The Pursuit of Ignorance     As any business is aware, the more you know, and the more your employees know the better resource you can be to your clients and your fellow employees. In a 2013 TED TALK, a Neuroscientist at Columbia University, Stuart Firestein, praised the pursuit of ignorance. This probably goes against everything you were taught at school. Most likely all of you have spent a great deal of your life in the pursuit of knowledge. Always trying to know more. In his TED TALK, Dr. Firestein turned this on its head very succinctly by explaining that what it is we...

The IRS is Stuck in the 60s and it's not good for business     JFK would feel right at home in an IRS computer room   Some of the critical technology and software that the IRS depends on is over 50 years old. It would be hard to find any business in the U.S. that is reliant on equipment that dates back to the Vietnam era. Although the IRS states that it constantly updates its technology infrastructure, its core, antiquated tax-processing system was created in the 1960s. In fact, the IRS still uses Cobol, a programming language conceived in 1959 - it's possible that your...

The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the Impact On Your Business     War is bad for business. Yes, there are those companies in the "war business" that do great. But for the average business, it's lousy. Let's see why.   Financial Markets War is unsettling, especially to financial markets.The market likes certainty and in uncertain times, wild fluctuations are common. Although the immediate damage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine will be to the economy overseas, a strong ripple effect has already began to impact the U.S. Last Thursday, the stock market plunged, with the Dow losing 830 points. Market Watch reported that in the first...

We'll Miss You When You're Gone     The Baby Boomer generation, or people born between 1946 and 1964 have had an oversized impact on the world economy, most notable in developed nations. As of 2019, they accounted for 21.19% of the U.S. population. That same year, approximately 33% of them were still in the workforce. That number has been decreasing faster than anticipated due to COVID-19, with a recent survey revealing that 75% of them are planning to retire early.   This last fall, Goldman Sachs estimated that more than half of the people that left the workforce during Covid-19's rampage were over 55....

Mediocrity or Excellence - The Choice is Yours     If you look back on what your business has accomplished over the years, truth be told, you can most likely apply the Pareto Principle to the arc of your business success. As many of us know, the Pareto Principle states that 20% of the efforts, resources, attention, activity, customers, or products, will account for 80% of the results. The theory first postulated by an Italian mathematician has been thoroughly studied and shown to hold true time and time again.   The 80/20 ratio will vary from person to person, company to company, sometimes being as...