“Remember, young man, experience is not the best teacher. Other people’s experience is the best teacher. By reading about the lives of great people, you can unlock the secrets to what made them great.”   If there is one habit that all successful people have, it is that they all read, and read very often. They are often the busiest people you’ve heard of, but they always take the time to read and learn, because they know how valuable and important that habit is to success. I know you are a busy person, and say you can’t find time to read, but so Jeff Bezos, and he is a fairly…

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Chicago Council’s presentation and dinner. The topic which was delivered by their prestigious president Marshall Bouton to some of the great business and civic leaders in Chicago was on “The Rise of Asia”. The position he took was fabulous, but there were actually Asian Americans in the crowd that took a little offense to his presentation and felt it was combative. While I don’t believe his intentions were that at all, in fact, hearing from others, he is one of the most pro-Asia supporters on the council. But the way he delivered his message and some of the wording he used…

I recently finished my term as president of a wonderful organization called the Naperville Jaycees. It’s a young person’s organization, one’s whose purpose is to develop leaders through community service and in Naperville; it currently stands as one of the largest and most prominent organizations in the city. I can’t tell you how grateful I was for the experience as I learned so much from being the president, and now have successfully used those skills to lead my employees and teams. In one of my last newsletter articles I wrote as president, I shared with the organization the 10 lessons I learned and today, I am sharing that with you.…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Vg4uyYwEk   The point of this posting is not to convince people to step into the square ring, but to highlight the importance of adopting a fighter’s mentality towards life. Many people know I box and people often ask me why I still fight. I’ve had some success as an entrepreneur, and boxing is a fairly risky sport, so why keep fighting? One of the reasons I love boxing and getting back into the ring is because I believe the mental toughness, the grit it takes to grind out a good fight is translatable to entrepreneurship and life. I believe we all need more grit in our lives, we as…

As many of you know, I love boxing and the sport has had a tremendous impact on the way I live my life. While now I am more of a part-time fighter and am focused entirely on business, below are some of the principles I take from it each and every day as an entrepreneur.   It’s the sweet science, and skills pay the bills. You need skills and talent to reach the high levels in business. The refinement of your skills is very important as an entrepreneur. Whether you are a technology guy and you have to continue to stay on top of what’s new, a management guy, where…

So over the weekend there was a boxing match between Victor Ortiz and Josesito Lopez. Many of you know who Victor Ortiz is; he just had a very unglamorous fight against Floyd Mayweather where he head butted Mayweather out of frustration, who then responded by knocking Ortiz out when he had his hands down. Josesito Lopez is a journeyman, and Ortiz was expected to roll through him and go onto his already signed fight with Saul Alverez. Big change of plans, Lopez the much smaller man stood his ground and ended up breaking Ortiz’ jaw and causing him to quit (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8090268). Now to most people outside of the boxing world,…

In the past, I’ve often told people to be fearless in their pursuits, to always take the leap and to dream bigger and jump farther. Yet I’ve realized through my own analysis of how dangerous it is to actually be in the absence of fear. I’m still telling people to take leaps, big risks and dream bigger but now I’ve realized how important it is to have the presence of fear. People need courage, because courage at the end of the day is being scared but jumping anyway. Yet psychologically, if you continuously tell people to be fearless, what you’re really doing is helping them block out the potential consequences…

People often talk about the importance of perseverance and persistence as the keys to success. The idea of never giving up, never failing sounds great but unfortunately is a lot easier said than done. The most difficult part of life’s obstacles is that they never come in a singular fashion, they come again, and again, and again until you feel like you’ve been kicked too many times, you’re too exhausted, you can’t bring yourself to generate enough enthusiasm to fight again. This is true in life, in business, in your professional career or even through a struggling relationship. We’ve all been there, and the best way to describe the feeling…

So I am huge fan of the motivational youtube video that has Eric Thomas talking about what it takes to be successful (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzi3fHUEB1A&feature=related), he talks about the idea that you have to want to succeed more than you want to breath, more than you want to sleep, certainly more than you want to party with your friends or watch some TV. This relentless pursuit of a goal is something that all successful people have, it’s a trait that I myself try to replicate and have seen through examples of others that when you decide to work harder than others can even dream of, you will be successful. They say the…

Recently I’ve been asked to give relationship advice almost as much as business advice, which I find hilarious because I’m single so I wouldn’t assume I would be the right person to talk to. That being said, being single allows me to reflect on all the idiotic things I’ve done in my past and through that, I’ve drawn some interesting parallels between successful relationships and entrepreneurial endeavors.   1. Drive value Ever heard of the term givers gain? It’s when you change your focus to driving valuing and suiting to the attention of what the other party is looking for and always focusing on what you can give, not what…