Have you ever felt that you HAD to be right about something? When the local radio station reads their daily trivia question, do you rush to the phone to be the first caller with the right answer? When someone misquotes a famous saying, gets a fact or figure wrong or makes a mistake, do you…
Many of us have had to wade through circuituous interactive voice response (IVR) systems, or struggle through clunky call agent scripts to deal with a customer service issue. Few people, however, have experienced the epic service battle that AOL VP Ryan Block experienced. After 9 years with Comcast, Ryan chose a new provider, and called…
Over the past week or so, I’ve been writing about the Empire State Building Run-Up. I’m running it for a lot of reasons – it’s a challenge, it’s exciting, and it’s a bucket list item – not a lot of people get a chance to do it, so when the opportunity came up, I jumped…
On LinkedIn, I participate in a group called Executive Athletes. I certainly aspire to be both….but I frequently find myself wondering if I’m deserving of either term, let alone both. I can certainly agree with their mission statement – “To inspire people to be the best that they can be and to push beyond any…
This week, I took a course centering around Social Media and the risks SM poses to an organization’s security posture. It’s been very interesting to see how SM has changed the way we communicate, from building new connections, sharing content and reporting the news. Events around the world have utilized Social Media, and even been…
For those of us who’ve been around long enough, there used to be one phone company. You paid a monthly fee to rent a phone, and Ma Bell took care of everything. It was clunky, expensive and inflexible, but man, it worked. Where do you think the term dial-tone reliability came from? Since then,…
It’s incredible to see how Amazon Web Services (AWS) has grown from just a way to use excess storage capacity to the dominant player in cloud computing. Sure, there are other providers out there, and to be clear, some very capable providers in the market, including Rackspace, Google and Microsoft, but with over $3 billion in…
I am a person who is, shall we say, not comfortable with vertical distances. In short, I have a fear of heights. While I’ve made it more manageable over time, I still prefer staying far from the edge, as opposed to leaning over the railing. Some things don’t bother me at all. Planes are fine,…
I got to spend all of one day this week at a recruiting fair for a new project that’s just getting started. Like some job fairs, it may only be a meet-and-greet, but what may not hit home with some candidates, is that it is STILL an interview. I’m not a big fan of making…
There’s a book that’s a staple in many self-improvement libraries called “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz. The text on the front of the book says, “Acquire the secrets of success… Achieve everything you’ve ever wanted: Personal Property * Financial Security * The Ideal Job, Satisfying Relationships * A Rewarding and Enjoyable Life.”…