Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Did you know that last year 550,000 books were published? Add in blogs, Twitter, email, and Facebook, and the sheer volume of reading options becomes overwhelming. Figuring out what non-fiction to read is hard work. Even once you’ve narrowed your focus to a subject, deciding on an author or book takes precious time and effort.
Making the job still more difficult is the fact that each non-fiction book has two qualities: quality of content and quality of writing, and they’re often confused.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
I wanted to share an excellent post I came across that perfectly fits one of the themes of this blog. It was written by a new Twitter acquaintance, Bud Caddell. The heart of it is a Venn diagram he created titled “How to Be Happy in Business.” Many thanks to Bud for allowing me to repost it here:
Sunday, December 6, 2009
I spent a couple of hours last night talking shop with a friend. While sitting in his garage converted into a smoking lounge, he asked if I missed my past corporate job (I’m now a small business owner). I’ve been asked this before, and I told him I missed two or three things about it.
But overall I really liked where I am and shared why: As a small business owner my wife and I are able to live well financially (though there is no private plane purchase on the horizon) as well as enjoy quite a bit of freedom as to to how we spend our time.
When it comes to business size, traditionally bigger has often been considered better. Though I’ve never run a big business, I’ve noticed something that you probably have as well… Running a larger business usually requires greater management responsibilities and time commitments from the leader. If you desire free time in addition to financial reward, a profitable small business could very well be the vehicle that helps you attain a great quality of life.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
In an ideal world virtually everyone would build a business…at least if they’re interested in getting paid twice for their hard work. For a number of reasons building a business is a good decision.
Three are the most obvious and popular – making money, working less, and future saleability. You’ve most likely read about the first two. This post will focus on that third reason, which is perhaps the most important – future salability…how you can get paid twice for all of your nine-to-five effort.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Much of our success and happiness in life depends upon our ability to understand and relate well with others. To that end, I wanted to share the most valuable tool I’ve found to assist in the quest. I use it daily, and I hope that it will be as helpful for you as it has been for me.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
A topic that has captivated me for almost a decade is that of the culture found within faith-based organizations, both for profit and non-profit. These organizations often possess special assets, but they also face unusual challenges. This post briefly touches on both and puts forth an analogy of how a successful faith-based for-profit company might operate.
Though I think the analogy also fit non-profits, this will largely focus on the former, and by the description I mean a company that operates in a normal, secular industry but whose founder or culture is heavily intertwined with some form of religious faith.
I’ve had a fair amount of experience with several for-profit businesses that are heavily faith-based, in particular Christian. While in college I had a part-time internship with a company like this, have worked as an executive and in smaller roles for a for-profit company that had a high percentage of faith-based employees, and now own and run a small company that by and large fits my definition above.
