If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!During my 25 years working with early stage technology CEOs, I have found myself referring to the make it- or break-it characteristics that lead a CEO to succeed or fail, separate from market conditions, capital conditions and other external factors, [...]

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I stepped into another world the other day – a place where there are no words for numbers higher than 3 or 4, a world with a simple god but no religion, with time but no calendars, a tribe with customs but no laws, a world of primitive peace, singing, dancing, storytelling and rational priorities. [...]

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Behaving with impeccable manners is one of your strongest strategies. It builds and sustains your reputation, which as an entrepreneur or a consultant is your most valued asset. Your reputation precedes you in all new introductions, with prospective clients, and with existing clients and colleagues who speak of you.
There is great power in excellent manners. [...]

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The Chinese New Year arrived late this year, and fell on our Valentines Day, February 14th 2010. Year of the Metal Tiger, this day heralds, “For all affairs, great good luck!”
I have a long connection to Chinese culture (from early exposure to the iChing to building a company in Shanghai in the 1990s), and [...]

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I could not resist re-posting this story, true (as claimed) or not. I laughed out loud and recognized my own impatience with incompetence, both a blessing and a curse. And if I were in need of a good attorney, I would want him or her to be just like this.
A New Orleans [...]

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“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language.
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.”
- T.S. Eliot
My friend ~
You will make many new beginnings and many ends, and more new beginnings.
And you will find one voice, then another, and another, with each new beginning. And no [...]

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Every year, in the early weeks (or the very end) of each year, I sit down with my calendar.
Now, I know we all have electronic calendars, and I also have a large A4 British type paper calendar in which my life is documented each year. I have many of them in my files from [...]

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On January 2nd (2010), I received the one holiday card I wait for each year, from my delightful and irascible friend, a wonderful writer, who lives her life to the fullest, with attitude. I want to quote from it:
“What can I say about 2009? It was a horrid year of financial fear but [...]

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It is holiday time for nearly everyone, the celebration of mid-winter, the passing of the Solstice and the shortest day of the year, and a looking forward to a new Spring in the New Year.
In the spirit of celebration, gatherings of rejoicing to have survived another dark time of the year, and all the religions [...]

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I was fascinated to read Time.com’s review of our collective behavior during this recession, many of them surprises to economists, and not in line with the usual pattern.
Of course, the three-way punch of economic factors descended upon us all at once, also not the usual pattern of recessions: high unemployment, tight credit and crashing housing [...]

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