Main Street Favorites: What a Coffee Shop, Fish Market and Bookstore Have in Common
Slowly at first, and then all of a sudden—that’s how The Fault in Our Stars author John Green describes falling asleep or falling in love. Decades earlier, it’s how Ernest Hemingway described the process of going bankrupt. For Dallas coffee shop owners Doug and Liz Davis, it’s precisely the rate at which they nearly lost […]
John C. Maxwell: Are You Stretching toward Your Goals or Just Coasting?
Swimmer Michael Phelps is arguably the greatest American Olympian and one of the greatest competitors of all time. In the 2008 Beijing summer games, Phelps won eight medals—all gold—to break the record for the most hardware ever captured in a single Olympiad and become the most decorated Olympian in history. But it is the race […]
An Ex-Israeli Commander’s Lessons on… FroYo
Walk into any one of the nearly 500 Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt stores in 15 countries and after you’ve paid for your cup of yogurt, the cashier will say something like, “Now you get to make a decision: Do you want a green spoon or a pink spoon?” It’s almost impossible not to grin as you […]
Reading List: The Innovators
The computer and the Internet “are among the most important innovations of our era, but few people know who created them,” writes Walter Isaacson, the best-selling biographer of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. In The Innovators, Isaacson succeeds in filling our knowledge gap by crafting a richly detailed history that traces the evolution […]
How to Lead the Way to Towering Achievements
There was a time, decades ago, when MaryAnne Gilmartin would attend a meeting and most of her fellow participants would ignore her. Real estate development in New York City—especially large-scale, big-building, prestigious-location development—has always tended to be not only male-dominated but also dynasty-dominated, thick with scions of family-controlled companies whose founders began building apartments around […]
When ‘The Voice’ Cameras Are Off
Anyone who has watched Blake Shelton on NBC’s hit singing competition show, The Voice, knows he’s a competitor who takes great pride in his protégés’ wins. But long after they’ve taken home their trophies, Shelton continues his mentorship. Not only does he stay in touch with his three winners (Jermaine Paul, Casadee Pope and Danielle […]
4 Steps to Becoming Internet Famous
Whatever your specialization, you can enhance your authority as an expert via online sharing. These methods have worked for me. 1. Write a blog. Post at least one thoughtful article each week on a subject helpful to your readers. You may soon be invited (or you can offer) to contribute to other blogs, thereby expanding […]
Dominating Business Like a #GIRLBOSS
When she was 5 years old, Sophia Amoruso picked up a red string and ran outside with it flying behind her. She told the rest of the neighborhood kids it was a kite. “Soon everyone had red strings and we all ran together, our kites high in the sky,” she writes in her debut book, […]
Reading List: The Truth Doesn’t Have to Hurt
When given and received in the right way, criticism can be a powerful motivator, a catalyst for change and a valuable learning tool, writes the founder of Bright Enterprises Inc., a consultancy dedicated to improving management and employee performance. The problem is that few of us have learned—let alone mastered—the skills needed to give or […]
And Now, Here He Is… Conan O’Brien, Finally Comfy in Success
Conan O’Brien laughs as he mentions how articles about him, especially in the early days, would talk about how easily things had come to him. It’s ironic now, in hindsight. So he can’t help making a joke about being interviewed by SUCCESS magazine. “Is there another magazine called Failure?” O’Brien asks. “Because I’ve done that […]
Reading List: How to Kill a Unicorn
Innovation consultancy Fahrenheit 212’s mission is to find ways to “turn breakthrough innovation from a hopeful hit-and-miss… into a more predictable growth engine,” writes Mark Payne, the firm’s co-founder and president. To illustrate how Fahrenheit’s underlying principle plays out, he opens with a lively anecdote about a meeting with the team tasked with figuring out […]
Make Corporate Philanthropy Personal—and Competitive—to Succeed
If you have a hard time getting your team pumped about corporate community service, try making it personal and add an element of competition while you’re at it. That’s what the Super Service Challenge, a national competition in its fourth year, is doing. “We know it’s important to work at a giving company,” says Dave […]
