A quick note, before we start — I am going to talk about clients and customers as the same thing. I view all customers as clients as I live in a relationship world. I have an ongoing relationship with all customers, thus all of my customers are clients. I apologize if this is confusing for anyone that […]

Today is Cyber Monday! Likely the biggest shopping day for e-commerce retailers. Probably the day following the biggest weekend of the year for retail stores. Retailers of all kinds are probably selling more this time of year…but at what cost? However, competing in a low-cost marketplace is dangerous and very few win. Just ask Wal-mart, […]

When it comes to vacations, when are you happiest? -One month before you leave -Three days into the trip -As soon as you return According to research out of the Netherlands published in the Applied Research in Quality of Life, sadly, we are happiest when we are planning the vacation. In fact, when we return, […]

Chances are that you own a product made by Apple, as about 63 percent of those between the ages 18 and 49 own at least one Apple product, based on a survey completed by CNBC. Apple doesn’t have to worry about that growth slowing either, as those homes with at least one Apple product actually own […]

I run an order fulfillment company called Riley Life Logistics (www.rileylife.com).  While this story of how I created a vision for our company relates specifically to my business, I think that it is important to create a driving vision for your company.  In my case, there was a moment when everything changed.  That doesn’t have […]

There is a tale of a Chinese farmer who had an old horse used for tending his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills. The farmer went to the Zen master for wisdom saying, “This is so bad!” The Zen master replied, “Good? Bad? We will see.” A few days later, the horse returned […]

Increasingly, I’ve observed behavior that disturbs me. In fact, I’ve realized that unless I catch myself, I actually act like this, too (from time to time). What I’ve witnessed is that other people are quite often treated like servants or objects in the eyes of people rather than human beings with lives and stories. Think […]

Anyone that is around me for very long learns that I’m a pretty big Seth Godin fan or maybe even more. Seth probably inspires more of my inspirational thought than anyone else in the business community. I read his blog daily and reference his books and teachings on a regular basis. Last Saturday, he posted a blog that […]

I’ve been doing some deep personal leadership exploration over the past month or so. I attended a retreat in Wilmington, NC with Grinnell Leadership in May and last week I was in Michigan with the Edward Lowe Foundation. Each had a different focus and a different way of going about the personal development that took place. I love […]

For some reason I don’t make too many little mistakes.  When I make mistakes, I make big ones.  When I fall, I don’t scuff my knees, I break bones.  When I do damage to bridges in relationships, I don’t burn the bridge, I blow it up.  This way of life really kind of sucks, to […]

I find it helpful for me to pick a theme for phases of my life.  This theme forces me to focus on modification of one important negative behavior that I feel is detrimental to my well-being and overall happiness.  For the last year or so, my theme was “Fewer and Deeper.”  I was trying to […]

My 5-year-old daughter has a genetic disease that acts similar to a slow moving, incurable cancer.  It is called Hurler’s Syndrome.  There are only about 250 kids known to have the disease in the US, and roughly 1 in every 500,000 births.  She had a bone marrow transplant in November 2010 to try to slow […]

Fictional characters don’t make mistakes that they can’t overcome.  Real people do.  Fictional characters don’t have secrets.  Real people do.  Fictional characters don’t have traits that we don’t know about that suddenly come out to the public.  Real people do.  And unfortunately, this “real people” aspect often causes us to feel defrauded as fans of […]

2 Thoughts/Suggestions as you approach 2012. 1. It’s not about change – but improvement.  Change is tough.  It involves a complete shift, probably changing environment, habits, behaviors, and a lot of other resources and variables that may or may not be within our grasp.  What we should all really trying for is improvement.  Rather than turn […]

It is way too easy to surround ourselves with noise.  And we try to for some reason.  I think that most people are afraid to sit in a quiet place and actually be with themselves.  Most of us don’t like to be alone nor sit in silence – left with only our thoughts.  I’m not […]

I have been thinking a lot about what causes people to become truly great, what kind of family do they come from, what key events took place in their lives, what their parents were like, what people crossed their path that positively impacted them, what book did they read, who are their mentors.  Recently, I […]

A year before Riley was born, Allison and I had a miscarriage. For a young married couple trying to have children, it was absolutely devastating. We walked into the doctor’s office that day, expecting to see and hear our first child for the first time. There are very few worse feelings than not hearing something […]

If you know me at all, you probably realize that the last year of my life has been all but common – the kind of year that will either strengthen or break a person. I decided from the beginning that I would not let it break me. “We acquire the strength we have overcome.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson […]

I have a theme that I’ve adopted for at least the next year or so of my life. The theme is “fewer and deeper.” What I mean by this is that I’m looking to have fewer priorities, fewer relationships, fewer obligations, fewer commitments, and fewer expectations. I need less so that I can go deeper. I want […]

My second child – Brady – was born a month or so ago. As you know, I have a daughter, Riley, who is 4 years old.  Ultimately, Brady’s conception and birth have led me (amongst other recent events) on a thought journey around a deeper dive into fatherhood; in particular, the following: My main thought […]

I’ve recently moved into a new house. I’m very close to a Wal-mart and a Target. I have done a bit of shopping at each store over the past month and seem to be a relative expert of the discount retail market dominated by these two. I have one observation – the demographics of the […]

Last Monday, Riley (my 4 year old daughter) had a routine MRI.  In our world, MRI’s are relatively routine.  Riley had a bone marrow transplant in November 2010 to treat a genetic disease that she has called Hurler’s Syndrome. We had a 10AM appointment at Duke.  We arrived around 9:30, made our way to the Pediatric Radiology […]

Have you ever thought about the value of a minute of your time? Think about how productive you could be if you aimed to do something of value with each minute of your time. As I work to try to get more value out of my day, I started thinking about how I not only spend […]

I have a problem. It turns out that it is probably more serious than I thought or than you might expect. It might actually be an addiction. Also, turns out that many others have this same problem and many worse than I do. I am addicted to my “smart” phone. It made a noise – […]