1: Today we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps the most influential American of the 20th century.

And yet, the greatest American civil rights leader was at first unwilling.

In September 1954, at age 25, Martin had just completed his doctorate at Boston University. Soon after, he and his wife, Coretta, moved to Montgomery, Alabama, so he could pursue his goal of becoming a pastor. … continue reading

1: “Remember, Ben, things are always darkest before they go completely black,” said Netscape founder Marc Andreessen to his business partner and then Loudcloud CEO Ben Horowitz.

“He was joking, but as we entered our first quarter as a public company, those words seemed prescient,” Ben writes in his wonderful book The Hard Thing About Hard Things about being a Wartime CEO. The year was 2001. It was … continue reading

1: It was the middle of the dot-com implosion in 2001. Loudcloud CEO Ben Horowitz sat in his office, arms folded.

Across from him sat two colleagues, both of whom had graduated from Stanford Business School.

They presented forty-five slides about why Ben’s decision to start a software division was “quixotic, misguided, and downright stupid,” he writes in his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things.

“They argued that … continue reading

1: “The hard thing isn’t setting a big, hairy, audacious goal,” Ben Horowitz writes in The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers.

“The hard thing is laying people off when you miss the big goal,” Ben notes.

Not the hard thing: Hiring great people.

The hard thing: “When those ‘great people’ develop a sense of entitlement and start demanding unreasonable things,” … continue reading

1: Hollywood tells us that being an entrepreneur is all about being a “high-flying, confident risk-taker who beats the odds and retires young,” Ron Shaich writes in his outstanding book Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations.

This week, we’ve been analyzing Ron’s rise as the founder of Panera Bread. In 2017, he and his team would sell the company for $7.5 billion, one of the largest … continue reading

1: Ever said, “It’s just quicker if I do it myself?”

Probably.

Yesterday, we looked at the powerful results of “the ownership program” at the New York City restaurant Eleven Madison Park where junior team members were given ownership of different types of beverages, including coffee, cocktails, and tea.

“I’m not going to lie,” General Manager Will Guidara acknowledges in his book Unreasonable Hospitality, “it’s much easier to … continue reading

1: “My dad had his own platoon in Vietnam,”  Will Guidara writes in his terrific book Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect.

“He’d be the first one to tell you it wasn’t a great one,” Will shares, “In fact, it’s highly likely he got it because nobody else wanted it.”

One of the soldiers in the platoon was nicknamed Kentucky after his home … continue reading

1: As the CEO of his company, Brad was tired of all the “upward delegation” he was experiencing.

His team members would line up outside his door to ask for his guidance to help solve their problems.  

By the end of the conversation, somehow Brad now owned the issue.

“These problems were sucking his time and energy,” Dan Martell writes in his book Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim … continue reading

1: No one ever gets it right.

“That’s one thing many entrepreneurs think,” Dan Martell writes in his book Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire.

The good news? There’s an easy way to solve this problem.

Dan calls it: A Definition of Done. Or, simply: A DoD.  

“I use this for every person at every level in my company,” he writes.  

“For … continue reading

“Many of the opportunities you have in your life are generated by the energy you create around you.” —Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica

1: It’s Tuesday.  Time to take on the day.

There is, however, a hidden enemy working against us.

“Every time we switch tasks,” Dan Martell writes in his book Buy Back Your Time, our “brains have to switch focus.”

The technical term for this is “context … continue reading