The definition of grind is to reduce something into small particles by crushing it. As we become adults and take on more responsibilities and obligations (families, jobs, bills) our work and life can become a grind—pulverizing our spirit. And, that’s just sad. While hard work is important, working harder is not an effective long-term solution. Remember the character Boxer from the book Animal Farm? His mantra was "I will work harder" and things didn't end well for him. Let’s

I had an economics professor who only drove old, beat-up clunkers. He bragged about how little he paid for his cars. He drove them until the wheels fell off, then sold them for scrap and repeated the process. His rationale made perfect sense: a car is simply a means to an end—transportation. Its value is the utility (or usefulness) of getting you from point A to point B as cheaply as possible. The concept of utility is so rational, isn’t it? Here’s the thing: We lived in Flor

I was once on a business strategy team with a very large corporation. My assignment was to work with one of the company’s rapidly growing brands in order to help them reach a billion dollars in annual sales. As you could imagine, we were quite busy. My internal “client” was housed on a different floor on the other side of the building from the strategy team. Most of my day was spent working along side team members of the brand on a number of strategic initiatives. Much of the

As knowledge workers, we are constantly solving problems. Are you solving a distribution problem, a sourcing problem, an inventory problem, a finance problem or a staffing problem? Are you tasked with coming up with a big idea, or a sales pitch, or simply writing that next sentence? Sometimes when we are in the weeds of a problem we get stuck. We can’t seem to break through and staring at the computer screen doesn’t help. You’ve heard me discuss the dangers of autopilot think

My wife and I are both in marketing, so our friends often share their new product, business, or marketing ideas with us. If asked, we provide them with feedback, tips and best practices. We encourage and support the entrepreneurial spirit whenever we can and it has been fun watching some of these ideas develop into profitable businesses. One day our friend Erin invited us to dinner to discuss a big idea. We were intrigued. Erin worked for a large corporation and had never sho

…Isn’t hard work—although, it certainly helps to have a strong work ethic. It’s neither intelligence nor education. If intelligence and education led to financial success college professors would be the wealthiest members of society, but they are not. The wealthiest people I know are entrepreneurs and people who make their living investing in businesses. That’s not to say you can’t make a good living managing someone else’s business, but the most financially successful people