Starbucks has long been known for doing the right thing for its employees. Early on, the company offered health care to its employees when competitors considered the practice a waste of money. Recently, it announced that it was investing $250 million to help at least 25, 000 employees graduate from college by 2025. While this…
Stacia Naquin wrote an article about a Phoenix area McDonald’s employee named Brandon Longeway which appeared in a recent issue of The Arizona Republic. Mr. Longeway has an interesting work-related goal: he wants every one of his customers to walk away with a smile. According to the article, Mr. Longeway greets is customers with a…
Opportunities abound for us to volunteer our time at churches, non-profit social service agencies, hospitals and schools. Volunteers derive a great deal of satisfaction from their efforts because those efforts are usually directed at making someone’s day a little bit happier, brighter or easier. This, in turn, provides volunteers with a sense of purpose and…
The reason is that they understand that failure is the pathway to success. The process goes something like this: Successful people try something, fail and then learn from their failure. This makes them smarter than they were before they failed. They try again, fail and learn more about what they’re trying to accomplish. They continue…
Recently my wife, who directs a foster care and adoption agency, was teaching a class to would be foster parents. She was discussing some of the challenges and difficulties that come with being a foster parent when one of the people attending the class raised her hand and said, “We do not want to…
An article by Elizabeth Bernstein, which recently appeared in The Wall Street Journal, contained some excellent advice for being a good conversationalist. First, ask lots of questions. According to the article, “People love to talk about themselves and often will think you are a great conversationalist if you talk about them and not yourself.” For…
The lesson is this: “Treat your employees right and they’ll treat your customers right which, in turn, makes the business successful.” Recently, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines were rated numbers one and two respectively in terms of customer satisfaction and were head and shoulders above the rest of the airline industry. The reason is that the…
Recently, my wife shared an Aristotle quote with me about avoiding criticism: “Criticism is something we can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing.” The lesson here is that if you live your life to avoid criticism, you’ll wind up living an empty and meaningless life.
Sometimes, when you’re pursuing your dream, the going gets tough. When this happens, it’s very tempting to say something like, “This is way too hard; maybe I should give up.” The problem with giving up is that achieving your dream might be just around the corner, but you’ll never know if you throw in the…
The other night, I was watching a major league baseball player being interviewed on television after he had pitched a particularly good game. Early in his career, he had not pitched well and now he is pitching very well. When the interviewer asked him what it was that caused the change in his performance, he…