At my age it is interesting to think about goals. Career wise, one hopes for more of the same, perhaps a little better year to year. But am I going to take over the world? That seems unlikely, but I very much like the little corner of the world that is mine. Goals at this [...]
This blogging thing can be a head game. I have a tendency to want to write something profound, important, BIG. Big ideas. Big inspiration. The Bible in one page. Real success is probably something smaller. People want to feel that they are are not alone. That their fears are shared. That they are understood. That [...]
The United States Gross Domestic Product will exceed 5% several times in the next six quarters. Health insurance regulations will be rewritten and national association offerings will lower costs and transform the industry. Wages will rise sharply. The Murphy Brown reboot will be a spectacular failure. Robert Pastorelli cannot be replaced. We will still be [...]
Life is unfair. If you expect fairness you will deeply disappointed. You will never be satisfied or content. You will be miserable, and miserable to be around. You will find yourself broken, brittle, like a ship in a gale, shattered on ragged rock. Or you can choose to accept all this unfairness. And take setbacks with [...]
In his book, Willpower Doesn't Work, Benjamin Hardy argues that creating environment, not the will to succeed, is the way to create new and positive habits. Let's say that you want to write every day, which is, not coincidentally, a goal of mine. In the past I tried to force myself to write. I left [...]
It is not enough to service your clients, or even to service them well. Whenever possible, go above and beyond. Make suggestions, deliver something extra, spend time, empathise, care. Put the proverbial bow on the box or the cherry on top of the sundae. Someone might be offended, but it is worth the risk. You may [...]
Answer Yes or No to the following: Is the work you do every day repetitive? Do you know the answer before you start? Can someone be trained to do what you do in a month or less? Is what you do something that any healthy adult can do? Does your work involve forms of any [...]
Where is the modern Algonquin Round Table where artists and thinkers from a variety of disciplines come together to discuss big ideas? Where are the coffeehouses of Vienna where the likes of Jung, Freud, Zweig, Klimt, Loos and Adler would get together and toss about some bon mots? Where are the non-fiction Central Perk, Cheers or [...]
According to an article on the website Futurism, an incinerator in Switzerland was recently fitted with a carbon capture plant that is reportedly 1,000 times more efficient than plant photosynthesis. Filters capture the CO2 over several hours. The filters are then heated to 212 degrees Fahrenheit (no great feat, your teakettle does the same thing and [...]
Wind and solar power are getting more efficient and cheaper all the time. Which is great, as long as the wind blows and the sun shines. The Holy Grail of research in Clean Energy field has been storage. We need bigger, more efficient and cheaper batteries. Well, this is about to happen. According to a [...]
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Boston Properties Inc. Executive VP Raymond Ritchey pointed out, “...The millennial generation [is] moving out of the cities, forming households, having children, looking for better schools and that's going to drive rate demand in the suburbs.” Want to know how to predict the future? Follow the hype and say the opposite [...]
We purchased a new washer and a new dryer several months ago. The washer has a setting called Fan Fresh. When the wash cycle finishes, the machine breathes in fresh air and occasionally tumbles the clothes to keep wrinkles at bay. The Fan Fresh cycle lasts up to 12 hours. When we wash a load [...]
I am listening to Abundance, The Future is Far Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, which is a fascinating book. Far from the usual dystopian view of the world of the future, Diamandis and Kotler outline dozens of ways our lives, and perhaps more importantly, the lives of the "Bottom Billion" [...]
I have not been blogging lately. Instinctively I know this is wrong. I am resting on my laurels, as it were - today's business is due to yesterday's marketing. Which begs the question, what about tomorrow's business? And you know what else? I missed the creative side of it. But life is funny. As I [...]
When you hear the term Protect the Asset, what do you think? Security systems? Insurance? Wealth Management? Form an LLC? I suggest to you, fellow professional, that it is all in your head. More specifically, your brain. Your brain will make you millions of dollars over the course of your career. It is by far your [...]
I was fussing and fuming. Things weren't going my way. I was even having stress dreams. Frustrated, I was ready to declare myself a loser. With a capital L. But then I sat back and thought about it. I don't have control over this thing. There isn't a single concrete action I could take to [...]
There are times in every business when the ol' backlog gets a little, um, thin. Many business people at this juncture do one of two things: (a) panic or (b) slow down. Both responses are perfectly natural. Panic is simply our fight or flight response at work. Our ancestors would panic when they saw a [...]
When we were kids in the 1970s our dad brought us out to lunch at the Rum Runner restaurant in Sea Bright on Christmas Eve Day. The Gagliano Family hosted the big Christmas Eve Dinner, so dad took us out to give mom a respite. We were a bit of a handful in those days. [...]
[ˈhīdˌbound / adjective - unwilling or unable to change because of tradition or convention] My industry is hidebound. Stuck. Full of rules. 50% to 70% of my reports are standard boilerplate that has to be there. That's a lot of senseless murder of trees. After the real estate crash in the early 1990s, the Federal Government decided [...]
It occurred to me recently that the real game-changer in energy won't be the development of new or more efficient sources of energy. The problem with power distribution is that it has to produced on demand - solar panels are useless at night, so another source of power has to be engaged during those hours. [...]
For the record, I am no Pollyanna. Every day I post news items on LinkedIn and Twitter that I think are important. I am objective in my choice of articles. Cross my heart. But I can't ignore the cold, hard facts: Sign of Spring on Pay: Real Wage Growth Spring Thaw Has Companies Hiring Again [...]
Never before in human history has such creative energy been unleashed. There are billions of people creating every day in tweets, blog posts, photographs, videos, music. There is no questions that a lot of it is drivel. Some of it self-aggrandizing nonsense, mean, base and even cruel. But some of it is terrific. True expression, [...]
The housing market is making a comeback. Hard to miss after seven straight years of grinding losses. Perhaps you have noticed a pattern. Certain areas come back first, and often don’t lose as much value as other areas. The answer is often in the land itself. The first settled and built areas were first settled [...]
Finance and economics blog Calculated Risk reported that the United States Budget Deficit is shrinking rapidly, now roughly 4% of GDP, down from over 10% in 2009. Hold on to your hats. All this capital is now available for private investment. Economic growth is likely to be strong for the next several quarters. Prepare accordingly.
It is so clear I can no longer keep it to myself. The next bubble about to burst is America's colleges and universities. My evidence? College tuition costs have been rising faster than household income for years, as can be observed in this chart: Courtesy of businessinsider.com But why is this happening? One [...]
Do you think that your income as a [insert profession here] is limited in some way? If you think so, you are absolutely correct. You will never exceed that number. Except by accident.
