Thunder11

"Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

That dismissive broadside against teaching has been drilled into our collective psyche for too long. And guess what? It’s dead wrong.

Sure, it’s almost always described as a noble profession, and we can all remember several teachers who had a big impact on us as kids. But for most people, the very word “teaching” is akin to taking a vow of poverty, or at least getting lost in an obscure and bureaucratic wasteland sandwiched somewhere between labor unions and standardized testing.

But if you’re looking to grow your business and motivate people in the workplace, then you might want to tap your inner teacher. I don’t necessarily mean quitting your job and becoming a teacher—although my 80-year-old aunt still loves being a substitute in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Instead, think about identifying a teaching opportunity that can catapult you and your organization to new heights and help out deserving young people while you’re at it.

Borrow a page from the legendary college basketball coach John Wooden who described himself, despite all the success, as first and foremost a teacher—which he also saw as the key to creating a winning organization.

I’m not simply preaching this do-good stuff. This winter semester, I went back to school.

My decision came with a not insignificant amount of trepidation. Not just because I’m already stretched too thin as both a small business owner and a parent of three kids. But I still had fresh, and not altogether positive, memories of teaching a few years back at another university. The students in that class were terrific for the most part, and several of them I’ve since hired as interns. (Yes, teaching offers a great recruiting pool.) It’s just that I found that the political, petty, unenlightened, and meddling ways of the academic department were a big turnoff.

So after sleeping on it—and listening to a trusted colleague who reminded me that I truly enjoyed it—I said yes to returning to the classroom, this time as an adjunct professor of public relations at Fordham University. Teaching is really learning, and in addition to the uplifting energy in working with nimble, curious, and non-jaded minds, it forces me to keep current.

I feel totally engaged for three hours on Tuesday afternoons, and even have a restored sense of pride in the professional path I’ve chosen.

If there’s no way that you can make that kind of commitment, and haven’t yet done enough time in your field to become a professor, here are four ways for you to tap the teacher in you and benefit your business at the same time.

1. Grab a coffee and dispense some advice. Mentoring is often more talked about than practiced, and often feels more like orders from above rather than an organic relationship. Why not show your appreciation for an intern or entry-level staff member over an informal chat? You can reveal a couple of lessons from your career, provide suggestions about working with a certain client, or just the importance of having a life outside of work.

2. Whip younger colleagues into shape. Companies often have little time or money to educate young staff, opting almost exclusively for a sink-or-swim approach. But what’s to stop you from taking 30 minutes once a week over brown bag lunches to huddle up with younger staffers and give them quick training sessions? Focus on stuff they never learned in school, from tips on time tracking software to what’s appropriate to say to customers.

3. Share your expertise online. Why not post a how-to video on YouTube, launch a new group on LinkedIn, or pen an article for a trade publication? All these can be relatively easy ways for you to teach others and bask in the glow of seeing your message resonate.

4. Volunteer for a cause. A former employee, who grew up without an involved father, volunteered twice a month for Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City. After a weekend outing with his little brother, he came back to work Monday physically tired yet mentally rejuvenated.

Do it for others, but most importantly, teach for yourself. You’ll see how it benefits your company, your résumé, your head, and your heart.

As for me, the semester is just a few weeks old. I’m not sure how it will turn out or what my students think, since I haven’t even given out the midterm. But as far as I’m concerned, the grades are already in. Teaching is the highlight of my week.

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This article first appeared on Marco's weekly WeWork Creator Magazine column. Creator Magazine is a new kind of publication that features stories of entrepreneurs and first-hand resources to make your business more successful.

Why It Sometimes Pays to Care Less

Here’s an admission, one that I’m not particularly proud of: If it weren’t for the constant warnings from my wife, I would be up every day at 4:30 AM firing off work emails.

While this go-go-go attitude has brought me plenty of rewards in my business, I’ve falsely seen it as the key to my success when it actually has been slowing me down, creating unnecessary stress, and putting a lot of strain on my mind and body.

And while clients and colleagues might have been impressed by this never-say-no attitude, the sad truth is that research shows that overdoing it is neither healthy nor sustainable.

So if you’re like me and are looking to get a little of your life back, check out The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck: How to Stop Spending Time You Don’t Have With People You Don’t Like Doing Things You Don’t Want to Do.

Author Sarah Knight delivers a stinging indictment of those of us who are overachievers and people-pleasers, along with a prescription for those seeking to convert to a more measured path. Rather than opting for the extremes of either dereliction of duty on one hand or total burnout on the other, Knight uses her biting humor to tout the common sense benefits of moderation and good old-fashioned self-interest.

Specifically, she commands us to worship the “holy f*cking trinity: time, energy and money.” This is the stuff that we have in short supply, matters most, and needs to be vigorously conserved.

I’ve spent a lifetime caring too much, trying too hard, and pushing too often. It started early, when I tried to hit a home run in little league, and—not surprisingly—struck out. I’ve only recently learned to take my foot off the gas and cruise once in a while.

But now, my new mantra is to care a little less about the non-critical aspects of work. It’s difficult, and sometimes downright scary, to no longer be the eager beaver, but we need to mind our own business before we can truly help our customers with theirs.

In an effort to conserve my time, energy, and money, here’s what I want to focus less energy on while I’m at work:

1. Giving free career advice to friends and relatives of former clients over lunch or coffee—especially when I’m paying the tab.

2. Reading all the social media posts from competitors.

3. Schlepping across town to meet people who should be coming to me.

4. Trying to keep up with all the latest articles from my favorite publications.

5. Responding to requests for business proposals from sources that have never sent me the business.

6. Losing sleep about setbacks, stagnation, and dysfunction.

7. Worrying whether employees show up for work on time (and instead focusing on them being online most of the time).

8. Pie-in-the-sky side projects that help other people more than me.

9. Answering all emails right away, especially those not from current or potential clients, the media, or a close relative.

What will I do instead? Focus on my firm’s profit and growth and my professional and personal satisfaction, rather than being distracted by useless side projects and people who are asking for things, but are offering little or nothing in return.

In short, I’m going to put my energy into the personal relationships that really count.

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This article first appeared on Marco's weekly WeWork Creator Magazine column. Creator Magazine is a new kind of publication that features stories of entrepreneurs and first-hand resources to make your business more successful.

How to Recruit an All-Star Team

Do you aggressively go after talent by courting a prospect that you think can help elevate your business?

Do you operate like a social media ninja, relying on LinkedIn, Twitter, and the latest online tools to identify and pluck talent virtually?

Do you work with in-house and outside recruiters to tap recruits from competitors and also mine your own network of friends and former colleagues?

Sound like logical steps, right? They are, but they often come up short and aren’t sustainable unless you’ve first built a strong foundation within your organization. When you’re rooted in the pride of doing exemplary work, candidates flock to you rather than you having to chase after them.

I was reminded of that fact this week as I headed to the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Just as I had learned during a visit to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center at Ohio State University earlier this fall, studying the recruiting techniques at elite institutions can teach us in business a lot about bringing on the best people.

The bottom line is that it’s not about salary, compensation, stock plans, or vacation time. After all, college athletes aren’t paid, and Army officers could be making exponentially more as civilians. Rather, it’s a winning culture that attracts the best people and makes for the best fit.

While your business probably doesn’t have the vast resources and brand recognition of these top programs, some of their recruiting talent might rub off on you. Here are a few recruiting lessons I’ve learned that I wanted to pass along.

