Do Well

As corny as it sounds, I already have my dream business mentor: my father.  He runs a small family business in Rockford, IL. He makes metal parts, which is far from my traditional interests or ambitions. However, there’s commonality that I relish. He doesn’t have a love for formal financial statements; instead, he understands that…

Early in my career, I had worked with some amazing folks. Industry giants, actually. People who would teach me a lot about business, about what it meant to be a leader, and how gave me opportunities above and beyond my experience or years. Folks like Jim Yager of Barrington Broadcasting, and Bob Pittman, Bob Sherman,…

Jason Freedman has it right. He wrote a post recently about 42 Floors vacation policy – which consists of a mandatory two weeks of vacation on your first day. Wait, wha????? That’s right, they start paying you and ask you to show up two weeks later. The premise being that we don’t really take vacation…

During the first year of leading the Startup Leadership Program, we included the obligatory class on marketing. In the second year, we broke that down into acquiring buyers (entrepreneurial selling) and acquiring users (more akin to traditional marketing). We talked about SEO, retargeting of ads, and virality. It was good stuff, but somehow didn’t seem…

Our private equity partner team signs their emails with four truths: communicate fearlessly, compress time, work tirelessly, and love what you do. These truths have been good to me, helping me achieve success and accomplishment. It’s become apparent that following those truths will lead to good, but not great.  If substantial success, the definition of which…

In addition to vacations and patriotic celebrations, July is one of the best business months. Sales may slump – but don’t let that interrupt my recipe for a successful July debrief. There are four easy steps to make the most of this mid-year oasis, and they are: Step 1: Review Annual Goals. Often we set massive…