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This isn’t about the famous opera by Verdi. Its about Marketing.

Pause and breath. You can’t unring a bell. Don’t say things when you are hot that you will later regret.

Avoiding challenges in life is like trying to toast bread with a flashlight. It’s a bright idea, but it won’t get you far.

In the grand theater of the human experience, our minds are the insatiable directors, constantly scripting what our eyes cast upon the world’s stage.

The corporate structure has been one of the great developments of the industrial age and a significant driver of economic development for the past almost two centuries.

If you apply the 5 whys interrogative technique to pretty much anything we do, the bedrock reason will be that we want to be loved. But in many instances we have closed ourselves off to our ultimate goal in order to protect ourselves from being hurt. Again.

Alliterating Ps is a popular way to create a memorable acronym. There are the 5Ps of planning: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. This saying comes from the British army and is a shortcut of the original, cruder, 7Ps which mean Proper Planning and Preparation Prevent Piss Poor Performance.

Size does matter. Small is beautiful. A key to management, leadership, and entrepreneurship is creating teams that are sized in the sweet spot. That number is five plus or minus two. That goes for boards, development teams, meetings, and decision making.

Define your mission statement. This is one sentence that summarizes what you are trying to do. It should be able to stand up on its own.

Amor Fati is Latin for “love of fate”. It is an attitude of acceptance of the events or situations that occur in one’s life.

Ethical principles are well known and drilled into us from toddler, through school, and on up. We all know the path, but sometimes its challenging to walk it. We are tempted to compromise our principles because we are scared of what we might lose.

There are times when we all need a little pick me up. When we lose momentum and get caught up bemoaning the past.

There is terminology specific to online marketing and apply to touchpoints along the Customer Journey.

Thoughts and ideas are ephemeral and flit by like butterflies rising and falling as the summer wind lives and dies. Its pleasant to watch them float by but we lose a source of our best selves if we don’t follow them.

Leadership starts with you. It starts with your values and how much you value them. You must have a strong ethical sense and moral compass that guide your decisions. And you must be willing to stand up and be counted when events or circumstances don’t match up to your values.

Aspirations are great. Dreaming and striving for more is what keeps us going and motivated. But there is a shadow side to aspirations that we need to be aware of and ensure we balance. If we are always dreaming and pushing forward, we can diminish the value of the moment and the work we are doing right now.

How do you get to the next level? How do you level up? Aspiring to take anything to the next level is a sign of leadership. Leaders ask questions in the pursuit of doing something better. They see something better and they go get it, they make it happen. Leaders push to create a reality that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who divide things into two groups, and those who don’t.

Bayesian inference is a method in statistics in which Bayes’ theorem is used to update the probability of a hypothesis as new evidence or information becomes available.

Do you ever recall hearing that you only use about ten percent of your brain? Well that is not true. You use all of your brain.

An orchestra has many different instruments filling many different roles. To make music, it takes a conductor.

Negotiating is a creative act. To navigate conflict and strike a sustainable win-win agreement you need to think creatively. Creative thinking is a skill that can be developed and improved. Creativity is not just for artists and musicians.

A Business Model outlines how a company creates value for itself by delivering products and services to customers for revenue and profit.

In marketing there is a hierarchy of effects, where one stage leads to the next in a linear, sequential fashion. The idea is that consumers move through a series of steps or stages.

There was a time when television and magazines ruled and marketing meant advertising campaigns. This was the Mad Men era where Madison Avenue advertising firms dominated and success hinged on being able to withstand a three martini lunch.

Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) is the heart of a business. It is the skill sets, tools and techniques of creating and delivering products and services. It’s all about systems of production and getting stuff to customers.

OSCM was born with the industrial revolution and was really amped up with Henry Ford and his assemble line system for making the Model-T. Then time and motion studies were developed to refine the efficiency and speed of assembly lines and mass production techniques. Frederick Taylor developed these principals of scientific management.

There are lots of people that have done incredible things that impact our lives in myriad ways, but they are not famous household names.

People join an organization and they leave a boss. Work matters. HRM would be easy, if it weren’t for the people.

