There is an age-old saying in the theater that “the second act is the best,” and this is because crisis always reveals the essence of a character. In most scripts, Act I introduces the characters, the protagonist, and the dramatic situation, while Act III reveals the story’s climax and resolution. But it is in Act II when the main character encounters dreadful obstacles and moves into crisis. This is usually the darkest part of the story, where the protagonist reaches his or her lowest point. And this is where the playwright can truly capture the audience — we all can identify with a hero facing terrible odds. Continue reading →

According to financial experts, the Great Recession of 2009 may be heading towards its much-hoped-for bottom, with recent economic indicators suggesting that there are signs of renewed life in some sectors. You and your clients may be seeing the beginnings of a recovery, which means that it’s time to focus on opportunities, rather than limitations. Continue reading →

Do you ruminate about the past? Do you worry about the future? Well, you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t do both.

As far as we know, human beings are the only creatures on Earth capable of understanding the concept of time. We know that we were alive yesterday and we hope we’ll still be around tomorrow. But when we project ourselves in time, we often don’t like what we see there. Whether we’re looking at our work or our home life, we can easily recognize patterns and difficulties from the past that we certainly don’t want repeated in the future. How can we best avoid this? The answer lies not in fretting about yesterday or worrying about tomorrow, but in focusing positively on today. Continue reading →

Do you have a dream? Are you inspired by your dream? Have any of your dreams come true? Or have you given up on your dream?

As an inspiring vision of the future, the dream you nurture can shape your life. It can amount to an ambition, an aspiration, an illusion or a sheer hallucination but at its best, a dream will energize your mind, will and emotions, empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it. Author and speaker John C. Maxwell has spent a lot of time researching dreams and characterizes them as having a variety of forms, including: Continue reading →

On a frigid night in December, 1914, Thomas Edison’s factory in West Orange, New Jersey was completely destroyed by fire. Although the damage exceeded $2 million, Edison was only insured for $238,000 — the building had been thought to be fireproof. More devastating than the structural loss, however, was the personal loss.  Much of Edison’s life work burned to ashes that winter night. Continue reading →

Each week, millions of people in the United States decide to spend their hard-earned money on a “chance” to win a big lottery jackpot and reap all the freedom that they believe will come with it. This is nothing new: people have been drawing lots in hopes of winning a prize at least since the Chinese Han Dynasty (between 205 and 187 B.C.E.) and the earliest known European lottery was organized by the Emperor Augustus Caesar, who used the funds to make repairs to the city of Rome. Meanwhile, the first drawing in colonial America took place in Jamestown, Virginia in 1612, when settlers desperately needed to raise funds in order to fortify the town after attacks by Indians and the Spanish. Continue reading →

Are you turning to the experts for advice in these challenging times? We all seek answers and solutions to the problems that beset us and especially when things get tough, we look to experts for help. But rarely do we ever stop to think, “Why, exactly, should I listen to this person?” Just because someone is a member of a Washington think tank or teaches economics at Harvard, does that really qualify him or her to know what we should do, here and now? Has this eminent expert ever owned his own business? Does she know what it means to cover overhead and payroll every week? And if these experts really understand the economy so well, why do we always get their best advice after the fact, and not before? After all, would you listen to the weather channel if it only told you yesterday’s weather, instead of tomorrow’s? Continue reading →

Would you rather have a busy company or a profitable company? In these challenging times, many business owners are looking to reduce costs.  Some have been quick to cut their staff, letting people go with the hopes that, when business returns, they will be able to rehire. Of course, this means that the remaining employees have to take on ever greater workloads, leaving them with less time to handle their original responsibilities. Continue reading →

Why do we make the same mistakes over and over again? Managers and entrepreneurs are prone to repeating mistakes because they approach their decisions with a consistent set of assumptions. Based on those assumptions, they make the same type of decisions, and then — surprise! — get the same type of results. But you can break this pattern if you’re willing to question the assumptions you have about where you are right now.  If you want your business choices to add up, try zero-based thinking. Continue reading →

Are you thinking about today? Tomorrow?  Next quarter? Next year? How far out is your thinking? While some people are thinking about what they need to do in the next ten minutes, others are thinking about where they want to be in a year or two.  It is important to think about the present, of course, but if that’s all you focus on, you’ll never get ahead of the curve. Every important change in your life or in your business takes time to develop, and long-term thinking is the way to build sustained success. Continue reading →