“Hey, Wally, it’s Barry from your deep, dark past. I’d love to catch up. Call me.” I stared that the phone, as if it could explain things to me. The last time I talked to Barry, he was heading off to college and I was heading to the Marines. Before that we’d competed in all kinds of pick-up » Read More
Tag: Success
Lessons from “The Mary Gloster”
I long to be sophisticated but sometimes I must have some old time rock and roll or a corn dog or my favorite ragged, but comfortable jeans. And sometimes only Rudyard Kipling will do for reading matter. His best known poem is probably “If” but my favorite is “The Mary Gloster.” It’s long as » Read More
Return on Failure
Failures happen, even to business legends like Jack Welch, who admits that he made some whoppers. In the running for biggest failure is surely the acquisition of Kidder Peabody by General Electric (GE). In 1986, GE spent $600 million to buy an 80 percent interest in Kidder Peabody. More investment followed and by 1990 GE » Read More
Listen for Engagement
Engagement is great stuff. No two people agree on a precise definition of engagement, even though everybody agrees that it creates all kinds of good things. That’s OK, though, because they can give it the Potter Stewart test. “Don’t worry,” they tell you, “I know it when I see » Read More
The Urban Legend of the Great Goal Study
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Researchers surveyed the graduating seniors from the class of 1953 at Yale University. They asked if the class members had written goals for their future. Three percent did. The rest did not. Twenty years later, researchers went back to the surviving members of the class. They » Read More