There are profound ways in which business and work are becoming automated. Soon they will have to change the name of the department from HR to HRR: Human and Robot Resources.

Churchill loved butterflies. In many ways he was a hold over from the Victorian era and butterfly collecting was an obsession among Victorian naturalists and explorers. Most any kind of collecting was an obsession among the Victorians.

The best time to plant a tree may be twenty years ago, but the second best time is certainly now. Whatever you want to do, begin it. Just start doing it. The universe will conspire to with your efforts and present you with opportunities and resources that obviously would not have come your way if you weren’t committed to the undertaking.

The Lean Startup Methodology is a way to bring analytical rigor and a systematic process to understanding and refining a new venture or growing enterprise and making it successful. Lean Startup reduces the risk of failure and ups the odds of success. Lean startup has become incredibly popular because of how effective it is. It was developed and promulgated by Steve Blank and Eric Ries.

Strategy in business is the big picture. It is about picking goals for the enterprise and then figuring out what resources are going to be assembled to achieve those goals.

Strategic thinking takes into account timing. Don’t fall into the trap of anticipating changes by too much. Don’t be right too soon. Being ahead of your time doesn’t work well in business. The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!

Strategic Planning is the application of strategic thinking to create actionable steps toward meeting goals. It’s a process of codifying the steps an organization needs to take to progress towards accomplishing its mission. Strategic planning creates organizational focus by providing criteria for consistent decision-making that is aligned with the organization’s goals.

In the world of startup incubation, Design Thinking is a complimentary methodology to the Lean Startup approach. Lean Startup is based on applying the scientific method by making hypothesis (guesses) and testing them against customers. Lean Startup is a more science and engineering based approach to developing startups.

Leadership is creating and communicating a vision. A great vision, well articulated, acts like a magnetic field from the future that orients all the elements in the same direction and pulls them in that direction.

The only legitimate work in an organization is work that contributes to the accomplishment of the strategic plan. It takes the orchestration of management and leadership to direct an enterprise toward the desired future.

There are three elements of a strategy: Objectives, Scope and Competitive Advantage.

Games of strategy provide a fun way to iterate through prescribed scenarios and develop intuition and experience into strategic thinking, planning, and execution. They are learning tools and provide accelerated learning opportunities.

We have all heard the very good advice to not sweat the small stuff. We tend to get frustrated and angry at things that don’t really matter much in the grand scheme of things. As Epictetus said, we buy peace of mind at a small price when we don’t allow a perceived wrong to rattle us.

There is a guild mentality that surrounds certain subjects and keeps interested parties at arms length in order to protect vested interests and the status quo. You can’t participate in the club without knowing the lingo.

When it comes to cultivating happiness its the small things that really matter. Study findings in psychology show that the frequency of our positive experiences matter much more than the intensity of our positive experiences.

Entrepreneurs can learn a lot by playing poker. Especially the popular version called Texas Hold ’em.

If you have an idea that solves a problem you experience in your life, others probably experience the same nuisance and would pay for your solution. Your invention could be a moneymaker.

Happiness is tied to a sense of accomplishment. Accomplishment is a result of being productive.

Freud and Jung traveled together to America for the first time on the same ship. Sailing into New York Harbor, Sigmund Freud stood on the deck with Carl Jung and gazed out at the statue of liberty and the skyline.

In order to improve sales and build your brand, think more like a consumer. Keep your customer in mind every step of the way.

I used to work very closely with an incredibly astute business woman. She would point out many times that most people hadn’t cultivated the capacity to think strategically. Over the years, I’ve realized again and again how right she is.

Keynes was a brilliant man who deeply understood money and economics. And his insights weren’t just intellectual and academic. He made two fortunes: one in the stock market and one in the art market. He understood value and investing and put his money where his mouth was.

It is the dream of lots of us to start our own business and perhaps be the next Zuck or Bezos. And a thousand programs have blossomed to help ferret out, nurture and develop the next generation of unicorn companies.