Make legacy come alive. 

My son and I took a photo in front of a statue of the legendary football coach Woody Hayes, known for his obsessive drive for excellence. Most companies—tech companies in particular—define legacy as outdated software programs and hardware systems that need to be replaced, instead of the stories and legends that can inspire generations. Even if your company is a young startup, you can still cultivate the backstory of your founders to make recent history relevant.

Showcase a facility worth visiting. 

Both the football fields at Ohio State and the historical battlefields surrounding the Army War College are coveted sites for visitors. Sadly, many businesses still see their physical location as a collection of white boards and cubicles, rather than monuments to achievement and teamwork. Think carefully about the photos, murals, and other images that appear on your walls—they are telling your company’s story. Design your office in a way that makes people proud to come to work.

Set your goals impossibly high. 

The Army War College accepts a small fraction of the officers who apply, and the Ohio State Buckeyes are a similarly selective football team. Both strive to be the best program in the country. Are your recruits looking at your organizations as just another résumé stop, or a cause with a clear and audacious mandate? Progress is incremental, so even if you don’t meet all your goals, reaching for the stars will help you recruit and retain your star employees.

Bring back successful alums. 

These institutions are quite literally halls of fame where they tout the accomplishments of their alums. Many of them return again and again, attending fundraisers, giving guest lectures, and rooting for the team from the sidelines. Rather than seeing your former employees as defectors, consider them successful alums who still care deeply about your organization.

Make diversity real. 

The Army War College and Ohio State are ethnically, racially, culturally, geographically, and socioeconomically institutions. Although they still skew too male given the nature of their fields, my beloved contact at the Army War College is retired Colonel Ruth B. Collins, who is now CEO and alumni director at the Army War College Foundation. She’s a true expert in leadership and mentoring. It’s no secret that corporate America, including tech companies, can learn a lot about the advantages of attracting a diverse pool of talent.

Celebrate your people. 

Yes, both cultures are rah-rah. Losing is detrimental to recruiting in athletics, and can be disastrous in the military, so correcting mistakes is embedded in the culture. So too is giving props to people for getting it right. Do you work for someone who gives high fives and fist bumps and fires off congratulatory emails for a job well done? If not, he’s going to have a tough time fielding the best team.

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This article first appeared on Marco's weekly WeWork Creator Magazine column. Creator Magazine is a new kind of publication that features stories of entrepreneurs and first-hand resources to make your business more successful.

Israel is a small country that pumps out an unbelievable number of startups.

This country of just over eight million people boasts more than 5,400 vetted startups and tech companies, according to Start-Up Nation Central.

The people behind these businesses are not always who you think they are. They aren’t just the young upstarts you’ll find in Silicon Valley and other places. Many weren’t even born here. But they all share some important qualities.

Take my friend and colleague, David Galper. I met him almost a dozen years ago when he was a twenty-something student at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He had already secured tens of millions of dollars in funding from venture capitalists for Ruckus Network, a college-oriented digital music and entertainment startup he helped to found.

His company was sold to Total Music, a joint venture between Sony and Universal. After that, he went on to become a go-to advisor for countless startups. He is known for having an eye for diamonds in the rough, such as when he relaunched TinyURL.

I met David for brunch in Tel Aviv last month, pigging out on a delicious brunch buffet and taking in the view of the Mediterranean Sea. He told me that after all his success in the Boston area, he and his family decided to check out living in Israel. It wasn’t an easy decision, especially with their less-than-fluent Hebrew. But when his wife landed a job as a physician at a top hospital, it seemed like the right time to make the move.

Only arriving a year and half ago, and having never served a day in the vaunted Israeli Defense Forces, where many of today’s business relationships are forged, David has been able to ride the Israeli tech wave with the best of them. He’s currently scouting talent as the country’s lead investor for Flybridge.

What makes him so successful? It’s his brainpower, natural curiosity, gut instinct, and love of exploration, along with his genuine humility (not always the most common quality in Israeli startups) that make him a perfect poster boy for Startup Nation.

If you’re in London, Beijing or L.A., what does all this have to do with you?

I’m not just talking about going global with the next Waze or Teva (two incredibly successful Israeli companies), but learning from, and even tapping into, the Israeli business mentality. It’s a mindset that puts qualities like improvisation, speed, spontaneity, candor, connections, creativity, and the joie de vivre very much in evidence in the Tel Aviv’s cafés and restaurants at any time of the day or night.

After a recent visit to Israel, I discovered a lot of commonalities among the entrepreneurs I met.

Israelis refuse to be categorized

Take Irit Singer, who started as an electrical engineer developing algorithms for more than seven years. She then transformed herself into a chief marketing officer and biz dev whiz. With perfect English that she picked up as a kid in Palo Alto, where her Israeli scientist parents landed prestigious gigs, this woman has the versatility and intellect to not be confined by her industry. She’s smoothly switched lanes several times during a career at L’Oreal, Microsoft, Mobli and nowAlto, a new real estate fund based in Tel Aviv and New York City.

Israelis don’t sweat the small stuff

You know the name, Rafi Gidron? If not, you should. And not just because he pulled off the biggest exit in Israel’s history, selling his company Chromatis for $4.8 billion. This PhD from Columbia University is now making his mark as a social entrepreneur, including foundingIsrael Brain Technologies, a nonprofit organization that’s focused on finding a cure for daunting diseases. He doesn’t let the massive scale of this effort bring him down. Like many Israeli entrepreneurs, he combines business acumen with the kind of idealism needed to build a better world.

Israelis have chutzpah

Whether they are Israeli Arab engineers running Galil Software or ultra-orthodox Jewish techies at RavTech, Israelis have chutzpah. Case in point, my new friend Jonathan Bensaid, the vice president of research and development at Apester. This former fighter pilot from the French Air Force immigrated to Israel and virtually overnight became a young superstar in Startup Nation. He has the chutzpah to enter and then reinvent an established field of polling and consumer sentiment by imbedding real time surveys into the biggest publications.

Sure, you’ll find inspiring stories in other countries. Yet the sheer number of startups in Israel tells us there’s something special going on. A nation that has quickly gone from growing oranges to producing every kind of technology under the sun is overflowing with a can-do spirit that’s contagious.

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"Go big, or go home.”

Are you ready to adopt that ubiquitous phrase as your mantra for the new year? After all, small businesses are taught that we should scale, replicate, partner, and grow into something so much bigger.

It’s thrilling to dream about how you’re going to be the next big thing. You’ll ring the bell on Wall Street when your freshly minted stock surges on the opening day of trading, become a household word, and create a legacy that outlives us all.

If you’re the next Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or Mark Zuckerberg, then going big is your destiny. But after working with hundreds of new companies over the course of my career, I have to let you in on a little secret: the odds of becoming the next big thing aren’t in your favor. Some of your companies will be gobbled up for a fraction of what you thought they were worth, and others will just shut the doors with hardly anyone noticing.

But what if you just want to live in the moment and savor the simplicity of a streamlined operation, focusing on net profits rather than gross revenue? Does it mean you’ve failed?

Quite the contrary, especially when you check out the Hartford’s annual Small Business Success Study. Turns out that most small business owners are a conservative bunch, with 55 percent of respondents saying their primary goal is to maintain their current size. The number whose main goal is growing the business has decreased from 41 percent to a relatively paltry 33 percent.

