Welcome aboard. You may not have noticed it, but sometime over the past thirty or forty years, many of us took on a second job. We’re now helping banks, airlines, retailers, restaurants, hospitals, insurance companies, and even gas stations perform work they once paid employees to do. What’s remarkable isn’t that businesses changed. Businesses have always looked for ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency. What’s remarkable is that most of us gradually accepted our new job descriptions without even realizing it. I first noticed it at the gas station. When I was growing up, you pulled up to the pump and someone came out to greet you. “Fill it up?” While the tank filled, they checked the oil, cleaned the windshield, looked at the…

“We have become remarkably good at analyzing problems.
The harder question is whether we have become equally good at solving them.”

Building Online Still Takes Work (No Matter What the Ads Say) There was a time — not so long ago — when building an online business took real work. You needed a real product, a serviceable understanding of the tools, and the discipline to learn, test, revise, and persist. It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t fast or instantaneous. But, you set a goal and measured progress toward achieving it. When I launched my own online cookware business, I leaned heavily on the tools and coaching provided through StomperNet, a conglomeration of like-minded Internet business developers. The guidance was detailed, often technical, and unashamedly difficult. There were no shortcuts, just systems. Success came, when it came, through effort, planning, and the slow build of…

Economics has been a topic of conversation over the last few months b ut from my warped perspective a great many of the people talking about economic have never studied the topic, have forgotten most of what they read or are just ignoring some of the basic principles. And this, I believe could lead to some very unfortunate decision over the next few years, In my post on Megathreats, financial instability and the growing US debt was the number one issue. No one is paying attention to this that I can see. Bank in the day when I was getting my MBA, Milton Friedman was the foundation for studying economics and was essential in forming policies for several presidents including Ronald Regan who leaned on…