A Bias Toward Action
At a university, a professor asked his students: “If there are four birds on a tree and three of them decided to fly away, how many are left on the
Ideas Worth Stealing
We Always Overshoot: From Fiber to Cannabis to AI
Every generation believes it has discovered the “next big thing.” Railroads in the 1870s, fiber optics and the dotcom’s irrational exuberance in the 1990s, cannabis in the 2010s, and today’s artificial intelligence
Building Resilient Companies That Never Have to Bet the Farm
The Unspoken Responsibility When we think about the role of a founder, CEO, or president, we often picture someone relentlessly driving growth, chasing new opportunities, and pushing the business forward.
Bootstrapping: Building Your Business on Your Terms
The Bootstrap Reality Check In the startup world, bootstrapping is more than a tactic. It’s a rite of passage. Building from scratch with little more than savings, sweat, and sheer
Good Enough Might Be Great
How to Make Faster, Smarter Decisions in Business Most small business owners believe they need to get every decision right. The best software. The best supplier. The best marketing strategy.
Your Biggest Competitor Isn’t Who You Think
Hidden Competition Leads to Creative Destruction In 2000, Kodak still dominated the photography business. They saw Fuji as the big rival, and their boardrooms obsessed over film quality and price.
Tell Me Right Now—Why Can’t We Raise Your Prices?
Part of my schtick is that when first meeting a new client, I will almost always ask:“Tell me right now, why can’t we raise your prices?” It might sound blunt,
AI for Small Business: Practical Tools and Use Cases
Free up hours, cut costs, and boost consistency. AI isn’t the future for small businesses. It’s now. Thanks mostly to the launch of ChatGPT three years ago, the term AI
Before You Scale, Do the Math
The Case for Unit Economics When I was a kid, one of the big muffler companies ran TV ads where the final line, delivered by the journeyman muffler fixer guy
Playing Dumb – A Tool For the Smartest People
Evolution has conditioned us to follow the smartest person in the room. Our survival depended on following those who could find food, remember safe routes, or solve new problems. Although
We Are What We Repeatedly Do
The famous words of the title were first uttered by Aristotle millennia ago. He nailed it. And 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson laid it on even thicker: “The chains of habit
Customer Warning Signs: How to Spot Trouble Before It Hits Your Business
In 2005, Nortel was still Canada’s largest company, but the slide had already begun. They were our biggest customer, and represented about 30% of our business. One day, they just