Always Plan For The Worst Back in the 90s, I was working for a large petroleum company selling bulk fuel and had just booked a large contract.  My manager was extremely excited about the new business – primarily because the new business meant a potentially huge bonus.    When I was forecasting the new agreement’s … Continue reading How To Prepare For Anything In Business →

How Do I Stand Out? “How do I stand out from the crowd and get noticed?” I get this question a lot from young executives in my company.  I totally understand the confusion.   When I was 25, no one told me what it really took to get ahead in business.  Here’s the thing, this … Continue reading How To Stand Out In A Crowded Workplace →

You Never Know Where You Might Learn Something I love zombie movies. I think it’s the fact that I can immerse myself in two hours of mindless entertainment or, it could be the fact that zombies are just plain cool. Either way, I really, enjoy them. With this in mind a few years ago I … Continue reading How Zombies Made Me A Better Decision Maker →

Made It Through Another One I put my head on the table and let out a huge exhale.  For over two months I had waited for this phone call. In early December, my company announced that it would be engaging in one of the biggest restructures in company history.  A constantly evolving world demanded that … Continue reading The Best Career Advice You’ll Ever Get →

Failure is a word that most people almost never want to be associated with. It conjures up images of discomfort, disappointment and heartache. However, when you hear stories of extremely successful people, one of the first things highlighted is how they failed far more than they succeeded. How can something that potentially creates a great … Continue reading Failing Forward →

Please!  Sell My Stuff! Many years ago, I was a “buyer” for a large west coast food and beverage retailer and worked with almost every Consumer Products Company (CPG) in existence. Although the product lines changed, the selling story from almost every company was pretty much the same – “This is a great product, look at … Continue reading How To Be A Highly Effective Account Manager →

A Force To Be Reckoned With A few years ago, I attended an industry event and had the honor of spending the weekend with a former NFL player who absolutely dominated the free safety position from 2002 – 2009.  Despite his NFL success, this former “pro bowler” was not a highly recruited college player. In … Continue reading Success Requires The Mindset of A Conqueror →

Fear – The Greatest  Threat To Business Today I have been part of the Fortune 500 community for over two decades and as a result of my experience, here is one thing that I can say with great certainty:  the greatest danger to our business today, is not China, not cyber-terrorism, not even an unforeseen … Continue reading The Greatest Threat To Business No One Talks About →

I’ve been honored to meet, work with, and speak to some extremely successful people. True leaders in their industries. Whenever I get the opportunity, I like to ask these individuals what they attribute their success to. When I first started asking this question I expected to hear things like “the ability to conduct in depth … Continue reading 4 Traits Every Successful Business Leader Has →

Newly Graduated, and Without A Clue I’m not too proud to admit that I have been wrong about a lot of things in life, especially when it comes to my career. I remember when I was right out of college in my early 20s.  Now, I’ll be the first one to fess up that I … Continue reading Your Network. The Biggest Career Mistake No One Talks About →