When Being Too Good Becomes Bad

Let’s pretend … you live in a small town, population 1,200. You operate a BBQ joint open only on Saturdays in this small town. The townsfolk describe your brisket as “transcendent meat.” By the early afternoon you’ve sold all 300 pounds of the meats you smoked. Your day is done and your customers are happy. Business is manageable, profitable, and more important, enjoyable.

Then all of a sudden your unknown BBQ joint gets praised as BEST BBQ IN THE STATE.

Now that it is going away, we’re devastated.

As many of you know, I will occasionally ask if you would miss a specific company if it went out-of-business tomorrow. (It’s part of my Would You Miss series inspired by the book, MAVERICKS AT WORK.) The question is totally hypothetical, but the answers you’ve given are highly emotional.

Pete Blackshaw on Credibility

Toy Box Leadership

The following Money Quotes presentation shares an interesting angle from the recently-published, TOY BOX LEADERSHIP. As the title conveys, this book takes classic childhood toys and extracts basic leadership lessons we first learned at a young age. It isn't a must-read book, but it is an interesting book.

Better Coffee. Faster. ** NEVER **

I’m not as unsettled about Starbucks selling smoothies as I am about Starbucks approving this billboard:

Article (1) & Interview (2)

ONE | I dusted off my “No Business is Perfect” essay and gave it new life with new context. It’s on the Keppler website … READ ARTICLE.

TWO | CZ Marketing interviewed me about SBUX, WOM, and OTHER STUFF … READ INTERVIEW.

Simplexity (Jeffrey Kluger)

Would you miss Dunder Mifflin?

Not OK BK

Three Reads

ONE | FREE-DUMB?
“Shopping at sales is just one of the ways I fool myself when it comes to money,” writes Alina Tugend in the NY Times. Her point is that getting stuff for free, such as 2-for-1 sales and Free Delivery, isn’t bad. However, it can lead us to make dumb decisions. Provocative stuff. > READ MORETWO | Three or Three-Thousand?

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