A commitment to quality is a commitment to perfection as quality comes from putting your heart and soul into your work.

It means that you are lovingly doing all of the things that bring out your absolute best.

The word ‘love’ is appropriate, because it is precisely right in both the meaning and the feeling that it carries.   …continues

Jun 26 2009

If you long to accomplish great and noble tasks, you first must learn to approach every task as though it were great and noble. Even the grandest project depends on the success of the smallest components.

The popular philosophy that instructs us not to “sweat the small stuff” is flawed, because it breeds poor customer service, under-performance, wasted opportunity, mistakes, inconsistencies, rework, and oversights.  …continues

May 12 2009

Practice is probably something you think you’re done with when you leave school or give up music lessons. But, have you ever thought of practicing the fine art of gratitude?

The simplicity of gratitude and the powerful effect it has on our lives is unequaled by any other practice of its kind.   …continues

Nov 24 2009

The world is filled with non-achievers who believe that intentions are more important than results.

For knuckleheads, effort is the same as accomplishment.   …continues

Jul 21 2009

For 26 years, a man known only as Secret Santa has roamed the streets of Kansas City every December quietly giving people money. He started with $5 and $10 bills.

As his fortune grew, so did the gifts. In recent years, Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots.   …continues

Dec 24 2009

The reality is that most leaders have gotten more and more precise and sophisticated at measuring less and less of an organization’s TRUE value.

At present, the entire focus of financial analysis is on “the numbers,” despite mounting evidence that they’re the WRONG numbers!   …continues

Dec 08 2009

I am often asked for a simple, effective, and no-nonsense approach to goal setting that can be used by anyone regardless of age or situation.

What follows is what I affectionately call the 30-Day Extreme Makeover. Follow it to the letter and you will be quite pleased with the outcome.  …continues

Dec 31 2009

One of the great things about trials and challenges is that they can force us into action. Just taking consistent action gets us 80% of the way toward any goal.

Based on the economic turmoil going on all around us, there is no more urgent time than right now to ACT. Everywhere people are losing their homes, their retirement savings, and the shirts off their back. It’s time to take your future by the horns and these 20 questions will help point the way!  …continues

Dec 25 2009

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’”   …continues

Jan 21 2010

Every morning when you wake up, you can — and should — embrace the notion that there is something about you, your life, your business, or the way that you carry yourself that could stand to be improved.

Every day requires dedication, discipline, good judgment, energy — and the feeling that there’s something about yourself that you can make better.   …continues

Jun 14 2009

The other night I was watching a 60 Minutes interview with Olympic Champion Michael Phelps. During the interview, the host Anderson Cooper showed pictures of Phelps winning the 100-meter butterfly final at the Water Cube in Beijing by ONE-HUNDREDTH of a second over Serbia’s Milorad Cavic.

Phelps admitted that his winning margin of one-hundredth of a second was almost impossible to see but it was because of ONE small difference   …continues

Jun 04 2009

There’s a very popular book series that has enjoyed a long life on the best seller list titled, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. It offers a philosophy that is immensely popular, but highly flawed as it panders to the majority by telling them what they want to hear rather than what they need to do. As pragmatic advice on how to run a business and live a life of excellence, it’s a big steaming pile of nonsense. This is bad advice, and it spells trouble in the current economy.  …continues

Jun 01 2009

Paul Dalton has been haled as “the best car wash in the world” by Autocar magazine, but an average invoice of $550 gives you a clue that this is more than your average shampoo and polish.

His company Miracle Detail, specializes in ‘detailing’ high-end cars, from vintage classics to supercars such as the Bugatti Veyron, and can cost anything up to a wallet-busting $5,000.   …continues

Jun 20 2009

Perfectionism helps the composer, poet, and writer to craft a work of beauty from random words which in turn touches the heart and mind.

Perfectionists search for ways to make the complex simple, visualize the perfect outcome, and work with an obsessive sense of conviction to make their vision a reality.   …continues

Jun 18 2009

A flawed premise of success is that the goal is the most important ingredient in the stew of success, and that you win or lose based on the merits or worthiness of the goal. How wrong and casualty-creating that premise is as the best goal or most honorable intention cannot survive poor execution.   …continues

Jan 11 2010

There will never be a day in your life that will not require honesty, integrity, compassion, character, good judgment, discipline, self-control or focus.

In addition, there will never be a day of your life that does not provide you with the opportunity to get better, providing you the feeling that you can improve, if you only step up and answer the call.   …continues

Jan 10 2010