Many people believe it’s fine to lie to the Internal Revenue Service about their taxes and still maintain integrity. When I was a commercial lender, I was meeting with a small business owner who, while handing over his tax returns as part of his loan application, said, “I sure hope you aren’t making your loan decision based on those numbers. ...
Previously, we discussed the Federal Trade Commission’s desire to eliminate most noncompete agreements. One common use of noncompetes is for the protection of trade secrets. If the FTC eliminates noncompetes, a possible substitute that can help protect your trade secrets can be a non-disclosure agreement. A non-disclosure agreement requires the signer to agree not to share the trade secrets ...
On Thanksgiving Day, the race for buying Christmas presents began. Black Friday amplified the season, Small Business Saturday grabbed their fair share and then Cyber Monday excels online. In addition to the Christmas buying season, there’s another important season: the Year-End Giving season. Today is officially Giving Tuesday, but Black Friday is far better known and celebrated than Giving Tuesday. ...
Kathy and I were visiting a new city and wanted to experience local food. The hotel concierge recommended and called a restaurant for reservations. At first, the restaurant refused to take our reservation. Our concierge pressed on until we were finally promised a reservation at precisely 6:45, not earlier or later. The next night we were excited to try ...
Recently, I was teaching a men’s group on the value of using their areas of giftedness. One person shared with me that he and his son had just discussed giftedness the day before. They came to a profound conclusion: Giftedness, without strong character, can have a very bad ending. Bernie Madoff, who died in prison last year, was a great ...
My friend, Jim, recently shared with me a new idea they have implemented in his company to encourage generosity. Jim uses a new app called Grateful for Giving. Jim’s company purchases gift cards to give to his employees or customers that entitle them to give to any charity of their choice. These cards direct the recipient to the app to ...
A few years ago, Dan considered selling his machine tooling business. Fortunately, he shared his plan with me before he had negotiated a deal with the buyer. After I introduced Dan to a unique strategy, and the National Christian Foundation, Dan donated 20% of his company to a donor advised fund prior to the sale. This strategy gave Dan an ...
Many years ago, two businessmen considered buying a bank. They had discussions with me about becoming the CEO of that bank. Unbeknownst to me, they asked a former boss of mine his opinion on my ability to run the bank. It was reported to me that he told them, “Rick certainly has the skills and background for that job, but ...
According to a Wall Street Journal expose, Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos, self-destructed and died from abusing drugs, while his team stood by and watched. After selling Zappos for more than $1 billion, Tony began paying a team of followers to help him pursue spiritual enlightenment and heavy drug use. Even though some family members attempted to intervene, Tony’s ...
This year a friend asked me to help with a tax hotline on a local television station. Since I’ve done taxes for over forty years, I thought it might be fun, and accepted. For 3 ½ hours the phone rang nonstop with person after person calling with their tax questions. The work was exhausting, and, it was a little frightening ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
