I may miss a day every now and then. I haven’t gotten to the point where I’ve been able to build up a backlog of written ideas or posts that are completed in advance. Every now and then I’m able to get maybe 5 days ahead but it seems like with every valley there is…
The truth is the most painful advice to give.
Society trains us to not hurt peoples feelings. Everyone at some point gives bad news with a silver lining or delays breaking the bad news until the last possible moment hoping that it will go away or get better. We avoid those tough conversations and it doesn’t help anyone except make us feel selfishly better….
How I learned to let go and trust others to get work done.
When friends get married it’s not possible to work through the festivities. It’s the ultimate reason to shut off the computer, turn the critical assignments over to others, and bust a move or three in a safe place among friends. It’s hard though if you haven’t learned to trust others with your work. Just as…
Taking what you’re given is easy….but also really hard.
I’m a 28 year old who is constantly checking the mirror hoping to see the grey hairs start coming in. Consulting – and real estate especially -seems to be all about an air of experience. If the image doesn’t meet the initial expectation you get put into the wrong category. The uphill climb is pretty…
Shhh….your business model is a secret.
I’ve posted a few Harvard Business Review posts of late and here’s another. It’s not intentional – it’s not usually the type of thing that I find to be game changing – but they are certainly on their game of late. The latest is on Pixar’s “Secret Story Guidelines” which detail their secret to making…
Fear is a Learned Trait
Some business professionals seem to operate without fear of failure. They dive into their next task with abandon and don’t worry about the many numerous pitfalls that may reach out and grab them along the way. Others take the path of always looking in their mirrors for hazards. The know the traps are there and…
Ambiguity and Decision Making
Ambiguity: of information, in words, pictures, or other media, is the ability to express more than one interpretation. It is generally contrasted with vagueness, in that specific and distinct interpretations are permitted (although some may not be immediately apparent), whereas with information that is vague it is difficult to form any interpretation at the desired…
The Art of Efficiency (let’s not talk about it)
Efficient. Buzz word. Through and through there is no word that has less meaning to daily use ratio. Whenever I hear someone talk about becoming more efficient or improving this or that efficiency I can’t help but stop and ask why they are being willfully inefficient to begin with. Saying you are going to do…
Free Culture thoughts
A friend loaned me a copy of the book Free Culture which has been an extremely thought provoking read so far (5 hours on planes yesterday and I’m a bit over half way through). The topic of the book is specifically focused on copyright and the impact technology has had on our creative culture since…
Portfolio work….the real estate kind
Real Estate portfolios for large organizations could take up a full course in Industrial Engineering classes. It is the classic complex structure that keeps so many of our skills sharp. Take your typical Fortune 500 manufacturing firm. You have your manufacturing sites in the US, China, Brazil, Mexico and other locations. Then you move to…