From the monthly archives:

July 2009

Because It’s the Right Thing to Do

July 31, 2009

Yesterday, Chris Brogan wrote a post, Warm the Mug.  In this post, Chris talked about a waitress who warmed his mug prior to serving after dinner coffee.  He was very impressed by not only her detail to attention throughout his visit, but also to other tables.
Things like this happen every day probably even at your [...]

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Multi-Tasking Will Make You a Commodity

July 30, 2009

Companies are busy trying to be everything for everyone, and that’s a great strategy if you want your idea to become average.
So their HR people look for candidates who are good at “multi-tasking”.  If you’re only interested in average employees, all you need are multi-taskers who do what you tell them to do.
What they don’t [...]

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A Friendly Reminder Is Worth Ten Thousand Words

July 29, 2009

I have a beautiful view from my office.  It’s at the 5th floor by the huge windows, overlooking the Phoenix airport.  As you can imagine, I can’t complain.
When I lived in Hawaii, my college apartment overlooked nothing but the ocean. But the funny thing is, no matter how great it is, after a month or [...]

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From Idea Generation to Innovation

July 28, 2009

Daren Rowse at Problogger asked a question, What is compelling content to you?
To me, a “Compelling content” doesn’t need to be anything new.  Rather, I’d like to gain a different perspective on existing ideas.
Once I wrote a post New Ideas Aren’t Necessary, and in that post, I talked about how we don’t have shortages of [...]

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Can Your Customers Protect Your Brand?

July 27, 2009

A bank with “good customer service skills” shouldn’t have tellers thinking about how many hours she has left before leaving for the day.
A law firm with “good secretary” shouldn’t have a woman that every call she handles should be screened like her boss is too busy to pick up the phone.
A hair salon with “professionals” [...]

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How to Remain Unique and Exceptional

July 25, 2009

Today I noticed my red car was dirty because of the rain that has been pouring in the Phoenix area this week.
It’s true that the whiter the car, the less dirt you see on the body.  My red car is quite the opposite, it looks nice when it’s clean, but when it’s dirty, it [...]

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Be Irrational

July 24, 2009

A few days ago, I took my family to the Superstition’s Mall. It’s the same mall we’ve been to so many times, but we keep going back, perhaps a few times every month. The same stores, same food court, and same elevators. 
 
A rational mind won’t understand this behavior – if I already know which store [...]

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Don’t Be Scared, It’s Okay To Fail

July 23, 2009

Failure is an option for many of us.
Not so for big companies though, they feel they can’t afford to.  So they get scared and wait for someone else to experiment it first.  If your organization has billion of dollars in budget, it’s okay for someone else to first experiment the brave and scary stuff then [...]

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Live Each Day Like Your Birthday

July 22, 2009

Today is my wife, Lynn’s birthday.  She is beautiful and a wonderful mother of my two kids, Kai and Reina.  She is the reason I live in Arizona.
Birthdays are funny.  The older we get, the less we like.  One year after another, it always seems we just had the last one not very long ago.
Every [...]

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Don’t Live the Life Others Expect You to Live

July 21, 2009

Big companies want to be everything for everybody — surefire ways to dilute the brand.  The more you mix varying products and services, the less your organization gets remembered by your customers. 
The smart folks at Clorox don’t mix their Hidden Valley Ranch dressing to their product line.  They don’t call it Clorox’s Ranch dressing. 
The management [...]

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