The only person you should ever compete with is yourself. The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday. Outdo your past, not other people. Comparing, competing and keeping up with the Joneses only serves to make us dissatisfied and unhappy.

Valuation is the technique of estimating something’s worth. One of the secrets of the wealthy is that they know how to value income producing assets.

Your brand is your social contract with your customers. A brand conveys what can be expected from your products and services. It distinguishes your offerings and value proposition from your competitors.

The 7 Ps is a British Army adage for Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Cheeky Brits. But the meaning is crucial. Planning is a key part of launching and growing a successful business.

Scanning the future horizon for technological convergences in order to anticipate and exploit opportunities and avoid potential pitfalls is our job as entrepreneurs and leaders. And with tech driven disruptions of established order and status quo, we are all leaders and entrepreneurs. We are all at least an army of one.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. This is a Latin phrase that translates as: “After this, therefore because of this”. It’s a great Latinate way to describe causality. It is also a phrase that is used to illustrate an illusion: the illusion of cause and effect. We are story telling and pattern fabricating machines. A human is a machine for turning coffee into illusions of meaning. We wind up fooling ourselves often by creating reasons why events unfolded as they did.

Financial IQ is critical to becoming successful and getting rich.

Business leaders are like athletes in that they play the game while simultaneously observing it as a whole.

Strategic thinking operates on some general premises. Foremost is acknowledging the reality and inevitability of change. We live in a world of ever accelerating rates of change. To use a hockey metaphor, you want to skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.

STP is an acronym for several things. STP is a brand of automotive lubricants. The name began as an abbreviation of Scientifically Treated Petroleum. STP is also one of the great Seattle grunge bands of the ’90s. Its an abbreviation of Stone Temple Pilots. RIP Scott.

The rule of law is one of the pillars of western civilization and economic prosperity. It ensures a level of fairness, equity, safety and predictability in our daily lives. This allows us to enter into agreements and transactions with a level of comfort that we will be treated well if we act well. We have a body of laws and institutions that enforce them. These standards are fundamental to economic development. The stability they provide encourages long-term investment of time, effort, ideas, and capital.

When in Doubt, Create Assets. An astute and experienced business mentor once advised me: “When in doubt, create assets.” A patent application costs less than $500 to file and an issued patent is worth $1 million on average. That is tremendous value leverage. This can be the basis of creating significant personal wealth.

There are two ways to protect an innovation. You can choose to patent it or keep it secret. I have been discussing at length the benefits of patents. Some perceived advantages of trade secrets are: Trade secrets can protect “abstract ideas” and patents cannot. The protection under trade secret remains for an unlimited period of time. There are no filing fees for trade secret protection. A trade secret creates cache and an aura of mystery.

There are valid reasons why large organizations rely on initially filing provisional patent application. It may provide a filing date and time to sort out which ideas are commercially viable and worth pursuing.

Its the painful unsexy part of business but its also the most critical skill for success.

Sometimes I wrestle with how to best spend my time so I am getting the most juice out of life. I ask myself whether what I am doing is the highest and best use of my time. Am I really seizing the day? or just killing time. Maybe its FOMO.

We tend to spend a lot of time searching for the secrets to success. According to the Pareto Principle 20% of causes result in 80% of effects. Getting the easy stuff right is that 20%.

Managing forward, also known as managing expectations, is the skill of setting and communicating realistic goals, targets, and timetables. This is important so that harboring overly optimistic expectations doesn’t disappoint others.

A true leader can be defined as a person who possesses great social influence and charisma and can enlist the aid and support of others in order to manifest a vision and accomplish a common task. The genesis of all enterprise is an idea.

An enterprise is formed and organized in order to carry out tasks. Every enterprise needs a leader. The leader, whose vision is simultaneously ambitious, feasible and compelling, sets the direction. The leader must be able to articulate the vision in ways that make people want to participate in making it a reality.

Timing is a trait a leader must possess and develop. As part of feasibility of vision the development and convergence of enabling technologies, channels and markets need to be understood and clearly conveyed.

