Start at Yes/No Are you someone who starts at Yes, or starts at No? I think it’s a fundamental question that will help you understand how you look at the world. I have to admit for much of my life I started at no. Could I start a new business? Can I buy that? Can…
I grew up in a Bluefield, West Virginia; small coal mining town on the West Virginia/Virginia border. A place where you did not lock your car or your front door and when you passed someone on the road you knew them, and a warm greeting was normal behavior. Growing up as a triplet and one…
I have always been fascinated by competition. What makes one person competitive and another one not? Can you teach someone to be competitive? I think the answer is largely no. I do believe that you can press certain buttons to pull passion out of people, but I am not sure you can ever make someone…
There’s a big mystery in my house… what happened to the other sock?” Over the last few years after folding laundry, there was always a sock or two that did not have a partner. I started to save and collect these individual socks in hopes that someday we would find their mate. It rarely happened!…
You know what’s a fun game to play. Ask what companies blew their opportunity the most, and how did it happen? It’s incredible how many companies fall in love with their product or service and forget that without innovation they will be left in the dust. Let’s start with one that I was close to…
I remember back to when my son was roughly four years old and we were in the garage cleaning out some old boxes. He reached into a box and pulled out a cassette tape. With his huge brown eyes looking at me he asked, “Will this hurt me?” My first response was going to be, if…
The painting above was done by my cousin, David Armstrong. He was actually my Dad’s first cousin, so I used to just call him Uncle David. He was a very well-known watercolor artist (Google it!) known mostly for his magnificent Pennsylvania country landscapes. One of his most significant works is called the 3 Bridges of…
It was the summer of 1992, I was a sales intern at WVVA-NBC TV in Bluefield, West Virginia. Equipped with the lessons learned from Dad – if you do not ask, you do not get – I negotiated the first paid sales internship ever at the local TV station. I remembered reading an article just…
What did your dad do? I get asked that question a lot, and it’s a long answer. But for the purposes of this article, I’ll say he was in sales his entire life, though the road was not normal. My dad started in the restaurant business in VA. He “sold” a couple restaurant concepts where…