“Do nothing which is of no use.” – Miyamoto Musashi While cleaning off my bookshelves, I came across a book I hadn’t read in years: Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five Rings. I bought it back when I studied martial arts in the mid-80s. At the time, the Book of Five Rings was a big hit [...]

If you’re like me, your mind is pretty cluttered. You’re constantly thinking about your business, your revenues, what to write, who to contact, and how to get ahead. Ideas pop up, inspiration happens… and then something distracts you.   *POOF!*   That idea is gone.   There are three easy ways to clear your cluttered [...]

Have you ever thought to yourself that you should’ve charged more? I’m not talking about those nightmare projects, the ones where you’re digging a hole in your profits because the project isn’t going well. I’m talking about when a client hires you flat out without haggling. Imagine this: You’re approached for a project, you think [...]

In this day and age when people are more inclined to communicate through emails, text or instant messages, choosing the right words is important. Words have the ability to uplift and inspire. They also have the power to cut someone to the quick or ruin lives. When we speak to children, we choose our words [...]

I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut. Where I live, the cultural expectation is outspoken frankness and people are generally pretty passionate about their views. They say what they think, and they feel free to disagree. It’s all good. Everyone chinks beers at the end of the day and toasts each other. But [...]

Every now and then I have one of those philosophical moments. The world goes away, my mind is peaceful, and I can just think. That’s exactly what happened when I wrote my latest guest post for Itty Biz. Read about a realization I had on job security… … and how that realization might affect your [...]

Sometimes at night I can hear the ice crack. It sounds like thunder and rips through my back. – Tom Cochrane, Big League Each time I hear those lyrics, a shiver runs down my spine. I can hear that ice. I can feel its strength, its cold power, and I can sense the ripping in [...]

We’ve talked a lot about starting a business as a single entrepreneur, but we don’t often post about what it’s like to work with a partner or a team over long distances. One of the biggest problems James and I had in the business was how to manage the workflow and organization of information amongst [...]

James’ post on life experience vs. a professional degree got me to thinking. How would my life have turned out if I knew then what I know now? I don’t think I fully understood the phrase “youth is wasted on the young” until a few years ago. I was horrible in school. I had poor [...]