Grow My Business

For years I hired from my gut. If we had good synergy, you had a more than decent shot at getting the job.  That rarely worked out. Then I dove into a formalized hiring process with multiple defined steps. It was difficult to manage but incredibly valuable in building my hiring capacity.  Now, many years […]

We engage 2023 with mixed signals. On one hand, the economy seems to have been more resilient than expected with Q3 and Q4 jobs and GDP numbers looking good, and inflation possibly starting to ease. On the other hand, the real estate market has been hammered, consumer debt is rising quickly, and layoffs are starting […]

The condition of your finances today is a reflection of your past decisions. Not your future.  Unless you continue to make the same decisions and take the same action. Then the condition of your finances today is predictive of your financial future.  No matter the state of your finances, consider it a gift. Your money […]

First, thank you for reading Alchemy in Action. More than 3,000 of you now get Alchemy in Action sent to you each week. (If you’re not subscribed yet, join the club here. It’s free!) I hope I’ve provided you with inspiration, insight, and a few good ideas along the way. It’s been a big year for us, so I thought […]

Years ago, as I was struggling to manage my business during the great recession, I came across a little book called The Science Behind Gratitude. In his book, UC Davis Phycologist Robert Emmons describes how research shows something as simple as keeping a gratitude journal impacts our happiness.  I thought, “that seems overly simplistic”, but […]

When you own and grow a business, eventually you look around and realize you’ve created a complex monster. Instead of focusing on your clients and doing what you love the most, it seems all your time is filled with issues, complaints, pressures, and complexities you never imagined.  Welcome to the part of business that doesn’t make it […]

Ray Dalio recently tweeted: “When determining an acceptable rate of improvement for something, it is its level in relation to the rate of change that matters.” Meaning, if something is getting better, you need to know where it was to begin with and whether the rate of change will get above an acceptable bar in […]

I came across this article from McKinsey & Company about hiring and thought I’d share it. What I liked about the article is it helps us understand the “great reorganization” from the perspective of three different groups of people. Those that are reshuffling, reinventing, and people who are reassessing. The article explains this as follows: Reshuffling. Employees are […]

Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877 and left his kids today’s equivalent of $2B. Eighty years later, 120 of his descendants were at a family reunion at Vanderbilt University, and there wasn’t a millionaire among them. This is not unusual.  It is very hard to create a lot of wealth, and it turns out, it is […]