Don’t use your phone as an alarm clock
Don’t use your phone as an alarm clock. Use a plain old alarm clock instead. Pick a time and put your phone in the other room. Ideally, with enough time to think for a while before you go to bed.…
gregmeyer
Customers are precious
“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends” – Jeff Bezos It’s easier to keep a customer than get…
Writing as a practice: “One in a row”
It’s easy to say, “I don’t have enough time.” There is always something else to be done. You might be afraid to get the words out. Or you might not want to take the time to get them right. These…
If you love customers, set them free
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We do startups because we can’t not do startups.
This essay is written in collaboration with Startup Edition – find this week’s essays here. The startup life seems glamorous from afar, and sometimes from up close. There are rebels, pirates, and ninjas here. There are rags-to-riches stories and others who fall from…
Starting from the empty page.
A blank page is a prison and the ultimate freedom. When the paper is blank there are no constraints. Anything can happen and a masterpiece feels (tantalizingly) within reach. Yet making the first line is the most important line because…
Talking to a customer is like being on stage
If you’ve spent any time talking to customers, you’ll know what I mean when I say that talking to a customer feels like being on stage. When you pick up the phone or walk into the room with a customer,…
David vs. Goliath: How can you beat a giant who owns the market?
Be more like Amazon Fresh, and Less Like The Phone Company Becoming a verb for consumers is a sign that your company has made it. Google it. Just Uber It. When your company’s name becomes the shorthand for a great…
Do some customers deserve better service?
Which customer would you rather deal with: the one who tells you what’s wrong or the one who buys faithfully and then leaves without prior warning? While you might not see the warning signs of the customer who’s unhappy immediately,…
Try Reading Out Loud
Every night when I am home (which is most nights), after dinner we read as a family. This isn’t a new tradition – my wife and I have read to each other out loud on car trips for years even…
