Read more about the article The 4 Pillars of Long Term Success You Can’t Live Without
4 Pillars of Long Term Success

The 4 Pillars of Long Term Success You Can’t Live Without

4 Pillars of Long Term Success
4 Pillars of Long Term Success

These are the four pillars of any firm’s long-term success

“Lary, give this customer a call. We’ve just received an unauthorized return, and I want these shoes sent back.

“Funny how the green shoes don’t fit and the red ones fit perfectly.”

It wasn’t uncommon for the chairman of company North (you may remember him from the 2nd article in our Culture Series, How Are You Paving the Road to Superior Performance) to stop by my office with a message like this.

I realized later he was talking in code

His remarks were actually a code:

“The red shoes sold well but the green ones the customer bought aren’t selling … so now they’re claiming they don’t fit so they can return them. We’ve had no other such complaints. Tell them we won’t accept them and refuse them at the door if they come back.”

I made a note to contact the customer, figuring I’d call them after lunch when I would be more likely to catch them three time zones away.

No e-mail back then.

What the hell are you waiting for? Read the Full Article to see what he was expecting

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Leadership Insights | Do you really think you’re Resourceful?

blue-ball-in-a-maze
On a recent morning, I headed to a favorite place just down the street to fetch a couple of lattes for my wife and me.

Our forbearers would have awakened in woolen underwear, stepped in the dark onto a cold dirt floor, and stumbled outside to chop some wood to start a fire in the cook stove balanced on the rocks outside.

They would have tossed some coffee grounds into a beat-up metal pot … grounds that had already been used for several days … filled the pot with water, boiled it … and at some point, would finally get that first bitter cup of java.

No coffee house down the road, no car to get there, certainly no latte or cappuccino. Eat what you kill, literally. If you ain’t got it, you ain’t gonna get it.

Lots of resources but ….

[pullquote]The secret of success is constancy to purpose.” Benjamin Disraeli[/pullquote]

In many ways, we’re much less resourceful than our forefathers.

While we may have expanded the definition of community in many positive ways, using our physical and social media “mobility” to create unimagined connections, we’ve also become more dependent on external resources to get through our day.

In some ways it’s probably better that we’re co-dependent. (more…)

Continue ReadingLeadership Insights | Do you really think you’re Resourceful?