Robin Williams: The Crazy (Amazing) One
If you were fortunate enough to talk to Robin Williams in person, as I’ve been over the years during his lengthy TV and movie career, you’d invariably walk away with a smile on your face from some joke he told, and also be moved by some observation he shared about his own life. He wasn’t […]
3 Ways to Adapt to Your Customers’ Shopping Styles
“Can you text me your best price on that car?” The salesperson on the phone probably thought I was crazy. Did I really want him to text me the price of a new car I had seen on his website and was thinking about buying? (Uh, yes. That’s why I asked for it.) I also […]
Reading List: Fewer, Bigger, Bolder
When Sanjay Khosla joined Kraft Foods International in 2007 to head developing markets, he faced many challenges. Chief among his immediate concerns was figuring out the future of Oreo cookies. Stateside, the iconic cookie was celebrating its 100th anniversary and yet, despite multiple efforts, the Chinese market wasn’t buying it. Khosla set about streamlining Kraft’s […]
A Short Guide to Taming Your Inner Perfectionist
We all want our work to be flawless. But when that desire is taken too far, perfectionism can take over your life and keep you from accomplishing much at all. By definition, perfection is often impossible. To avoid that fate, try these tips: Monitor the big picture. Stop trying to plan for everything and obsessing […]
Stumped? Borrow Someone’s Brain
What makes salespeople successful? Jill Konrath, author of Agile Selling: Get Up to Speed Quickly in Today's Ever-Changing Sales World, reveals their success habits. Here, in an excerpt from the book, she shares one strategy—brain borrowing—that helps people learn fast and move past the anxiety of little experience, in sales or other unfamiliar business and […]
5 Sure Ways to Fail in Business and in Life
When someone falls down in life, there is probably something that pushed them down. Whether it’s a prevailing negative attitude about everything and everyone, or a good, bad or indifferent personality that led them to the place they are today, Nido Qubein has observed and labeled the common causes of failure in personal relationships, whether […]
SUCCESS Entrepreneur Contest Winner Shares Tips for Being a Panelist
Editor’s note: This submission is from our Start Small Win Big 2013 winner Mary Juetten, whose small business Traklight was selected by SUCCESS editors as our entrepreneur contest winner. Since her selection, Juetten has gone on to win several more awards for her small business and be featured on prominent conference panels. I recently sat […]
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Unleashes Creativity on the World
In a world where young creative geniuses often implode before they even break past their teens, former child actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt has blossomed into a noted actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He’s also added entrepreneur to his résumé, after founding the online production company hitRECord in 2004. Gordon-Levitt, 33, connects artists from his global online […]
Reading List: The Art of War for Small Business
Written in the 6th century B.C., Sun Tzu’s 7,000-word treatise on military strategy was first translated into English in the early 1900s. Although concise, “its contents are immeasurably dense and its applications infinite,” the author states. After writing her first book, Sun Tzu for Women, Sheetz-Runkle realized that The Art of War had profound insights […]
Reading List: Good for You, Great for Me
Unlike many books that promise to teach readers how to negotiate and instead offer only cryptic theories, Good for You, Great for Me delivers practical how-to advice. Lawrence Susskind, the co-founder of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and a professor at MIT, suggests principles and strategies that anyone can use in a […]
How 20,000 Rabid Fans Gave a Referee His Million-Dollar Idea
Ron Foxcroft thought he was a dead man walking. He would have preferred to run, but that’s not his style. It was May 17, 1984, and he was refereeing a pre-Olympic basketball game in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The stadium was rocking with 20,000 rabid fans. Brazil was playing Uruguay, and a place in the Los […]
Reading List: Roadside MBA
When three friends—all of them business professors with Ph.D.s—stepped out of their educational enclaves and hit the road, they learned valuable lessons about how small companies are faring. Michael Mazzeo of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Paul Oyer of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and Scott Schaefer of the University of Utah’s David […]