Inspirational stories about life, work and entrepreneurship

If you want to succeed in a startup or business you can learn a lot from Freddy Krueger…

Persistence – For this trait you can imagine Freddy Krueger or any horror movie villain for that matter. You know the type; you shoot them ten times and throw them into the ocean to die and they still come back for more. Entrepreneurs have to be just as resilient. Your company’s crises and catastrophes must be mere flesh wounds that would only destroy a weaker businessperson.

Krueger was actually killed in some of his movies, but that …

Too many managers take a departure so personally that it makes a future relationship with that employee difficult. There are even corporate cultures that include shunning employees who leave. Our employees will leave. They’ll leave for a promotion somewhere else, for more money, for a better manager and so on. Whether or not we agree with why they’re leaving, it was our responsibility to retain them and not their responsibility to stay.

We shouldn’t blame them for leaving. We should embrace them, wish them well and avoid talking behind their backs. We should participate in …

My grandfather went out to lunch once a week with his friends. They used to eat at Subway . . . until the sandwich prices went up. Then they started a regular tradition of eating at Wendy’s. Popop was so excited about Wendy’s that he regularly explained why it was the best deal around. As he told us, “You can get an entire lunch for 99 cents. I buy the 99 cent chili and get a cup of water, which is free, to go with it.” His friends would do the same, and then they’d …

Should you be friends with your employees? I’m the type of guy who likes to be friends with everyone. As I grew my company, we got to a point where I realized being friends with employees was hurting our business and my life.

Here are the issues:
You’ll naturally become closer friends with some people, and others will think you play favorites. When you promote people you’re friends with how will the rest of the company view that promotion and how will that impact your team’s culture and the person who was promoted? Even if

A relative: Are you going to work on computers like your daddy?
Jack (our two year old): No

Me: What are you going to do when you get older?
Jack: Drink beer, drink coffee and touch the ceiling.

What can I say? He’s an ambitious kid with high aspirations and great role models. But that’s not the point of this post…

As demonstrated by our 2 year old, the questions you ask and how you ask them play a big role in the information you learn. I’m going to provide some suggestions …

Erik and Diane Roberts’ 21-month-old son Ryan was born with a heart defect and Down’s syndrome; he has undergone surgeries since he was four days old. Ryan’s parents were recently told that there is nothing more doctors can do for him, and Ryan isn’t expected to live much longer. A parent’s worst nightmare.

The Roberts try to make the most of their time with Ryan–creating special moments and memories with Ryan. They had him pet a puppy, ride a bike (with help from dad) and Ryan even shared his first beer with his dad for …

I’ve posted about loving the employees who leave you and about learning from departing employees. But I haven’t yet covered the more important topic of employee retention. Here’s one idea to help your employee retention . . . .

Many companies have a standard practice of having exit interviews with departing employees. Too many companies don’t have a standard practice of having stay interviews with the employees they want to retain.

A stay interview isn’t a 1:1 meeting or a check-in meeting. Its purpose isn’t to talk about current projects. These are meetings focused …

When my wife (then girlfriend) and I were recent college graduates, she got into law school. She should’ve been excited, but she wasn’t. She wanted to work in cooking. She was a great cook but had no professional or educational experience that would help her land a culinary job. Not to mention that cooking jobs paid very little. Like a responsible adult, she planned to go to law school because that’s what she thought she was supposed to do. Like an irresponsible adult, I convinced her to pursue her passion instead. (I’m sure my future …

Here is some great business and life advice from around the Web.

1) Go for it. “Today, my father told me, ‘Just go for it and give it a try! You don’t have to be a professional to build a successful product. Amateurs started Google and Apple. Professionals built [and sailed] the Titanic.’” From Makes Me Think.

2) Keep it simple in life and business. “In the late 1920s, United Fruit and Sam [Zemurray’s] company were trying to acquire the same piece of land, a fertile expanse that straddled the border of Honduras and …