As the great recession winds down, I've been reflecting on what caused it in the first place. And here's what I've come up with.

The real cause of The Great Recession is simple.

In nutshell, it's not illegal to be stupid.

Why a bank would lend someone a million dollars to buy a home that's broke, unemployed, and has no income, I'll never know.

It's stupid, but guess what? It's not illegal.

For the borrower that was broke, unemployed, with no savings that [...] Continue Reading…

The easiest way to increase your revenues in any economy is to "sell donuts to fat people."

Here is what I mean.

When deciding what to sell and whom to sell it to, you can sell people what they need or should have, or you can sell them what they want.

The easiest way to make money is to sell people what they want… the equivalent of what I call "selling donuts to fat people."

This lesson is especially apparent here in Silicon [...] Continue Reading…

I just read the latest news that the Obama administration is instituting a 90% pay reduction for the top 25 employees at all the companies that were provided bailout money.

The idea is that voters are irritated at the idea that these executives are making a lot of money and getting paid with tax payer dollars.

While this may the politically acceptable solution to bad publicity, it's a pretty dumb move.

Let me ask you, if you're really good at what you [...] Continue Reading…

I've had an incredibly busy month these past few weeks. Tis is the season that many new clients of mine are making their strategic and operating plans for 2010.

I am doing the same for my business – thinking through what went right this year vs. what went wrong. What I liked vs. what I disliked. The two are not always the same.

Yesterday, I finished up an offsite meeting with a new client where I brought up the subject of [...] Continue Reading…