Good Examples
This is a story about how hardcore, ultra-conservatives found common ground with a bunch of hippies. I know that seems unlikely these days, but it happened not that long ago. And this happening is loaded with business lessons. Our story begins soon after the turn of the millennium, in 2002, when the Internet was just…
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I heard a great story the other day about a hotel owner who raked in more revenue by thinking differently about what he sells. This story is not just for bigwigs with hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place. This applies to YOU and me and anyone else who wants to… …delight customers… ….forge stronger relationships…
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Theodor Geisel was born on this day in 1904. You know him as Dr. Seuss. In honor of his birthday, I wrote a little something. Not as good as he used to do, but maybe worth a minute of your reading time… When I earned a diploma, I got many a gift. A watch. And a…
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Remember the famous, “I can tell if she’s faking…” scene in When Harry Met Sally? Harry (Billy Crystal) insists his partners have never…ummm…faked it. Sally (Meg Ryan) says women fake it all the time. Harry’s not buying it. So Sally proves the point by… …putting down her turkey sandwich and… …well… …faking it… …enthusiastically… …right there…
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I was thinking this morning about Huck Finn and his friend Jim, the runaway slave. Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on this day in 1885. I first read it ialmost 100 years later when I was a junior in high school. And for two years after college, I was an English teacher who taught…
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Back in the early fifties, when he was trying to build a park like no other, Walt Disney needed to raise some dough. Disneyland was going to cost him $17 million to build. That’s equal to around $165 million today. Walt and his company had done pretty well. But not THAT well so… …he launched…
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I used to think Eddie Murphy was fearless. I mean think of him at his peak… He was a badass. A comedy legend. Full of bluster. The coolest cat in town. This guy: Fearful? No way! Then, I saw him on a 2019 episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and… Eddie said…
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I was 9 years old when Henry Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record. I watched him hit number 715 on TV with my brother and my dad. We celebrated the feat. I didn’t have a clue what he’d gone through. Even some of his teammates now say they didn’t know… …He received tons…
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When I was a younger business person, I never thought much about mindset. Meditation? Not for me. Visualization? No, thanks. Self-affirmation? Not a chance. I think it was Stuart Smalley’s fault. Remember him? He was a recurring character on Saturday Night Live in the 1990s. Al Franken played the part before he left SNL to…
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Remember that movie with Mel Gibson playing a male chauvinist pig who magically acquires the superpower to “hear” women’s thoughts? I just heard a real-life version of that story. Both the real-life and Hollywood versions reveal a ton about marketing. The real-life story features a marketing guy named Ben Settle who, like Gibson’s character, has…
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