When I was twenty-seven years old, Kathryn and I had been married about a year and a half. One afternoon, I was walking across the parking lot from our car to our apartment, and I was feeling great. I had a skip in my step. Life was good. I thought to myself, "What can I be doing differently? What area do I need to grow in?" Almost immediately, I came to the happy conclusion: "Nothing. I'm good. There is nothing I need to improve!"

Sometimes the death of a business is somewhat personal and triggers a sense of nostalgia. In the world of small business, companies come and go all the time with little more than a raised eyebrow – but every once in a while the closing of a local business surprises you.

A friend of mine sent me a 2 minute video to watch that was well-made and really interesting - but it made me think about the power of persuasion when combined with quality video. I started to wonder if I was getting taken advantage of by companies that I buy stuff from - even when I’m really happy with what I have most of the time.

Take a look at the short video below and then see if you agree with any of my thoughts. Not all of you will care, but some of you might want to talk about it. Just a little food for thought.

Work is not supposed to be something we endure so we can get a paycheck to pay for fulfillment in life. Work is supposed to be part of that fulfillment. Finding a job that allows you to achieve happiness more than 50% of the time takes a while to find. Many people don’t ever find it because they remain lost in understanding the gifts and abilities they have to contribute.

Every year since 1963 the president of the United States has proclaimed one week a year as National Small Business Week. As a country we do this to acknowledge the amazing things that small businesses and the people who work for them do to help our country and our economy. It’s pretty amazing to see and hear about the power of this group of people of which our company, Half a Bubble Out Marketing, is a proud member of.

While I’m not prone to prognostication I do love to look ahead and consider where we are going as a company and what we need to pay attention to. This holiday season I was reminded of some really great skills that I will need in business in the year ahead. The funny part of this inspiration is where it came from. They say good things sometimes come from the strangest places and this holiday season that’s no joke.

My college daughter, home for the holidays, decided to go all OCD on us and start watching multiple seasons of American Ninja Warrior. The show involves athletes competing on crazy difficult obstacle courses. My hands actually sweat as I’m watching the show. The ultimate goal is to make it to the mother of all obstacle courses, Mount Midoriyama. The competition started in Japan and came to America 6 years ago. To date no American has ever been able to complete the Mount Midoriyama course.

I love my job, the people I work with and how blessed we are at Half a Bubble Out. As I sit down to write this “T-Day” Blog I find myself excited and even more peaceful than in years past.

Every year Thanksgiving comes around and every year I find new things to be thankful for. This year I find myself thinking about the people I work with, especially since we have been talking a lot about Passion and Provision on the blog lately.

Forty years ago this week President Nixon was in the process of being impeached and led to his public resignation. It was one of the few times a president of the United States, the most powerful man in our country, has been removed from office. Technically he resigned but the vote had already started. Everyone involved was uncertain, scared, or both in the shadow of uncertainty that our country was standing in.

STOP! You have got to keep reading this post. It will be fast and painless and it could be the one thing that super charges your business this year. 

Best practices are usually the most boring thing in the world. I mean who would really choose to sit and study best practices let alone really understand them. But they are simple and important and in the next 5 minutes I will hopefully prove it.