably acquired several skills with 10,000 hours invested.  You just need to remember whatever that skill is, it started developing with that first hour.  And...

In his new book What’s In It For Them, Joe Polish states, “The secret to success in life and business is learning how to connect and form relationships with other people — and most people do not know how to do that.”   Nowhere do you see this play out more than in our day-to-day connected lives where, if you’re inner focused on your own process and solutions, you’ll soon be passed over by an ever-changing world.  New innovations and best practices surface every day but if we’re not looking forthem, we’re going to miss them.  Or as Dan Sullivan with Strategic Coach puts it "Our eyes only see, and ears only hear what we are looking for.” Are you looking...

Jeff Bezos once famously said: “All overnight success takes about 10 years.” He knows of what he speaks as is evident in some of the highlights/challenges from Amazon’s first 10 years: ● 1994     Bezos realizes two things: internet traffic grew 2300% in the previous year and doing business on the internet is about to become legal. ● 1995     Chooses books from 20 categories to launch a business from his garage. Initially names company Cadabra, which sounded a little too much like cadaver, so he changes it to Amazon. ● 1998     Invests in Google. ● 2001     Copies Costco’s low price model. ● 2005     Launches Prime at the 10-Year Mark!         Not one...

Not yet is a term we use almost every day, both with our customers and within our team.  There’s so much to learn and so many waste streams to tackle that it’s often best for us to learn, analyze, and wait for another day to attempt to take on.   Some time ago, we had a great discussion with managers at a large apartment complex.  We reviewed the services we offered that would benefit theapartment owners and tenants.  They agreed, but there was clearly something else on their mind that wasn’t coming out in the conversation.   As we often do, we asked them—what’s the biggest waste problem you have that doesn’t have a solution?  To our surprise, the answer...