You might argue that these companies are hardly the next unicorns. The survey includes a lot of restaurants, dry cleaners, and construction companies, but they have important lessons to teach all of us about leading profitable and sustainable businesses. Moreover, they’re feeling good about their companies, with 73 percent of respondents reporting that their business is operating successfully. They’re not going for broke and then winding up back working for the man. Instead, they are building long-term independence.

So rather than aim for the sky, consider the many benefits of being small and scrappy. Enjoy the business, financial, and lifestyle advantages of growing organically. Here’s a few of the tangible benefits you’ll discover.

You’ll be fast and nimble. You can damn the bureaucracy and politics that bog down most big organizations. Instead, you can be like a speedboat that runs circles around a battleship.

You’ll be in demand. When you’re a big beast, there can never be enough business. When you’re smaller, you’re in demand and customers want you more.

You’ll be responsible. You can follow your own moral compass about doing the right thing and follow ethical business practices. When you don’t need to feed an army of staffers, you can just say no to irksome people offering lousy deals.

You’ll be large. Ironically, when you keep things small, you can afford to be large. Rather than being part of a corporate behemoth that cuts costs to the bone, you can be generous to your staff and give back to the larger community.

You’ll do more quality work. Rather than just cranking it out, you’ll have the chance to take pride in what you do.

You’ll be more in control. Face it, you’re a bit of a control freak. If you’re a founder and try too hard to get too big, you might be haunted by the lyrics from this song from the ‘80s band 38 Special: “You’re gonna lose it, you’re gonna lose control…. And usually it’s too late when you realize what you had.”

You’ll have more fun. And I mean at the office and everywhere else. If you want to take the day off and make your own tracks on fresh powder snow, you can get away with it.

You’ll be more profitable. Isn’t that what the business comes down to? To hammer home the point, let me share a lesson I learned long ago from my first business. At my first PR firm, I was striving to reach $2 million in annual revenue. It was December of 2001, the market had already started tanking, and I was only about $100,000 away from the goal. My genius accountant, Steve Frushtick, said he’d make me an offer: “I’ll write you a check right now for 100k, then you’ll turn around and write me a check for 100k. Are you better off? Of course not!”

Like a leader asking the electorate during an election year, will you be better off being big? In 2016, you should run the company you want rather than the one people say you should want.

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The Quickest Ways to Lose Money in a Startup

Wether you already have funding or are still looking for that initial interest from an investor, building out revenue streams has got to be on the top of your wish list.

Once the cash starts rolling in, you’ll probably start seeing a pattern before you even look at the reports on QuickBooks. Like crashing waves hitting the shoreline, the money comes into your account and then suddenly rushes back out.

Most marketing and sales experts teach you to focus on how to grow your revenue and scale your business. Fewer of them point to the stupid little things that we waste money on, making profitability that much harder to achieve.

First, a confession: I’ve wasted plenty of money on both the personal and business sides of the ledger. In fact, my bookkeeper still warns me on occasion that I’m spending money like it’s burning a hole in my pocket.

I take pride in being generous, since it’s part of who I am. But it’s the overdoing that I’m learning to cut back on.

For instance, when I was really feeling flush, I once had a New England-style stone fence built around a property we owned. While it was aesthetically pleasing, in hindsight there’s no way I can justify the cost on any level, certainly not financially, nor even from an enjoyment point of view.

Similarly in business, we don’t learn from the good decisions, only from the bad calls.

So rather than being concerned that you might be overpaying a few employees, or even giving out too many perks, from health insurance to free food, I argue that those kind of overages are good bang for the buck as they help build a loyal workforce and boost morale.

Instead, here a half-dozen line items that are less obvious, less redeeming, and can sneak up on your startup. They’re usually disguised as “one-time costs,” can easily turn into an expensive habit, and are a quick and easy way to bloat your accounts payable.

Latest equipment. Beware of expensive high-tech white boards, the latest leather swivel chairs, or the most updated Adobe software. When I started my first business, one of the first checks I wrote was for 10k—transferred from a meager personal savings account—to buy office furniture. My office furniture distributor was a friend, who then hired my firm on a monthly retainer and made many business introductions. It turned out to be a great investment, based on genuine reciprocity, and he’s still a close friend. Yet, that was the exception that proves the rule. In most cases, the newest equipment and furniture can wait.

Long-term office rentals. After spending gobs of rent over the years for offices in midtown Manhattan, including tens of thousands of dollars to get out of long-term leases, I took a different route six years back. These were still pre-WeWork days, and my wife had to convince me that it was okay to take a non-conventional space closer to home. I fell for the first spot we saw: a loft on the top floor of a brownstone on the Upper West side with an outdoor deck. Flexibility on space, and just saying no to long-term real estate commitments can help you save big time.

Overpriced consultants. They give you the impression that they’ve been there and done that, have the answers, and can be integral to your success. While it’s true in isolated cases, in most scenarios I’ve seen, high-priced and even low-priced, consultants too often over-promise, under-deliver, and suck your hard-earned dollars. Outsource the bookkeeper, payroll, designers, and legal staff for as long as you can, but hiring a messianic consultant to practice magic and transform your business is a surefire way to disappointment.

Cool advertising. When you have the cash, and need to market, paid media is such an alluring quick fix. While you also need to be wary of high-priced web shops, it’s even easier to fall in love with a creative campaign that instantly puts your company in the big lights. I still remember the gobs of money Internet 1.0 startups spent in advertising. In the end, most of the companies and publications—including fat editions of Industry Standard and Red Herring—shrunk and then folded. Advertising can work wonders when you’re big enough to pay for it, but can eat your lunch when you’re still small.

Litigation. Sooner rather than later, a customer will stiff you, and an ex-employee or vendor will file a frivolous lawsuit. As an entrepreneur, your natural inclination will be to fight back. I’m not saying not to (I’ve taken this route a couple times), but in most cases, making it go away by walking away is the best thing for you to do for your balance sheet and peace of mind.

Off-site events. It’s tempting to change environment, eliminate daily distraction, and treat your team to an out-of-office experience for a day or two. Before you book that out of town resort, consider instead the dive bar down the block for some after-work burgers and beers.

You’ll usually need to lose your own money to learn these lessons (and additional ones). Just don’t say you were never warned.

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Apps I’d Actually Use: 4 Free Ideas for Developers

"Solve this, work here!” proclaimed a recruitment ad for software engineers.

The ad was in the form of programming puzzles that deliberately looked like a foreign language to the untrained eye. The placement was equally smart and unexpected, yet deceivingly commonplace. Not some easily ignored pop up or display ad, the message was in your face as you rode the subway through computer-savvy neighborhoods of Boston and Cambridge, Mass.

The company behind this brilliant campaign was ITA, then just another venture-backed tech company. Fast forward a few years, and ITA was sold to Google for $700 million.

I’m no engineer or venture capitalist, but I’d like to issue a similar challenge. There seems to be a mobile app for just about anything these days: weather, music, dating.

But before the app craze is replaced by the next wave of yet to be named digital-driven obsession, there still remain some uncharted waters to explore.

I’m a focus group of one, and have done virtually no competitive research. I’m just a consumer who wants to turn his already smart phone into a magic wand to unleash awesome power in addressing specific, and currently unmet, needs. I’ve given you a jumpstart by naming these apps and presenting them in Shark Tankpitch language, imagining that I’m trying to convince a skeptical Mr. Wonderful.

Here then is my list of fantasy apps I’d like to see you developers tackle.

