Potpourri: Life & Leadership Lessons From a Wise Friend: Leadership Who’s your mentor, advisor, confidant, your quiet voice in the storm that you call upon to help you find your way through the occasional fogbanks of life? For hundreds, the late leadership expert Jim Farr was that person. Two years after his death I still hear people […]

Potpourri: Let Your Heroes Show You the Way: Self-help Who are your business heroes and have they made a difference in your career? I work out of central North Carolina and so my heroes are from this area. Think about yours and what they have meant to you as you look at this partial list of my […]

Potpourri: Learning From the “Iron Man” of Local TV: Self-help Talent plus hard work equals achievement. Look no further for a good example than the retired news anchor and former colleague, Lee Kinard of WFMY-TV – the “iron man” of local television news in central North Carolina. After 43 years at the same station – astonishing endurance […]

Potpourri: Insights From Tom Peters: Self-help Watching a presentation by management guru Tom Peters is like taking the proverbial sip from a fire hose – while blindfolded. Business insights cascade from the “In Search of Excellence” author, consultant, and speaker as he roams a crowded room wearing a wireless microphone while scores of PowerPoint slides flicker by […]

Potpourri: Imus is back – Good!: As I write this in 2009, Imus is back on a national TV network in the morning, Fox Business Channel, and already giving CNBC a run in the ratings.  Seems an appropriate time to revisit a column I wrote when he was fired by MSNBC two years ago. Two wrongs […]

Potpourri: How Can You Know the Truth When You Vote?: Now that the election is over, I am as confused as ever about how to vote intelligently: as baffled as I was 20 years ago. In 1984 I was a journalist covering the then-titanic political battle between Sen. Jesse Helms and Gov. Jim Hunt to win […]

Potpourri: Health Insurance Costs – A Cancer on Your Business?: Business As a business person, what keeps you awake at night? Not enough business, too much business, should you expand, should you contract, should you hire, should you fire, should you risk, should you hold tight, should you buy, should you sell, and – most of all, […]

Potpourri: Do you owe it to yourself to become an entrepreneur?: Self-help This week’s column is NOT for you if you are inclined to answer yes to the following: Should I start my own business? Am I up to the challenge? Can I handle the lack of security? Am I as sharp as those who have already […]

Potpourri: Disappearing Newspapers – and YOU: Our changing culture Some thoughts as we watch the newspaper business shrink. In North Carolina, where I reside, during the titanic clash between Governor and Democrat Jim Hunt and Republican Senator Jesse Helms for Helms’ seat in 1984 I reported all their campaign appearances in the region where I worked and was […]

Potpourri: Design – It’s Impact on You & Your Business: Economic Development What does design mean to you! Vastly more than you probably realize. Let me use the area where I live as an example. In 2003 the AngelouEconomics consulting firm, after months of study, recommended that the Forsyth County, NC, region become a national center for […]