The business of baseball and the business of technology are, in many ways, alike. Both types of organization are trying to assemble a balanced but elite team that ultimately dominates their industry. Each pays the “appropriate” amount for the talent that could get them there. The simple difference is the…
I always take a window seat when I travel on an airplane — even if it means denying my kids that very joy. I love seeing the grind of the plane as it rolls down the runway, lifts off the runway and barrels towards the heavens as the earth gets…
There is nothing that beats a fast “no”. Doesn’t matter what language, what circumstance, what context — a fast “no” is the greatest gift to receive. Don’t mistake a fast no with every other type of “no” that is used. There is the “no, but” <– NOT a fast no….
Pandemic supply-chain issues aside, closing the loop is the ENTIRE goal of e-commerce: To enable customers to find and purchase product. Dollars spent in building, promoting, staffing, warehousing and fulfilling are directed to one thing: Closing the sale. Here’s a tale of two e-commerce experiences that show both sides of…
Corporate America is about to be tested. There is a revolution that is underway that will challenge even the most financially secure companies in a way that has never before been seen. The fundamentals of how and where work gets done is changing. For the first time since office buildings,…
We’ve all heard the story of Billy Bean by now. The GM of the Oakland A’s who was immortalized in the Michael Lewis book Moneyball and had Brad Pitt play him in the movie adaptation. As a baseball fan and stats geek, this book was one of the most accessible…
“Can I get your postal code?” We’ve all had this question as we check out of our grocery store or local Ikea. Companies looking for our data to help them service us better. The optimist in me hopes that retailers ask for your postal code to better understand what parts…
Do something different. Challenge the status quo. Don’t build something that already exists. Stop building features, build products that move people. Be innovative. Be first. Be unique. This is the pressure and scrutiny of every single idea that gets floated by every single entrepreneur in the world. It is a…
It seems as though I am always consuming content. A nonstop treadmill of daily news, ideas-based podcasts, audiobooks, books books, documentaries, reality television and the fictional worlds of Bobby Axelrod and John Dutton. It’s a lot. When I pull in content my goal isn’t to learn every concept that is…
Imagine having a baseball team with two future Hall of Fame players on it during the same season. Then picture that team stacked with perennial all-stars and a 74-40 record (best in the major leagues) and heading into the second half of August with a 6 game lead on the…
When I was younger, in my early 20’s or thereabouts, and starting my first technology business, I was seeking advice and building my network. After each meeting with someone I would ask if they could make a recommendation of anyone else I should meet within the community. Invariably they would…
After most dinners, my kids ask for the natural nightcap to a great meal — dessert. We go through a back and forth that usually sounds like this: Me: “How many steps have you taken? You know the rule, if you don’t hit your step goal there is no dessert.”…
“And one thing change’ll bring is somethin’ new” Steve Earle There are times in history that are always discussed by the elders as before and after it. There was a time before electricity altered the working day. A time before the Internet made everything and everyone in the world accessible….
I’ve had a number of conversations over the last couple of weeks during this pandemic about fighting to win versus fighting to not lose. They were spurred by the global shutdown but they are rooted in two very different business philosophies. It is hard to talk about pushing for growth…
Does this sound familiar? You decide to take a family vacation one morning so you pack up the car full of things you may need on that vacation, gather up the kids and the dog, jump in the car and then figure out where you want to go. It seems…
I don’t think I finished my first book, cover to cover, until I was 13. It was as if my eyelids responded to words on a page like they were tiny sleeping pills, each one just…making…my…eyes…so……..heavy. I couldn’t read without falling asleep. So I didn’t. In high school and university…
Do you remember that scene from Austin Powers? That scene has been playing out in my head as we slowly emerge from the clutches of the pandemic and head into the next great unknown. It’s very clear that recovery will look like a good old recession but one the likes…
This twitter post by Hiten is as perfect a sentence that can be written and should give hope to every entrepreneur out there. You don’t need to invent the industry, you don’t need to be a pioneer and pave the way and you certainly don’t need to give up because…
If you can sing you are a threat. If you can sing and dance you are a double threat. If you can sing, dance and act you are a triple threat. The difference between them is that you can make a living doing one or all of them. The more…
And where do we go from here?Which is a way that’s clear. Rock on: David Essex We are over 80 days confined to home and are mostly a mixed bag of anxiety and anticipation as our economy slowly rolls open. We’ve never been here before. We’ve never had this kind…
Do you have mentor envy? I always do when I hear about co-workers or friends talking about meeting their mentors for coffee or bouncing an idea off their mentors. Where are all these mentors and why don’t I have one anymore? One of the greatest things to do for your…
Hustling Is a young mind’s game. That doesn’t mean that it is only for the young, it means that to do it all the time is to waste energy that could be used better elsewhere. My first thought when someone says the word hustle is of James Spader in any…
Creating something out of nothing is incredibly difficult. Think about what that means. An idea occurs, usually as a cumulative result of years of subconscious data gathering and observation. Then the idea is somehow articulated and refined and built. A million things have to go right to succeed and a…
It takes a certain kind of crazy to get into building a company around hardware. To invent something from scratch that people find valuable is hard enough at the best of times, to do it by creating a physical manifestation of that is near impossible for many reasons. Then to…
I love working. I love that feeling when you know you are contributing to building something greater than just you. Call it work ethic or elbow grease or being reliable — call it whatever you want — but doing the work is what makes me happy. This wasn’t always the…
We all have an ego. It varies in size, weight and visibility, but we all have one. It is human nature to want to mean something in the world or to be admired for something that we’ve accomplished. It starts as a child looking for approval from a parent or…
When I was a kid I only loved Elvis Presley and baseball. These were both incredibly important and influential in their own way but weren’t things that I could realistically do anything with. But go ahead and ask me who played centre field for the Montreal Expos in 1983. Then…
Failure used to be a thing to avoid. The last thing you’d ever want to do is fail — especially at business. This fear of failure was motivation. Failure was hard to admit and harder to recover from mostly because of the way we interpret the perception of others on…
I used to think I had a screen problem and then everyone started working from home. Now I KNOW I have a screen problem. I sit at my dining room table all day and stare into my computer. There are some days where I have 6 hours of video calls…
I prefer video calls. There is something to be said about seeing the other person respond to the conversation in real time. Body language is reactive and those nuances are irreplaceable if you plan on having meaningful conversations that move your business. The thing that makes video so powerful is…
