Perspective

How will you do in 2012?  I think the key to your business’s success is pretty simple.  It all comes down to execution.

For many, this is easier said than done.  You’re either  going to dig deep inside and turn the switch from pilot light to ON or you will move through 2012 with a lot of talk about what you need to do.

Step 1:  Ignite the pilot light

Step 2:  Turn the switch to on

Step 3:  Prepare for lift off

Step 4:  Set your sights on immediate …

The Napa Valley is a buzz with harvest in full swing.  I recently had the opportunity to join a grape harvest crew.  Let me clarify, my camera and I followed along to observe  the hospitality team  jumping in and helping the vineyard crew with grape picking.  It reminded me of the times when I was a kid and would get real excited about getting to do a “grown-up” task.  The anticipation was always more exciting than the actual work.  Sure, the first hour was fun but then it became a job and …

Looking into the future I wonder what retirement will look like.

What about you?  What do you want to do?  Will your time be filled with travel, helping in the community or just not having a schedule?  All of the above sounds like a start but what else?  Obviously, I am not ready to retire because I am still worried about having a list to check off.

Recently we had a family vacation in Maui.  My kids are young adults which made this vacation even more special.  This year we enjoyed a true vacation as …

What direction are you sailing?  The wine industry is showing positive signs that the storm has passed and a bright future is just beyond the horizon.  However, I don’t think the industry can fall into a false sense of security that it is going to be the good old days again.  I have heard a lot of chatter that the customer has changed.  They are looking for a deal or not purchasing.  I think there is something else at play.

The day of order-taking is over!  The perception of value …

On looking back and moving forward, by Terry Hollenstain.

As part of our assignment for attending the Mentor Plus® Consulting Accountants’ RoundTable (CART) meeting last month, Craig Underhill and I read Patrick Lencioni’s book The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. The book, like all Lencioni books, does a great job of using a business fable to make a point. According to Lencioni, the three signs are : “Anonymity: People need to be understood and appreciated by someone in a position of authority; Irrelevance: Everyone needs to know their job matters to someone; Immeasurement: Employees need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution …

My Danish ancestors are apparently restless once again. Recently, in another close encounter of the ghost kind, I received a message on Facebook from a “stranger”.  As I read the young woman’s note, I felt as though a spectral hand had just reached out and touched me on the shoulder.  Her question was simple — was I related to the Henry and Maria Hollenstein who had lived near Salinas, California in the early 1900′s? 

After noticing that the surname of the “stranger” was the same as that of Maria Bonde Hollenstein’s brother-in-law,  I responded that, yes, I was their great-great …

Maybe Jimmy Buffet had the right idea.

My first trip to Cancun was thirteen years ago during “spring break”.  Neither the accommodations nor the service at the resort at which I stayed made a good impression on me.  I left with no desire to see Cancun or that particular resort ever again. 

Fate, however, had other plans and I recently found myself returning to the same resort in Cancun in the “off season”.  In the interim, the resort had undergone a cosmetic “face lift”.

In spite of my initial  lack of enthusiasm about revisiting the resort in question, I found myself quite favorably …

What makes promises so difficult to keep?   

The dictionary defines “promise” as “a declaration that something will or will not be done, given, etc. by one”.  It sounds simple enough. You agree to do something and then you do it.  So why is it that so many promises are not kept?

Even worse, those who make and then break their promises often don’t seem to feel the least bit of remorse or the need to offer an apology or explanation for having broken their word.  

Currently, the college age daughter of one of my friends …

Blue, my Standard Schnauzer, is young and energetic.  He needs lots of exercise or he finds alternate ways to entertain himself, most of which involve the destruction of my shoes, flower beds, and other property.  So, in addition to nightly walks around our neighborhood, at least once a week I take him to one of the local dog parks so that he can run off leash and use up some of his amazing store of energy.

Although I was concerned, …