Contact Hell: Has your phone’s contact list become unmanageable? Is it populated by email addresses that haven’t been active for years, or worse yet, phone numbers of old relatives who are now deceased? Can you instantly unearth an obscure contact that you last spoke with once back in ’09, but suddenly can’t locate the number of one of your closest friends? Currently, when you ask even tech-savvy people how to update your contacts, they say that it’s a painfully tedious process. Contact Hell deploys technology that automatically detects which contacts are fresh, from land lines to Twitter handles, and buries those that are figuratively, and sometimes literally, dead.

Physical People: Have you ever accidently stumbled upon people in your neighborhood who you already work with in some capacity or want to know professionally? This summer, I realized by chance that several of my professional contacts live within a couple block radius of my apartment. And just last week, while walking through my lobby, I discovered that a client of ours actually lives in my building. Introducing Physical People: a new app that automatically syncs with LinkedIn and allows you to instantly identify the geographic proximity, work, and home, of your current and potential connections. Yes, in our virtual world your physical location matters, maybe more than ever before. Let’s stop pretending that our home address is private. Being able to share common ground is critical to building a relationship with a potential client, vendor, or employee and closing a deal.

Tick-Tac-Foe: How many of you have a friend or relative who has suffered from a tick-borne illness? I have a good friend, a remarkable woman, who’s battling back after her life took a tragic turn from such a disease. How many of you luckily spotted, and managed to remove, a tick on yourself, spouse, or kid? Manual checks are better than nothing, but they don’t always give us piece of mind. Instead, imagine that your phone was equipped with a high-powered scanner that could detect the presence of a tick. Almost like the handheld metal detector at the airport. Tick-Tac-Foe does that and more!

Phone Eyes: Have you also stood in awe, watching a sight-impaired person navigate the public transportation system? They are often assisted by seeing-eye dogs or the helping hand of a stranger. But can’t a smartphone help them detect buildings, traffic, curbs, and other obstacles? Phone Eyes attempts to do just that by combining the latest GPS and voice technology to alert people with limited vision about what’s in their immediate path.

These ideas are free and not yet available on iOS or Android. Too hard or impractical to pull off? Maybe. A spark for something better? Hope so.

So rather than just creating an app to make a quick buck, think about doubling down. Jump on the path of most resistance, and create an app that can make a real difference.

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6 Lessons from Football — Even If You Can’t Stand Sports Analogies

There are a lot of people who like to knock football.

I’m married to one. She considers the game to be dangerous, violent, and downright inane. If you listen to her describe it, it’s for big stupid brutes who like to bash into each other.

The news about deflated balls and inflated salaries only adds to her contempt, as do recent reports about head injuries. She blames a few concussions on the field for significantly lowering the IQ of her husband (that’d be me) and vows to block attempts by her son to sign up for tackle football.

Of course, when the Super Bowl kicks off, she’ll join the parties, laugh at the new commercial spots, and even admit to admiring views of the behinds of the tight ends.

And that’s the point. Even for those who voice their distain for football and find sports analogies corny and overused, there remains a magnetic appeal to what is the undisputed and quintessential American sport.

As we kick off football season, I’d like to argue that the game has more relevance to the business world, especially startups, than any other sport. Most sports demand teamwork, commitment, endurance, and a rah-rah attitude, but football goes far beyond that.

“We’re playing hockey, not golf,” my longtime friend George Conrades once reminded me. He’s a former top exec at IBM and BBN and the first CEO of Akamai Technologies, where he was my client. It’s a phrase I’ve borrowed a lot over the years, for understandable reasons.

Fast moving, constantly changing, and goal-oriented, hockey sounds very much like starting a new company. And it’s the polar opposite of the privileged, pondering, and glacially slow pace of the golf links. For that reason, hockey earns a very respectable second place in its applicability to business.

But football outscores hockey in several unique ways. In my playbook, here are a couple of lessons that you can apply to your new business.

1. Focus on fundamentals. Blocking and tackling are to football what revenue and expenses are to business. It’s fun to get creative and call fancy plays, but at the end of the day, it comes down to executing two clear-cut but hard-to-achieve fundamentals.

2. Seek the contact. Being risk-averse, passive aggressive, and avoiding conflict—these are not good characteristics to have when you’re building a business. Football teaches you to seek the contact, butting heads if necessary to make it happen. Conversely, football also teaches you to be elusive, and make others miss out. That means hitting the hole hard and running over, around, and in between would-be tacklers who are the competitors in your field.

3. Size people up. “Turn around!” barked the head football coach at Beverly Hills High School on my first day of practice. As we arranged ourselves horizontally in the end zone, he was checking out which of us had the solid physiques to be linemen. While everyone wants to be the star who makes the game-winning touchdown, coach Bill Stansbury knew instinctively that a leader needs to put people in their proper position that matches their size and abilities rather than their dreams and egos.

4. Always make adjustments. I remember hearing Pat Haden, athletic director at the University of Southern California, saying that football is a game of adjustments. Yes, there is strategy involved, but coaches have to anticipate that things will go wrong. That’s when they have the players huddle up and try to get it right.

5. Operate under any conditions. From hot and humid summer afternoons to ending the season in a snowstorm, football is played under any and all conditions. It teaches us that we will often be at the mercy of elements that we cannot control.

6. Don’t overthink things. “I thought I was supposed to block so-and-so,” a teammate who messed up a play explained to Coach Stansbury. “That’s the problem, you think too much,” the coach shouted back. Just react, attack, and rely on gut instinct.

More than three decades after I played my last game, I still regret walking off the college field, suddenly quitting after I had transferred to a Division III school because I wasn’t good enough to play at the University of California.

I’m still ashamed of my decision. I chalk it up to immaturity, and feel compelled to write another apology to those who helped me get into a school where I wasn’t a shoo-in.

But in another way, I’m glad I relied on my gut instincts. Finishing up at UCLA gave me precious time with my father, who came down with a terminal illness several years later. It also led to a job working for my local member of Congress and pursuing my master’s degree at Columbia.

I’m grateful to football for instilling in me a drive to hit fear head-on, a commitment to excellence, and a reckless abandon—all skills a former linebacker coach used to demand from us. These qualities have been game changers for me, and for countless others, in business. And the good news is that they are yours for the taking, whether you played the game or not.

___________________

Creating a Morning Ritual: Why Your First Moves Matter

My grandfather repeated this adage over and over to me when I was a young boy: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

For him, these words became a personal mantra as he lifted himself out of poverty, going from selling beans in rural California to creating two companies that were traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Even 40 years later, I love remembering him as he savored his early morning ritual. Not just his lathering up the brush in his shaving mug, eating half of a grapefruit, or checking his company’s stock price in the Wall Street Journal—instead it was his very first move of the day that made the biggest impression.

Papa Joe, as we affectionately called him, had a degenerative disease that gradually weakened this handsome outdoorsman, and he was forced to move from a cane, to a walker, to a wheelchair. Despite it all, he began each morning before sunrise, rain or shine, with a swim in his pool. I still can see him smiling and waving to me while doing the backstroke. He proudly proclaimed his morning swim was his secret to maintaining good health, and it must have worked, because he was alive and kicking past 90.

True, not all of us are biologically wired to be morning people. Many of us write, think, and create better at the midnight hour. If you’re in a rock band, an actor, or even a star copywriter, you get a free pass to sleep in.

But if you’re like the rest of us, and want to nail it in business, then you need to be up and awake—and functioning at a high level—long before the morning bell is sounded on Wall Street. That’s why I realized that my first steps when I get out of bed are the most important of the day.