Leadership requires strategic thinking. This requires continuously monitoring the external environment and being ready with revising tactics to meet your strategic goals. It requires consistency and discipline to remain true to the plan, as well as the flexibility to change both plan and strategy when circumstances change.

The ability to detect emerging patterns and help them take shape is an important attribute of leadership. In order to follow the course of your life, you must let it flow.

My previous posts make it sound like leaders do all the sexy and cool work. They do, but don’t be seduced into thinking leadership is everything and management is something prosaic, unintellectual, and not worth much effort.

The Optimal Number is 5. Small is beautiful. A key to management and leadership is creating teams that are sized in the sweet spot. Consensus research says that number is five, plus or minus two. That goes for boards, development teams, meetings, and decision making bodies.

Rational preplanned strategies do not always work out as planned and must be adaptable. Dealing with rapid, complex, and often discontinuous change requires flexible leadership. This means understanding the nature and implications of external change, the ability to develop effective strategies that account for change, and the will as well as the ability to actively manage the momentum of the organization.

There are two things that product and service innovations can provide. They either reduce pain or add delight. Smooth, frictionless, fast transactions provide both. That is why online shopping is much better. You find what you want, click, and it comes to your house. This gives you time to do other stuff.

Life is lived as a series of decisions. Most of our important destiny-forming choices are mutually exclusive. We choose one and all the other potentials and possibilities fall away.

You could be getting a guaranteed 17+% return on your money right now. It’s a simple investing plan.

I got schooled today in the high cost of being poor. I went to a pawnshop. I wrote about the high cost of credit card debt, and how it destroys any prospect of creating wealth. Now I want to just say a few cautionary words about other lending schemes that are even worse.

There are two major ways to increase net income or profit, increase revenues and reduce costs.

There are two basic types of accounting: managerial (or cost) accounting, and financial accounting.

Direct, Indirect, Fixed and Variable Costs. This nomenclature is interrelated and can be confusing. You may have to read through this section a couple of times to refresh and clarify these concepts. It may be a bit confusing at first, but will become clear with use.

In cost accounting we classify and group costs according to their common characteristics. The basic characteristics are what we have just discussed.

The structure and dynamics of costs and revenues vary from one company to the next. They vary based on the volume produced and sold. Managerial economics, corporate finance, and cost accounting overlap in measuring and analyzing these relationships.

Cost–volume–profit (CVP) is an analytic tool based on cost accounting measures. CVP analysis is a framework for figuring out how you get to profitability. Achieving consistent profitability is how you create a sustainable business.

Illegitimi non carborundum This is a great quote in fake latin that says “Don’t let the bastards get you down.”

When I was younger I entertained a distorted view of personal rewards. I had a transactional view of work ethic. I thought that if I worked hard, I had license to play hard.

Art is long, life is short. But the art of life is long enough if planned and well executed.

There are a ton of health benefits to be enjoyed from drinking green tea. But you won’t profit from them unless you develop the habit of drinking it regularly. I have been reflecting on how I got into the habit. Its been long enough now that I can trace the subtle changes in my daily performance.

Do the soul searching. Know why you are pursuing financial independence and wealth creation.

Some people take action even when they are feeling low or scared. Some people persist and overcome overwhelming obstacles in their path. What makes them resilient and able to get up again and again?

Many of us have a fraught relationship with money. We want it, we fear it, we are anxious we will run out. Did I mention we want it? We want money but we may not be clear on how to get it, keep it, and grow it.

I used to have a partner in a real estate company. He was great guy and an inveterate gambler. He loved to shoot craps in Las Vegas.

I always wanted financial freedom.

The butterfly effect is a phenomenon which encapsulates aspects of Chaos Theory.

I came to appreciate Miles Davis in a backward kind of way. When I was in high school in the early seventies I was very much into rock. I still am. Back then I came awake in around ninth grade to FM alternative radio and music and culture. I went to a concert in Central Park in NYC at the Wollman skating rink in the summer of 1972 to see Taj Mahal with a bunch of friends. It was Saturday August 5, 1972. I still have the schedule.

Every time I exercise I have to talk myself into starting. And every time I finish I’m glad I did it.