A Harvard Business Review article referenced a CEO Genome Project study on leaders who became CEOs much faster than their peers. A key factor that worked to the benefit of 30% of these fast track leaders was inheriting a mess at work. Early in my banking career I accepted a chief lending officer position at a troubled bank. This position […]

If you ask most people about St. Patrick’s Day, you might hear about drunken Irishmen, leprechauns, and lucky green shamrocks. St. Patrick would likely be appalled at how his legacy is now celebrated. St. Patrick was a 5th century Irish slave who later escaped and became a Catholic priest. Later, God called Patrick to return to a hedonistic Ireland! For […]

In the movie, “Legends of Bagger Vance,” Matt Damon stars as a washed-out golfer named Junuh, who gets a chance at greatness. On the final hole of an exhibition tournament against the two greatest golfers of the day, Junuh is positioned to win the tournament. But when he tries to remove something from in front of his ball, his ball […]

When I was 25 years old, I started a car rental agency from scratch. Interest rates and unemployment were skyrocketing at that time, but I still believed I could overcome all odds to be successful. One year later, I sold the cars to pay off my debts and left the car rental industry forever. The lessons I learned, however, prepared […]

Josh is a recent acquaintance and a serial entrepreneur. When I asked Josh about his work, he said, “When I left high school I determined to become an entrepreneur. But my first business failed, then my second, and my third. My fourth business started to get some traction, and by my fifth I was on my way.” Amazingly, Josh today […]

A great example of the impact a story can have is how Spring Break became such a booming movement. In the 1950s, Spring Break attracted only 20,000 college students to Fort Lauderdale, until 1958. In 1958, Glendon Swarthout released “Where the Boys Are.” This book, which later became a movie, told the story of college girls meeting boys during Spring […]

A recent Harvard Business Review article gave us some data and great encouragement that affirms our impact from our Unconventional Business Network events as well as for our new upcoming Unconventional Business Women Gatherings. Shawn Achor, a frequent Conference for Women event speaker, researched the impact that conferences had on the women who attended. He discovered that attendees were twice […]

In 1995, Kathy and I struggled to start a new ministry, we learned that our son had autism, we were forced out of a church we loved, and then, Kathy discovered breast cancer. That year, we not only wanted to quit full-time ministry, we wanted to quit life. But God encouraged us to persevere. During our darkest moments, God sent […]

During my college years, a prevailing management theory contended that bosses should keep their distance from employees. Becoming too friendly with employees was believed to undermine your authority, so many workplaces became cold and aloof. This sometimes even spilled over into peer-to-peer relationships. New research highlighted in Harvard Business Review, however, surfaces a different conclusion. Researchers Emma Seppala and Marissa […]

CVS’ President Helena Foulkes announced in January that CVS stores are moving towards banning touched-up photos in its store displays. It has chosen to own its mission by helping young women overcome their self-image problem that results from comparing themselves to photo shopped models. Many companies have mission statements, but few have leveraged those statements to do good for the […]