Here we go again, it seems just like yesterday we were celebrating the coming of 2016; what a blur. All I remember is the crazy “Tweet War”. Now that that’s over… or not, we are on to new beginnings!
At the stroke of midnight the proverbial blackboard of life will once again be erased clean. The question is, what are we going to do with our brand-new shiny 365 days?
Back in the day there was a newspaper reporter who was given an assignment to write a story about what it’s like to work day after day cutting stone from a granite quarry. The first couple of men he spoke with didn’t really go that well; after asking the question, “What are you doing?” The miner replied “What the heck does it look like I’m doing?” It went like that for a while until he came across this one guy that was whistling while he worked. As he approached the worker, he was greeted with a friendly smile.
For all my readers who haven’t been to our offices yet, we are on street level right in the center of all the action. So yesterday I was heading out for some lunch, I moved though the interior door and looked though large exterior doors framing my view of the street, just then I happened to take a snapshot in my head. It was noontime, so there were tons of people passing by. As I pondered my mental photo I saw at least five people moving in various directions, all intently looking at the same damn thing, their phone.
The other day, I felt a heightened sense of frustration and disbelief with what’s being played out in the media with regard to filling our country’s highest position. I’m not going to get political on you, but it spurred me to Google, “Average American”. It’s not pretty. Above is only one sample of what I found.
“Yes” right! “Yes” is the warm and fuzzy word that makes you feel good. As business people, we all strive to be that CAN DO guy or gal, or that GO TO person everyone loves. We all want to feel the LOVE, so we say “yes,” but the question becomes, when is it OK to say…“no”?
It always seems to be right around this time of the year that we’re talking about the weather getting warmer. Temperatures in the 50’s, sun shining…then bam! Mother Nature hits us with a cold, windy 30-degree day that makes us turn the heat on again. The cold gets thrown at us just when we thought things were looking up. But, we’re from Syracuse so we should have expected this, right?
I've always said that the web is the great equalizer in this world. You could be a small one-man band, but boy if you had a great website, you could look like you had a 1,000 people working for you! And vice versa...you could be a Fortune 500 company, but a not so great looking website would make you look like the mom and pop store on the corner.
Well, we’re already at the end of January and I’ve already forgotten my “New Years’ Resolutions.” How about you?
With the best of intentions, I’m sure I came up with at least a couple of good ideas of what to do better in 2016, let’s see, what were they?
Oh yes, there’s that one about being a better husband, oh, but that’s personal, this is a business blog. Not that being a better husband is a bad idea, after all, if momma ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy, right?!
What were those things I was going to do to make 2016 the most profitable year yet?
2015 goes down in history as Cowley Associates’ 40th Anniversary in business. Rather than taking up your time with a 40-year trip down memory lane, I think it might be more insightful if I share with everyone what I have observed about business people over these many years.