Unlike my grandfather’s generation, or even my father’s, the things I do every morning aren’t just about motivating myself for the day ahead. They are about preventing myself from doing the things that I know will keep me from being the most productive. They are a little like speed bumps that I place in my own path to slow me down and keep me focused.

You know what I mean. When you first get up, even before you stumble to the bathroom to brush your teeth, do you reach for your phone to see the latest stream of emails, texts, and tweets?

What a jarring and unsettling, if not downright counterproductive, way to start the day. Would an athlete break into a full sprint before she even warmed up? Would an orchestra perform Beethoven’s 9th before tuning their instruments?

Of course not. But according to the Pew Research Center, almost half of smartphone owners have slept with their device next to their bed because they wanted to make sure they didn’t miss any calls. I fell into that trap before, and now I leave my phone in the closet, powered off.

Ideally, I don’t power up until I’ve taken these steps below:

1. Meditate. The very idea of meditating used to scare me. Being totally alone, not talking, just breathing. What if I think about stuff that I don’t want to think about? Thanks to a Portuguese-speaking yoga teacher named Jose, I learned to slow down, letting my thoughts come and go like the waves in the ocean. I turned to Jose almost three years ago when my stress level had reached a breaking point. Since then, meditation has become a true safe haven. I’ve also discovered that many of the most hard-charging people in business tap into this source of tranquility by deliberately downshifting to first gear.

2. Create something. I begin each day with a blank screen, not the homepage of my favorite website or a list of my unread emails. It could be brainstorming on a project at work, writing a proposal for a new client, or even drafting an article I hope to publish. I imagine I’m a musician opening the keyboard of the piano, and start to compose.

3.Walk the dog. When my oldest daughter asked for a dog four years back, I thought this would be just one more task for my already overpopulated to-do list. But I discovered that I don’t take the dogs out for a walk (yes, there are two of them now); they take me out for a walk. Some of my best business ideas come when I catch myself laughing at my two rescues frolicking in the park.

4. Work out. While many people prefer hitting the gym at the end of the day, I find that after work there’s always a good reason to blow off my workout. There’s too much stuff I haven’t finished at the office, I’m too hungry or tired, need some time with the family, or receive too many tempting offers to go out and grab drinks and dinner with friends and colleagues. Sweating it out before work, whether it’s a run, yoga class, or bike ride frees you up to play once the day is over.

5. Take a shower. When I’m working remotely, sometimes it’s just easier to stay in my boxers and fire off emails from my couch for hours before I realize I haven’t bothered to get dressed and haven’t even taken a shower. That’s no way to start the day. Yes, the rushing water also has another benefit: our minds are free to wander, and creative sparks happen. I’ve actually named companies and products in my shower.

6. Eat something. Skipping breakfast is so easy to do, especially when we convince ourselves that a cup of coffee will do. But our grandmothers were right when they said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. When I skip eating in the morning, the resulting low blood sugar makes minor issues seem insurmountable. I then overcompensate at the end of the day, which only adds more unwanted pounds.

7. Read the newspaper. Not your favorite newsfeed that gives you a narrow range of topics that you’re already interested in, but rather an old-fashioned newspaper that comes delivered to your door. It’s not prescreened or filtered, and instead you’re confronted with photos of refugees fleeing atrocities in the Middle East and Africa, making your own problems seem small in comparison. You also might connect the dots on business developments in the news that can help you with your own business.

For my grandfather, home was home and work was work. He didn’t even take his briefcase home with him from the office, as it would impinge on time with his family, which he treated as sacred.

For good and for bad, those lines of demarcation have been erased long ago. Instead, the responsibility is on you to create your own boundaries between your professional and personal lives. Morning rituals help you prioritize and regain control. You’ll be better prepared to turn on your digital devices without being swept away by the flood of information. You’ll be more focused, informed, and even more relaxed so that you can take on the day.

___________________

How Being a Dad Changed Me — and the Way I Work

An old friend who’s become a very successful entrepreneur told me years ago that he decided not to have kids because they would be a “distraction” just around the time he wanted to be growing his business.

You bet they are, I replied, but they’re a healthy and necessary distraction.

There’s been a lot written lately about the struggles of working moms seeking the right work-life balance, or the very real pressures of being a single parent, and even the advantages of not having children.

Much less has been written about the professional benefits of having kids, especially for working dads. I’ve learned along the way that being a father, or even being a father figure for other people’s kids, makes you a better person—not just at home, but at your work.

That stands in contrast to many young ambitious professionals, especially entrepreneurs, who decide to put off having kids for fear that they’re aren’t established enough in their careers. They think having kids will slow them down professionally, and doubt their own ability to provide for a family until they’ve built up enough of a nest egg.

I can relate to them, but then again I can’t. 

Three months after I started my first business, my girlfriend of six weeks told me she was pregnant. At the time I was a rather immature 33-year-old entrepreneur who had long suffered from an acute case of commitment avoidance. While I had now fallen in love, and we had discussed having kids right away, the news still took me by surprise.

Part of me was overjoyed. The other part of me felt a rush of cortisol invade every part of my body. But, when it came to parenthood, I took one of my girlfriend’s favorite adages literally: “Feel the fear and do it anyway.”

And we had fun doing it, making a lot of mistakes and getting many things backwards. First she got pregnant, then we went on our honeymoon, and then we got married.

Now it’s 17 years and three kids later. Since then it’s been a parade of homes, schools, activities, play dates, sleepovers, best friends, vacations, and, yes, many euphoric highs and heartbreaking lows.

Despite my best efforts, my wires often got crossed along the way. I remember the constant conference calls spilling into family time, so much so that my kids can do a pitch-perfect imitation of me talking to clients. Or my mood at the dinner table rising and falling based on arbitrary indicators of my professional success or failure. Or, worse yet, my wife rightfully exploded at me when I let a heated email exchange with a client seriously distract me at the moment when I should have been taking her to the hospital to give birth to our second child. Shameful.

When it comes to making a conscious decision to make parenthood a vital part of their identity, fathers often need to work harder than mothers. And yes, pardon the cliché, but it starts with getting in touch with your “inner child.”

Nothing brought more joy as a boy than hearing the masculine murmur of my dad’s Porsche pull up in the driveway to pick up my sister and me. My divorced dad was my knight in shining armor, strapping us in the jump seat and taking us away to enchanted lands: a quick sail on the ocean, maybe, or a horseback ride in the mountains topped off by a steak dinner. Or sometimes, as a self-employed architect, he would design entire summer excursions around the country and around the world.

That was except for the times when dad wasn’t around, which could be months on end. I always felt down when dad was away, even when grandparents, aunts, and uncles tried to fill the void or family friends would occasionally show up to take us on outings. I still remember being a 10-year-old boy and the thrill of how a friend of my parents would make my spirits soar just by taking me to see the Dodgers play.

Memories like these motivate me to cut out much of the overdoing and overscheduling at the office. My choices at work become clearer because I have a family waiting at home. I find I become more patient and less frenetic, more compassionate and less self-indulgent, more encouraging and less critical, more responsible and less carefree, and more generous and less selfish.

Sure, being a parent can be exhausting, frustrating, and financially depleting, and it does add immeasurable stress on your relationship. It can also wrack you with guilt that you’re not doing enough. You feel like you’re dropping the balls in a juggling act, that you’re not spending enough time with your kids because you’re staring at your smartphone as you weed through hundreds of emails.

