A basic truth of management - if not of life - is that nearly everything looks like a failure in the middle.

The most radical thing we can do is connect people to one another. That starts conversations toward a vision for change.

During the Boom Years, it was so easy to lose sight of basic values. For example, there was lots of nonsense said and written about the so-called "New Economy." Some people said all economic laws have been overturned! Then all the problems developed. Corporations were heavily fined for illegalities. Many of their senior-level executives were indicted, convicted, and sent to prison.

Confidence isn't optimism or pessimism, and it's not a character attribute. It's the expectation of a positive outcome.

Corporate men and women, once divided by striking differences in opportunity for career growth, have come to share career chaos.

A great thinker once described innovative thinkers this way: "Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?' I dream of things that never were and say, 'Why not?'" Innovative thinkers are constantly asking questions such as these. How can we improve recruiting, hiring and training. How can be add greater value to our products and services by making them even better? How can we do more to nourish the personal as well as professional development of our people? What more can we do as a good citizen where we do business?

Too many people let others stand in their way and don't go back for one more try.