Focus on the One Thing

We live in a world of distractions. As business leaders, we always have many things to do and limited time in which to do them.

What if we could cut through the clutter and get better results in less time? The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan offers some ideas.

Raving Fans

Successful organizations have one common central focus: customers. It doesn’t matter if it’s a business, a professional practice, a hospital, or a government agency, success comes to those and only those who are obsessed with looking after customers.

~Harvey Mackay, in the Foreword of “Raving Fans”

Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles wrote Raving Fans in the early 1990s, before the internet had captured the attention of the general public. The book makes no mention of web browsers, email, or online stores. And yet the book is not old. The lessons are timeless and useful for any company that wants to compete and thrive in 2020 and beyond.

Sam Zell Solves Business Puzzles

Business is not a battle to be waged. It’s a puzzle to be solved.
 
~Sam Zell

Sam Zell is a Chicago-based investor in real estate and troubled assets. He is known for successful business turnarounds and his direct style of communicating. Sometimes he ends his verbal messages with a question: “Am I being too subtle?”

Hence the title for his autobiography. Sam has an embedded sense of urgency.

Opportunity: Community Manager at Bridgetown Partners

Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want to come with me and change the world?
   ~Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs posed the above question to an executive at Pepsi while recruiting him to join Apple. That was in the 1980s. Apple’s history is well known.

Bridgetown Partners is hiring a Community Manager (CM) to help with the growth of our events and publications. This is a part-time, independent contractor position, mostly remote, with some on-site work (in Los Angeles) for meetings and events. The position could evolve into full-time depending on the growth of the community and the performance of the CM.

Every member of the Bridgetown Partners team is helping to improve the world. The CM will be one of the drivers of improvement.

IIREC 2020 - Recap

One reason to attend conferences: To discover trends while we still have time to be on the cutting edge. Over 400 trend-spotters gathered in downtown Los Angeles for this weekend’s Intelligent Investors Real Estate Conference. This post offers a snap-shot of the event.