Don’t Be Dead Weight–Contribute More than You Take

One of the most important things you can do for any employer is produce value far in excess of what you receive as compensation. When you look at a highly compensated salesperson, for example, the chances are very good that he or she is producing a lot more value than he or she is paid for. A salesperson who makes $100,000 a year is probably producing at least $500,000 in revenue for the company he or she works for. It is like this with every profession. Lawyers who bill clients $700,000 a year for their services inside [Read more]

To-Do Lists, Tactics, Strategies, and Going to the Moon

Companies, governments, and other organizations are typically organized in the following way: At the top of the pyramid are people whose job is to strategize for the organization. These are the people who set the entire tone for a group and define what it is supposed to accomplish.

• In the case of a war, for example, the president might declare that an overall strategy is to extinguish terrorists in Afghanistan, to make the world a safer place.
• In the case of an organization, a strategy may be to legalize something that is currently illegal.
• In the case of a company, a strategy may be to create a product that dominates a given sector.

Every group needs to have a strategic objective that is promoted by its leaders if it plans to survive in the long term. “Without a vision, the people perish.” The reason this [Read more]