Despite it all, you emerge as a leader (or, if you’re fortunate to have a strong and collaborative co-parent, a leadership team) and start seeing the rewards of living at the intersection of personal and professional commitment.

The same child who dramatically entered our lives so many years ago is now entering her junior year in high school. She’s already jumped into the workforce, confidently and cheerfully waiting tables during a summer job at our neighborhood diner.

As the back-to-school season is right around the corner, us parents are a tad less concerned about the next PowerPoint presentation, keeping the boss happy, or scoring the new customer. That doesn’t mean that we’re less committed or capable, but rather that we see life in a longer and very different trajectory, and that actually makes us wiser and more efficient at the office. I hope this knowledge is something I’ve passed along to my children.

I’ve returned this summer from trips with my kids, both on the West Coast and in New England, which included visiting—or should I say sneaking into—college football stadiums. Having auto-response turned on in my email program meant I could explore these fields of dreams and share the experience with those I love most.

All this came to mind last weekend when I was flipping grilled veggies on the barbecue last weekend with a good friend. I told this fellow dad about what that colleague had once told me about kids being a career distraction. “Distraction?” he asked incredulously. “My kids are my inspiration!”

And as we sat down to eat, I realized that I couldn’t agree more.

___________________

What Makes Us Fall in Love with Certain Brands?

When it comes to the material things in life, it’s the houses, cars, and other large-scale items that grab our attention.

But it’s often the smaller ticket items that win our affection. We easily fall in love with them, can’t live without them, and stopped looking at their price tag long ago.

How do the companies marketing these brands lure us in? Initially, it might be a humorous ad campaign, or some mention on social media that went viral, or a subtle product placement on our favorite TV show. Sometimes, it’s even just the color, the logo, and other packaging that we fall for. Take for example how Shake Shack, the upscale fast-food chain whose stock continues to sizzle, wraps itself in a deliciously evocative font called Neutra, virtually untouched since it was originally developed 70 years ago by the renowned modernist architect Richard Neutra.

Like personal relationships, we’re often initially introduced to a favorite brand by a friend or family member (in the case of Shake Shack, it was my 14-year-old son), and then the relationship becomes more intimate, without any intermediaries. Even in commerce, three’s a crowd. You might have the first encounter online, meet up at your favorite retail store, or get pleasure out of picking up the item at a brand’s outlet.

Let me get personal and share with you what draws me to those brands that are closest to me, and what makes me so fiercely attached and loyal to them. My criteria for selection: brands that literally touch my skin on a daily basis. Among my favorites are Weleda citrus deodorant spray, Clarins sunscreen, Robert Marc glasses (over 17 years of great customer service), and Frye boots.

Top-of-mind now are my new romances with high-touch brands. These are three I’ve fallen head over heels for over the last year, so much so, that I’ve literally made it a point to meet the people behind the products.

1. Alchemy Goods. I admit I have a fetish for finely designed recycled Alchemy Goods. I originally discovered a smart and light-weight wallet made out of tires at the Black Bamboo in Kansas City and then graduated to a black messenger bag made out of recycled bicycle inner tube with a seat belt as the strap, which is simply the best briefcase I’ve ever had, functional and fashionable. Last month, on vacation on the West Coast, with only 24 hours in Seattle, I had to visit their small storefront, where I picked up more sturdy and aesthetically pleasing goods.

2. Todd Shelton. A good friend turned me on to a new brand of classic American clothes for guys, Todd Shelton, which manufactures all their jeans and shirts in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Shelton says, as far as he knows, he is the only menswear fashion brand in the country operating with the business model of manufacturing an entire collection in-house and selling direct to the customer exclusively online. Part of how they do that is the brand’s“Fit Kit,”an innovative home try-on program that simulates Todd Shelton sizes and fits.

3. Java Me Up! I’m not a hardcore coffee drinker, but I recently discovered Java Me Up!, what the company smartly calls “coffee that never spills.” When I placed a box of their energy bars out at my office at the start of work, they were devoured before lunch. They should come with a warning label: delicious, uplifting, and will give would-be competitors a run for their money. I had to cold call the owner, Lisa Newmann, to confess my addiction, and was even more blown away by what she and her team have already created at their HQ in the former mill town of Housatonic, Massachusetts.

Some quick lessons from these companies?

All three brands are jumping right into crowded waters, but each with an irresistible and differentiated new twist. They are also illustrations of how warm is the new cool. These companies all market themselves as accessible, genuine, and needed, rather than sleek, snarky, and too cool for school.

Sure, I also like the people and the backstory, their design and environmentally friendly attributes, along with the fact that each has a hyper-local place of origin. Although there’s now an emotional attachment, these are extremely practical types of items satisfying our basic human needs—for example, food, clothing, and bags for our stuff. When I turn other people on to the brand and share the love with the passion of a new convert, it only adds to my connection. But at the end of the day, it’s a “what have you done for me?” kind of relationship. My loyalty is reciprocal because these products are good to me, and I try to do good by them.

___________________

Confident or Cocky? A Quiz to Measure Your Startup’s Swagger

If you’ve been recruited to work at a startup, or are crazy enough to start one, chances are that you’ve dealt with issues of confidence.

Both in terms of your co-workers, or even yourself, it can often feel like riding a roller coaster: rising from the heights of overconfidence, plunging to the depths of under-confidence, and then just as suddenly back up again.

To help you determine just how much swagger you and your colleagues actually have in the tank, I’ve devised this 13-step self-administered questionnaire. It takes only a couple of minutes, so no need to overthink it—just answer quickly and honestly with a true or false, and then tally up your score of positive answers.

Note: after you take the test, you might speculate on the scores of others, like your boss, colleagues, and investors—even your significant other. 1. Communication: One of the first things I do when meeting new customers is stand up and white board the issues they are facing so that I can help them better understand our company’s true value.

2. Competition: Our business is based on proprietary technology and is spearheading a new category, which is why we currently don’t really have any competitors.

3. Sales and marketing: Both teams need to do a much better job of getting us traction in the marketplace and growing revenue. In the end, it’s really a matter of educating the consumer.

4. Audience: High-level executives (ideally the CEO) are our targets. With all due respect to mid-level managers, we really need the attention and blessing of the top brass.

5. Luck: In terms of our business, hard work, contacts, and smarts beat timing, karma, and luck any day.

6. Valuations: The valuation of our company is totally justified. In fact, many investors will regret that they didn’t pony up earlier.

7. Awards: I honestly can’t figure out why our company isn’t on more “best of” lists and snagging more awards and high profile speaking opportunities. Frankly, it bugs me that our startup is not getting its props.

8. Coding: I’ve been coding since a really young age, and have little patience for people who haven’t picked up this core skill.

9. Degrees: I have more respect for entrepreneurs who drop out of college and go on to kill it than those who waste their time and money on higher education.

10. Impact: While I’ve been warned by our PR firm to avoid describing our company’s impact as “revolutionary,” in our case it happens to be true.

11. Friends: I hang mostly with people who are in the startup scene, since I have more in common with them. Who knows, we might be able to partner down the road.

12. Intelligence: While I wouldn’t go around announcing it, during business meetings I can’t help but notice that I’m usually the smartest person in the room.

13. Chill: Most people overreact and get all paranoid in business. I’m usually the type who reminds everyone to chill and that it’s all good.

