dwagner

Are you a complainer? Nearly everyone is to some degree.

If you complain often then chances are you are creating your own “bad luck”.

I was eating breakfast over the weekend and one of the morning shows had a minister talking about the power of negative thoughts. The more you focus on something not happening (or bad things) the more these consume your thoughts and the more you get what is in your thoughts. The strong emotions tied to your negative thoughts:

• Attract the outcome that dominates your focus… unfortunately the negative one,
• Attract other complainers, and
• Reinforce the subconscious mind which can lead […]
  

Have you ever noticed that customer support seems to be an afterthought for many companies? They treat customer support as a cost centre to be minimized.

PenForms is an application we built and are hosting for completing annual filings of federal pension returns. As the filing deadlines near, stress levels often go up with end-users. We provide e-mail and phone support for all subscriptions.

I just received a really positive e-mail from one of our PenForms clients (I am happy to say we have more of these):

"To whom it may concern;

Over the last two weeks I have […]

Sunwapta Solutions Inc. was born 8 years ago when three techies from EDS got together and decided on a different path.

During this time we’ve had our share of ups and downs and I have learned a lot. You can read about it, study it and take courses… but you just can’t replace the experience and knowledge gained from actually doing it. It’s been like being on an 8 year business degree program in many ways, except the scorecard is the company balance sheet and your reputation in the marketplace and with your employees.

We could not have done it without […]

I just realized that dogs are among the best sales “people” out there.

I have a border collie that excels at sales. He has everything going for sales success. At a big gathering a few years ago his closing rate must have been over 30%. He ate nearly the whole time without any dishonesty.

He is persistent. He keeps trying until he succeeds or until there is no hope of success.

He knows what he is selling and communicates it to the prospect clearly and without wasting countless hours in meetings.

He’s adaptive. If what he is trying does not work he tries […]

I’ve been listening to Celtic and Maritime music for about 15 years and I loved the energy the fiddle brings to the music.

Four years ago I decided to learn to play the fiddle. I signed up for a beginner course offered through continuing education and rented a violin. I’ve played other instruments so I knew (sort of) what I was getting into. My initial commitment was to finish the ten week course and put in enough hours practicing to determine if I would truly enjoy playing it long term.

About half way through the course, I knew I wanted to continue […]

Have you ever noticed how some very successful people are not necessarily as smart as you are? Or as smart as you thought they would be?

Part of this is perception. If you have a high opinion of yourself you may judge others on a tougher scale. Part of this is because it’s really easy to be critical of others.

Part of this is reality. Many successful entrepreneurs did not graduate at the top of the class. But they have something many do not. They know their limitations, accommodate them and get results. They hire others who can do the […]