Let’s tell the whole start-up story
February 13th, 2012 // 6:29 pm @ Travis Carson
So there’s always some sort of business column or blog (like this one!) that reminds us how often a new company fails. The stats and figures only tell half of the story, though. We believe that few start-ups really fail. Their creators simply run into a breakdown, the solution to which is usually to start another company, [...]
Category : Apriori Speaks
What’s Your Policy?
January 30th, 2012 // 8:40 pm @ Travis Carson
There are a few company policies that need to be adhered to all the time. Anything related to inappropriate Web surfing, for example, is best not left to interpretation. Human Resources should stick when it comes to harrassment, job searching on company time and not keeping snakes, specifically constrictors, as cubicle pets. When it comes [...]
Category : Apriori Speaks
There’s always someone bigger
January 25th, 2012 // 6:05 pm @ Travis Carson
We have all worked with the tough guy. The team member who “won’t stand for it,” who has stories about standing up to bosses and who was always at the coolest parties in college and has the most connections to the most important people in forever, and so on and so on. This is the [...]
Category : Apriori Speaks
Vertical Communication
January 6th, 2012 // 5:52 pm @ Travis Carson
Language is critical to coordinating action. As any of our students can attest to, language is at the foundation of our approach to achieving prosperity. Now let’s relate that to technology and its role in our ability to coordinate action. A colleague who worked in fundraising at an elite boarding school told me, a number [...]
Category : Apriori Speaks
Your Industry is Changing
December 26th, 2011 // 7:44 pm @ Travis Carson
Whether you like the comedy of Louis C.K. or not doesn’t matter. What does matter is that he recently bypassed all the traditional content delivery methods of his industry by making his show at the Beacon Theatre in New York unavailable to major networks, like HBO. Instead, he put it on his website and asked fans [...]
Category : Apriori Speaks
Avoid social babbling
December 15th, 2011 // 5:15 pm @ Travis Carson
Wired.com shared a story about the proliferation of social media. It’s undeniable. And it’s also valuable. We at apriori have been using it quite a bit lately to share what we think is helpful content, principles of our teachings and to simply keep our students and partners engaged. (By the way, any feedback you have [...]
Category : Apriori Speaks
Are You Worth Saving For Later?
December 8th, 2011 // 6:06 pm @ Travis Carson
There is a website called Read It Later that allows users to bookmark longer articles to read out from under the daily confines of job tasks, managing employees and attending meetings. It’s an inventive and useful site. Some staffers at the NY Times used it gauge who online is “saved for later” most often, thus signifying whose words and [...]
Category : Apriori Speaks
Market Force and forgiveness
November 30th, 2011 // 6:00 am @ Travis Carson
I found a lot worth taking away from this essay by Harvard Business Review blogger Teresa Norton. It’s about forgiviness. Specifically, how forgiving co-workers, or anybody really, can make us more important to ourselves and others in our sphere of influence. Ms. Norton states that confusion about workplace status is at the root of many issues and related to [...]
Category : Apriori Speaks
Fifteen minutes make a big difference
November 18th, 2011 // 7:00 am @ Travis Carson
Like any coach, nothing makes us happier than seeing our students succeed. Such is the case with Ms. Heidi Tretheway, whom we’ve worked with for quite a while and who captures her many unique and compelling thoughts on a very well done blog entitled, “The Fifteen-Minute Firestarter.” Her latest post, we’re happy to read, highlights [...]
Category : Apriori Speaks
Stay on Target
November 10th, 2011 // 4:59 pm @ Travis Carson
The pivotal scene in Star Wars comes when Luke and his fellow fighter pilots were winging their way through the cavernous confines and towering mechanical alley ways of the Death Star to deliver the fateful shot into its power core. Guns blazing all around him, fellow pilots disintegrating from enemy blasts and the power of grief over [...]
Category : Apriori Speaks