It’s time to tally up your score…

1 to 3: You’re a throwback to the greatest generation, and your high level of modesty and commitment to feeding the needs (and egos) of others might be better utilized by working for an NGO in the developing world.

4 to 6: Your state of mind is probably ideal for a large and grounded Fortune 1000 corporation, so the startup scene might be a little much for you at this stage in your career.

7 to 9: You’ve found your groove, and what some might see as cocky or arrogant you recognize as the passion that will help you grow your business.

10 to 13: You’re in close danger of breaking the scales, pushing past cocky straight to narcissist. If this describes you, maybe you should run to the couch for some psychological counseling. If you work for one, or are married to one, it might be time to bail.

The Bottom line: A little bit of swagger is good, if not necessary. It’s the idealism, charm, and bravado that we have come to love and respect—and expect—from our favorite entrepreneurs.

But too much cockiness is a total turnoff. Like dousing yourself with too much perfume or cologne, it’s obnoxious and self-defeating, and very few people will be real about your need to dial it down. While having too little swagger doesn’t give you enough juice to get your venture off the ground, having too much might just torpedo the entire operation.

Here’s to you finding the optimal balance!

___________________

Making 2015 a Success: 5 Tips for a Mid-Year Turnaround

We all know the tradition of New Year’s resolutions. They’re life-affirming in theory, but most of these vows are made too early in the year, are not sustainable, and get broken almost immediately.

Those of us in business are hopefully a bit more practical, and want to get a sense of how the year is unfolding before we commit to changing course. January, and even February, are often too early in the cycle, and November and December are way too late.

Think about a football coach headed off with his team to the locker room at half time. July is the midway point of the game, the perfect time to catch our breath. It’s our opportunity to go back to the white board, review the game plan, analyze the obstacles being thrown in our way, and figure out how to adjust so we can optimize our performance.

Rather than beating yourself up for not hitting your targets, or conversely engaging in self-congratulations for killing it, the best way to recalibrate is to ask yourself revealing questions about your team and yourself. While going on summer vacation is necessary and can clear your head, if you really want to hit refresh, you need to do a gut check and get real on points like these:

1. Are you and your team as productive as possible? After forming an allergic reaction to Oracle time sheets early in my career, the last thing I wanted to do was track my time as an entrepreneur. But after some encouragement by a trusted business mentor, I signed up for Harvest, an easy-to-use online time management platform. Now I know whether my team is getting as much done as possible.

The results: You’ll feel liberated by being more in control and more efficient.

2. Have you looked over the books lately? If not, it’s time to meet with your accountant or bookkeeper. It’s like getting an exam from a physician. If you’re trying to grow revenue at your company, you need to open the books to an outside pair of eyes. If you wait for tax season, you’ll often miss the bigger picture.

The results: You’ll see fat that needs to be trimmed, as well as new revenue streams that need to be tapped.

3. Have you reviewed the performance of your workers? A year-end review and bonus is fine and dandy, but a pat on the back for accomplishments they’ve made along the way, with a heads-up about areas where they could improve, is the kind of feedback that members of your team are hungry for. Plus, you’ll see the gaps, knowing when to bring new people onboard, and when to say goodbye to others who aren’t performing.

The results: Your staffers will welcome the praise, as well as the criticism. They’ll probably show you that they’re more aware of their strong and weak points than you realized.

4. Have you reached out to people who could send you business? It could be current or future customers, but it might also be longtime vendors, close friends and family members, or former colleagues and clients that recommend your company. It’s time to give them a call. And don’t forget to ask how you can help them out—a mistake made by all too many self-involved business owners.

The results: You’ll share real business intelligence and might even pick up some more referrals.

5. Are you making time for yourself? Make sure you’re seeking out purely pleasurable activities that have zero connection to work. During the middle of last week, I jumped into a lake on a hot and humid day, indulged in a relaxing yoga class, took a six-mile walk with my wife, and spent some time in a batting cage with my teenage son. Make a list of activities that you enjoy outside of work, and check them off one by one. For some, it’s a deep-tissue massage. For others, it’s reading a trashy novel or finally taking that ceramics class.

The results: You’ll realize that you can carve out time just for you.

This is the time of year when we can free ourselves from those clichéd year-end resolutions, like losing weight or getting to the gym. As Albert Ellis, founder of behavioral therapy, said in his classic How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything, you can finally stop “shoulding on yourself” and take time out to maximize your life at work and at play.

___________________

Making 2015 a Success: 5 Tips for a Mid-Year Turnaround

We all know the tradition of New Year’s resolutions. They’re life-affirming in theory, but most of these vows are made too early in the year, are not sustainable, and get broken almost immediately.

Those of us in business are hopefully a bit more practical, and want to get a sense of how the year is unfolding before we commit to changing course. January, and even February, are often too early in the cycle, and November and December are way too late.

Think about a football coach headed off with his team to the locker room at half time. July is the midway point of the game, the perfect time to catch our breath. It’s our opportunity to go back to the white board, review the game plan, analyze the obstacles being thrown in our way, and figure out how to adjust so we can optimize our performance.

Rather than beating yourself up for not hitting your targets, or conversely engaging in self-congratulations for killing it, the best way to recalibrate is to ask yourself revealing questions about your team and yourself. While going on summer vacation is necessary and can clear your head, if you really want to hit refresh, you need to do a gut check and get real on points like these:

1. Are you and your team as productive as possible? After forming an allergic reaction to Oracle time sheets early in my career, the last thing I wanted to do was track my time as an entrepreneur. But after some encouragement by a trusted business mentor, I signed up for Harvest, an easy-to-use online time management platform. Now I know whether my team is getting as much done as possible.

The results: You’ll feel liberated by being more in control and more efficient.

2. Have you looked over the books lately? If not, it’s time to meet with your accountant or bookkeeper. It’s like getting an exam from a physician. If you’re trying to grow revenue at your company, you need to open the books to an outside pair of eyes. If you wait for tax season, you’ll often miss the bigger picture.

The results: You’ll see fat that needs to be trimmed, as well as new revenue streams that need to be tapped.

3. Have you reviewed the performance of your workers? A year-end review and bonus is fine and dandy, but a pat on the back for accomplishments they’ve made along the way, with a heads-up about areas where they could improve, is the kind of feedback that members of your team are hungry for. Plus, you’ll see the gaps, knowing when to bring new people onboard, and when to say goodbye to others who aren’t performing.

The results: Your staffers will welcome the praise, as well as the criticism. They’ll probably show you that they’re more aware of their strong and weak points than you realized.

4. Have you reached out to people who could send you business? It could be current or future customers, but it might also be longtime vendors, close friends and family members, or former colleagues and clients that recommend your company. It’s time to give them a call. And don’t forget to ask how you can help them out—a mistake made by all too many self-involved business owners.

The results: You’ll share real business intelligence and might even pick up some more referrals.

5. Are you making time for yourself? Make sure you’re seeking out purely pleasurable activities that have zero connection to work. During the middle of last week, I jumped into a lake on a hot and humid day, indulged in a relaxing yoga class, took a six-mile walk with my wife, and spent some time in a batting cage with my teenage son. Make a list of activities that you enjoy outside of work, and check them off one by one. For some, it’s a deep-tissue massage. For others, it’s reading a trashy novel or finally taking that ceramics class.

The results: You’ll realize that you can carve out time just for you.

