An Employee to Copy

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The other night my wife and I were discussing the fact that so many folks today, especially younger employees, have no interest in providing exemplary service. Their attitude so often wreaks of indifference. You know – you’ve experienced it. So it comes as quite an ironic twist that one day after that discussion I run into Jamie [...]

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Caution: Brief and Occasional Train Noise

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Are you ever tempted to downplay shortcomings, either in your own business or when evaluating someone else’s? This past weekend my wife and I took a journey up to the Pacific Northwest. We booked a hotel that had great reviews, was right on the water, had a spa, and was close to the center of [...]

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One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer

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One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer is a famous song from George Thorogood and a familiar refrain heard by bartenders the world over. And few are as memorable as Charles Blades. How memorable you ask?

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You’ve Got to Get Your Teeth Kicked In

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During my years at OppenheimerFunds, I spent a ton of time training future bank platform reps how to sell mutual funds. Each month the Mutual Funds 1 class would begin with participant introductions, and I could tell from the wide eyes and hesitant voices that these New Account Representatives were not quite ready to embark [...]

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Lay On The Floor And Look Up

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When my wife and I built our first home we had little experience with the builder walk through. This is where you are handed a ‘tick sheet’ and asked to go through the home and note any of the issues that the builder needs to resolve . One of my coworkers suggested laying face up on the floor in the middle [...]

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When Did You Stop Learning?

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Last week I had lunch with my friend Mike. His brother “Jake” sells commercial insurance. He has created a focused and tight niche directed at commercial divers. Guys and gals that weld, say, gas lines in the middle of the ocean. It seems that Jake has made quite a name for himself in his niche. [...]

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Are You An Automatic?

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Way back in the early 1980′s I helped establish a small executive search firm in Los Angeles. As we were new on the scene and competing against larger and more established firms, our goal was to get in the game. We wanted to be considered in the same thought as the ‘big’ players when an [...]

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