Are You A Sailboat Or A Submarine?

Once in a while my eye catches the comments people leave on LinkedIn.com. I love LinkedIn, but I find the majority of the comments people leave to lack value and to be a waste of time. The topics aren't that great either - "How good are you at crisis management?", "One word or phrase to characterize your leadership style?". Silly topics that create inefficiency when 291 people actually take time out from producing to answer these rhetorical questions. Where is the value? However one question from somebody named John caught my eye "Do you believe you can motivate people?"

Culture Of Transparency...Are We Ready?

The best businesses are built on a culture of transparency. Period. Yet so few companies, organizations or nations for that matter practice a true culture of transparency. As the recent WikiLeaks saga unfolds itself many intellectuals, critics and spectators are debating whether we, as a global community, are better off knowing the contents of some 250,000 classified government documents that were stolen and sold earlier this year. Its a complex question that is worth pontificating, even if there is no clear cut answer. Personally I am more interested in the question whether we, collectively, are ready for the kind of transparency philosophers and progressives preach, or business professors idolize.

When China Ruled the World (Or why the "China Century" will be the shortest on record): Guest Post

Back in September I posted a blog titled Why Fearing China Is A Mistake, outlining a number of cracks in the invincibility of China, and underlining my growing belief that Brand USA has a massive opportunity to manufacture "Made In USA" products for export to the growing Chinese market. As a follow up to that post I am excited to share a must read guest blog by Thomas P.M. Barnett of Esquire that is both thought-provoking and insightful in why we must not fear China and instead gear up to compete in the free market.

Once A Fraud, Always A Fraud

Once in a while I am shocked. Shocked by people's actions. Its honestly a rare thing in these times of suicide bombers, rapists, pedophiles and Bernie Madoffs, but nevertheless once in a while I am, as the British put it so eloquently, gob smacked. On Sunday I received an e-mail from an old friend and colleague in Paris who is hiring a sales executive for the German market. One of the candidates under consideration worked for the start-up we both worked at from the late 90s to the mid-2000s. Here is what my friend wrote:

Do You Want To Be Right Or Do You Want To Be Married?

Life is tough. Its tougher when you are stupid. One of the most frustrating things about being an advisor to others is when you watch smart, intelligent, even accomplished people fall into what I call the TEST – temporary emotional stupid trap. It’s human nature I guess, kind of like the killer’s plea for temporary insanity. Emotion takes over and you dig in to fight because you believe you are right and the other party is wrong.