A few months ago, my friend, Chris, shared this quote:

In every marketing presentation for thirty years, my opening theme is the same: tell me how you build, update and use your customer lists and I’ll tell you how efficient and effective your marketing can be.

My partner, Jake Crocker, often says that business deals are “won or lost on the first tee”. The first time he said this to me it caught my attention, and the analogy has worn well over the years.

A young friend who is working on a pivot in his life asked me what books he should read during such introspection. It didn’t take long for me to share the titles of the books that have changed my life, in chronological order.

A dear friend and wonderful private blogger, Carll Tucker, wrote me after reading last month’s newsletter to ask what Father Norm Smith, one of those I admired, meant by giving without intensity or judgment.

My favorite blogger, Seth Godin, said recently that “Attitude follows action far more often than action follows attitude.”  So, today, I’m writing about the people I admire most in an effort to improve my attitude and myself. I want to share distilled character traits of those passed and present hoping this action might help me to be more like them.  

A popular topic has become very personal for me. The topic is disinformation and misinformation.

About 20 times this year, I will conduct a 3-hour program called “Dream Sketch”. In a highly interactive setting, I help CEOs and business owners define more clearly what they want out of life. We use templates that I have used to plan my own dreams for more than 20 years.

My first 17 years and the last 17 years have been spent in my little hometown of Ashtabula, Ohio.

Author’s note: For deeper thinkers, as in Harvard Business Review, see this month’s featured article.