10 Powerful Lessons from a Turkish Rug Trader

Several years ago I was staying at a beautiful hotel on the beach on a small Greek island.  The hotel was full of young people in their mid-20′s who appeared to be having the time of their lives.  I had chatted with the receptionist several times during that week when I was at the hotel.  The receptionist was my age and very attractive.  She had a boyfriend who would sit in the lobby and chat with her at night. I think she was very surprised by the fact that I kept coming home alone each evening.  When I would walk through the lobby each [Read more]

Do Not Be Controlled By Your Need to Feel Significant

When I was around 15 years old, I was in front of an ice cream parlor in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and there was a large group of kids around my age gathered around a well-dressed man who appeared to be in his mid 30s.  The man was wearing a good-looking dress shirt, khakis and good shoes.  I quickly realized, however, that the kids were all making fun of him.  The man was quite off emotionally, and all he kept saying was that he used to work for a United States Congressman.  The kids were all making fun of him and [Read more]

The Peter Principal and Being Ready for More Responsibility

The most important thing you can do in your work and in your career is to do what you know. It is fine to try new things.  However, when you try new things, you need to be very careful that you remain focused on the things that you know and understand.  If you venture outside of what you understand, you are likely to get into massive trouble and this trouble can come quickly. People who do well in their positions are typically rewarded with more responsibility and a better position.  Eventually, however, this position will exceed a person’s level [Read more]

Ferraris Crashing Into Poles and the Importance of Focus in Your Life and Career

I read another article about someone in Los Angeles crashing a Ferrari into a pole today. The car was split in half. The driver of the Ferrari was Charles Lewis, a famous mixed martial arts fighter whose car spun out of control while he was racing a Porsche.  Lewis’ Ferrari was split in two after hitting in a pole.  Tragically, Lewis was killed. Right in front of my house a couple of years ago there was another famous Ferrari crash. In February of 2006, Stefan Eriksson a Swedish entreprenuer, lost control of his $1,000,000 Ferrari Enzo sports car while driving along Pacific Coast [Read more]

You Need to Be Seen as an Authority

Several years ago I learned about the power of authority while operating an asphalt business in Michigan. When I initially started the company it was called something like ‘‘Barnes Asphalt Service’’ or something along those lines. When I would show up at peoples’ homes, since I am Harrison Barnes, they would know the company was intimately associated with me and that I was a kid seeking to do asphalt work on their home. I was also around 18 years old when I started doing this and since for most people their home represents the biggest purchase of their life, not [Read more]

Being Nice Makes Good Business Sense

Several years ago I was getting ready to interview with a law firm in New York. It was my first interview ever as a law student and I was pretty nervous. I was trying to get on an elevator as the door was closing and I saw a woman rushing towards it. I reached quickly for the button to open the elevator and was able to get the door to re-open at the last second. The woman got on and told me which floor to push, and I did this for her as well. The woman was very heavy and was not particularly well-dressed. We were going to a very high floor and there [Read more]

Love Your Work And The People Who Give It To You

From the time I was 19 until I was about 27, I spent a good portion of my summers doing asphalt work around Detroit. That included asphalt sealing, hot tar crack filling, and asphalt patching. It was seasonal work and most people in Michigan only seal their asphalt once a year. ”Around Detroit” is a blanket term because I was working in three counties and in an area ecnompassing hundreds of miles. Essentially, I would travel to areas where people could afford to maintain asphalt. Seven days a week, I would get up as early as I could and go out to start the day at one of my jobs. Sometimes my drive was about an hour. Sometimes it was 15 minutes. Most of the time, I drove about 30 minutes. I made this drive each day because I had work to do. Every day I had work to do was an extremely exciting day for me. Once I got to a work site, I would count on the people around the area – neighbors, other businesses, and passing traffic – to see the work I was doing. I would stop cars and tell them I was in the neighborhood and willing to work. If I was in a residential area, I would knock on doors and tell them I could do work for them. I would do everything within my power to get work, and I always got business. I worked seven days a week. I worked so hard some of my employees would quit the job from exhaustion only after a few days. There were, however, people who lasted. In addition, while doing this work I maintained a profound respect for the people for whom I was working. I did everything in my power to do the work to the absolute best of my ability. I took the work incredibly seriously. I loved my job. The worst thing that could happen to me was not getting work. I knew if I did not do a good job one year, the next year I would not get the work again. I knew people talked, and the better I did in one area, the more work I got. I remember one year I showed up at a house in a certain neighborhood where I’d worked for several years, and a widow answered the door. She told me her husband had died and she could no longer afford the service. Although it was a nice house in an [Read more]

Play Each Day Like it is Your Most Important

Most people never do their work the best way they can. To be successful you need to make every single day at work, every single interview, and every single job you apply for the most important one ever. I want to propose to you a relationship with your work that is one of love, improvement, and embracing everything that you do. Embracing your work is the only way to continually move ahead and to stand out among all of the people out there who are also competing for the life that you want. [Read more]

Concentrate on the Process, Not the Results

Some time ago, I was listening to a seminar about a company that was in the furniture business. This company decided that because it was doing so well, it should expand into the piano business, and also sell pianos. They went out and purchased a Steinway and took the piano apart to study all of the pieces. Then they made the same pieces themselves and built a piano. When they finally had built their own piano and tried to play it, nothing but thuds came out of the instrument. Discouraged, not knowing what they possibly [Read more]