This is the time of year when we can free ourselves from those clichéd year-end resolutions, like losing weight or getting to the gym. As Albert Ellis, founder of behavioral therapy, said in his classic How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything, you can finally stop “shoulding on yourself” and take time out to maximize your life at work and at play.

___________________

10 Ways CrossFit Can Get Your Company in Shape — Without Working Out

I stumbled upon CrossFit 10 years ago. It’s had a huge impact on my life, but not necessarily in the way you think. Sure, I’ve gotten in better shape, but I keep coming back to feed an addiction to an endorphin rush—the kind of high I haven’t experienced since high school football.

While the crazy workouts—from box jumps to pull ups to 400 meter runs—are certainly not for everyone, I would argue that the principles of CrossFit are actually highly applicable to business and can improve executive performance and that of your entire company.

I admit that sometimes, CrossFit feels a little cult-like, and the macho spirit can get over the top, yet at its core (more on that in a moment) is more than just exercise; it’s a philosophy you can use to fuel your business. Here are my favorite takeaways:

1. Core strength. No “beach muscles,” as my old football coach use to say. Instead, you focus on the core, the big and central muscle groups that affect all the others.

The lesson: Are you focusing on the core of your business these days or the appendages that don’t really matter?

2. The right technique. At CrossFit Great Barrington (appropriately dubbed BizFit), there’s a certain motto that adorns the T-shirts: “Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast.” In other words, first master proper technique at a doable pace, and then the results will follow.

The lesson: Is your technique at work smooth and sound, or is it frenetic and unsustainable?

3. Setting new PRs. Not public relations, but personal records. That means going all out, and on occasion, utilizing every bit of your fast-twitch muscle fiber.

The lesson: Have you set personal and quantifiable professional goals for yourself that take your achievement to the max?

4. No cheating. While I’ve come across a couple isolated incidents of CrossFitters who are flakes, virtually every CrossFitter I’ve met is brutally honest about their times and numbers of reps.

The lesson: Do you know companies who inflate their number of customers, annual revenue, or the uniqueness of their product?

5. Scale it. For most startups, scaling equals expanding. In CrossFit, it’s actually the exact opposite, meaning you make adjustments so that the workout is manageable for you. If need be, lighten your load. In business parlance, it’s like a page out of the book Do Less, Achieve More.

The lesson: Are their challenges at work that you might want to back off from, or chip away at, rather than solving all at once?

6. No navel-gazing. There are no mirrors in CrossFit gyms. It’s about doing the workout, rather than checking out your reflection or resting on your laurels.

The lesson: How much idle time, or worse yet, analysis paralysis, exists at your organization?

7. Routine is the enemy. Constant variation is a big theme in CrossFit. One day, it’s heavy weights, and the next day, it might be a five-mile run.

The lesson: Do you shake it up at work, or do you find yourself doing the same old grind?

8. Word of mouth. CrossFit is the ultimate referral machine, a complete 180 from the cheesy advertising at other gyms. Yes, they have active blogs and post countless videos online, but it is about the action and not the promotion.

The lesson: How much of your marketing is pushy and salesy, rather than having real people demonstrate their attraction to your product in action?

9. Rest days. The routines acknowledge that we need time off to reach peak performance, and the workout of the day is replaced with a rest day.

The lesson: When have you taken a real rest day lately at work?

10. Social contact. CrossFit is truly a social network. I didn’t sign up to meet people, yet so many of those I’ve met have been genuinely encouraging of each other both in and out of the gym. It’s unlike other gyms, where everyone wears headphones and few people talk to each other.

The lesson: Are you a social animal that feels isolated at the office and craves more real human contact?

Even so, sometimes I want a break from the high-intensity workouts. And CrossFit actually encourages you to do new sports. I’ll do a yoga class, go for a run, take a boxing lesson, or hit the slopes in the winter, but I find myself coming back to CrossFit.

A big reason why is that camaraderie. How much real camaraderie do you feel with your colleagues at work?

Hopefully, it’s one of the reasons you keep showing up every day. If not, it might be time to find the next gig.

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8 Proven Ways to Reward Your Workers Without Busting the Budget

Did you ever hear that adage about our people being our greatest asset?

Sounds kind of corny, right? It also happens to be true.

But how do you keep good employees happy, motivated, and performing at their best? How do they become loyal enough to say no when headhunters start calling? How do you get them to buy into your big vision for the company?

Sure there are the obvious tactics: increased salaries, nice year-end bonuses, or free medical coverage. You could even announce that the office will be closed the last 10 days of the year.

As someone who regards himself as a generous boss, I’ve tried and taken many of those steps for my staff. They can be tangible proof that your company rewards its hard-working employees, and can also be a great recruiting and retention tool.

But they can just as often backfire, like when employees take their year-end bonus and then give you two-weeks notice at the start of the next year. Or when you’ve given a big bump in compensation to a star employee, then word gets around, and now everyone seems to be clamoring for a raise.

So how do you reward employees, help them grow professionally, and help them contribute in positive ways to your business, without breaking the bank?

In my book, it starts by putting yourself in the shoes of your employees. Get in touch with your own early career memories of being overworked, underappreciated, and underpaid.

At startups, most people sign up for something that’s a lot more than just a paycheck. And that gives you a license to reward your workforce in ways that most corporate bosses could never do. Hint: it’s a lot more than letting them telecommute once in a while.

Here are my favorite ways to give props economically or, in many cases, for free:

1. Let them take the lead. I recently got back from an out-of-state business pitch, and a lot was on the line. I’m a pretty good presenter, but I deliberately handed the mouse to a trusted employee and allowed him to drive the meeting. We won the business.

2. Ask their opinion. Rather than tell people what to do, first ask their opinion of a situation. Although you might not always follow their advice, listening to their point of view helps everyone come up with the best solution.

3. Buy them lunch. Having beverages and snacks around the office is now pretty much a given. But telling employees they can order up lunch from their favorite restaurant is not. Try it, and see their reaction.

4. Introduce them to your network. Make a list of the people who have positively impacted your career, be they former bosses, colleagues, or employees. Ask them to speak before your company and share their expertise. Everyone benefits because it’s more affordable and memorable than boring training sessions. As a bonus, your team sees the bonds you’ve built with the people who came before you.

5. Invite them over to your home. I remember a boss I didn’t really like. When he invited me over to his home to meet his family, my attitude toward him suddenly changed. I saw him in a different, far more human light.

6. Order the office to play hooky. I’ve sponsored my share of off-site events for my team, including expensive out-of-state retreats in beautiful hotels that include catered meals, massage treatments, and group activities. No mas. Last month, as an employee initiative, we closed the office on a Wednesday afternoon and all went for burgers and beers and then saw Jurassic World. I ended up using it as an opportunity to catch up on some sleep, and awoke surrounded by happy co-workers watching the closing credits.

7. Come bearing gifts. When I worked at the ad agency Gitam/BBDO in Israel 20 years ago, every Passover and Rosh Hashana employees were asked to choose from a selection of gift options. One year, I chose a modest, yet sleek silverware set. When I opened the drawer this weekend to make my son lunch, I spotted a fork and a spoon from those years, and it brought a smile to my face.

8. Tell them they do a great job. Offer praise when it’s due. While a parent’s love is unconditional, your praise as a boss is actually very conditional and needs to be specific and genuine. I worked harder than I ever worked in my career for a boss who used to leave me handwritten notes commending me on a job well done. I knew he meant it, and it motivated me more than a few extra shekels ever could have.

The bottom line: it pays to show people they matter.

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