80% of New Employees Fail Within the First 5 Years

August 19, 2005 |

Have you heard the statistic that says, “80% of new businesses fail within the first five years?” That seems to be a favorite one for people to cite when attempting to discourage their friends or co-workers from starting a new business (with the best of intentions of course). Now can anyone tell me what percentage…

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

August 18, 2005 |

If you found yourself unemployed today, would you want the job you have now? Would you be eager to apply for it? What about your career as a whole? If you’d never worked in your current industry, would you consciously choose to work in it now? Many people just fall into their current line of…

Your Superpower and Your Kryptonite

August 16, 2005 |

What’s your greatest strength? Can you identify it? I’m not saying your greatest strength is necessarily unique, and it probably won’t put any comic book heroes to shame. But if you can identify any strengths at all, then one of them must be your greatest (or at least a few are tied for first place).…

How to Decide When to End a Long-term Relationship

August 15, 2005 |

Relationships are among of the most complex aspects of our lives, particularly long-term relationships such as marriage. Your relationships can elevate you to new heights or drag you down into the dumps. But what if you’re somewhere in the middle? What if your relationship is pretty good, like a 7 on a scale of 1…

Get Involved Anyway, Even if You Think It Won’t Help

August 11, 2005 |

Many years ago I was listening to one of Brian Tracy’s audio programs where he recommended getting involved with some kind of trade organization, so you could surround yourself with potential mentors. He went on to tell his story of getting involved with his local Chamber of Commerce and how massively it catapulted him forward…

Life Lessons From Poker

August 10, 2005 |

Since I received positive feedback on Life Lessons From Blackjack last week, I thought I’d share some lessons I learned from poker as well. Background Again, feel free to skip the background story if you just want to read the lessons part. I only include this for the curious. I first learned to play poker…

Getting Organized

August 9, 2005 |

Years ago my family and I moved from a cramped two-bedroom apartment into a spacious house. Instead of having to squeeze my home office in half a room, I finally had a nice 10′ x 12′ room all to myself. Since I was accustomed to working in less than half this area, I knew I’d…

How to Predict Your Future

August 8, 2005 |

How many times have you seen a friend in a relationship that was going downhill, and you could just tell it was going to end badly, yet your friend was oblivious to it? It’s hard to get past our own biases and see where our own path is likely to lead, but we can often…

How NOT to Build a Successful Online Business

August 6, 2005 |

Darren Rowse of Problogger.net recently posted a case study of a blogger who decided to quit blogging after six months due to poor financial results: Blog Case Study – Is it time to Quit? Darren’s post is a great read for anyone who runs an online business, not just for bloggers. Interestingly, the points Darren…

Freeing Mental RAM

August 5, 2005 |

It’s been said that a short pencil is better than a long memory. But how well do you actually follow this advice? Every day we generate new information, and effectively capturing and organizing it is a challenge. Fortunately, software makes it easy to do this, so I encourage you to dump more of your personal…