Today I was reminded of the importance of the smallest kind act: a simple smile, holding the door open for someone, saying hello, giving a compliment, lending a hand, being a friend. So many times we think to ourselves that we want to be a good person and do something kind for someone, yet when we […]
This past weekend I was able to go with my husband and our daughter to Disney in Los Angeles to see the World Premier of the movie The Lone Ranger starring Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger. For those who are not aware, a good majority of the film was […]
For those of you who have ever seen my offices, you can attest that my office is often times a disaster, with stacks and stacks of papers and piles of post-its everywhere you look. Just looking at my desk in the mornings gets my stress level rising. There is no feeling of peace when your […]
“To succeed you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you” – Tony Dorsett Being self-motivated is critically important. Far too often people sit back waiting for someone else to give them a reason to get up and get going. If you want to make something of […]
There are people in all of our lives that lift us up when we are down or help us through when times are tough. There are people in our lives who make us laugh and smile and make us feel better about ourselves. There are people in our lives that tell us we can do […]
“People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Get yourself a goal worth working for. Better still, get yourself a project. Always have something ahead of you to “look forward to“, to work for and hope for.” (Maxwell Malz). I don’t know […]
One of the biggest mistakes I made early on as an entrepreneur was hiring cheap lawyers or not using an expensive lawyer nearly enough, thinking I was saving money for my business. But over the years, the school of hard knocks taught me just how expensive cheap legal help can be. I don’t recall ever […]
Last Friday our charity, The IPOP Foundation (In Pursuit of Perfection) www.ipop.org held a business competition with the students of Alta High School. Students were challenged to submit an idea for a new mobile app. We had hundreds of students participate in the competition. They had the option to submit an idea alone or in […]
Ah yes, the famous words of Hannibal on the A-Team. There is little in life that is better than when a plan comes together, especially when the plan itself turns out to be far larger and expansive then any plan you had pictured in your own mind 🙂 Throughout the years of my life I […]
A while back I was able to attend a seminar by Dr. John Lund on communication where he gave some amazing advice on how to better communicate with others. His input was simple and easy to follow, yet powerful. The best quote of the entire event was this: “Don`t communicate to be understood; rather, communicate […]
“I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.” -Martha Washington I very much believe that statement to be true. Our attitude about things is such a major determination of our happiness level in life. And we control our attitude by controlling […]
For those of you have followed my blogs the last few years you know that every now and then, when we are really lucky, my teenage daughter Ashley will write a guest blog for us, which tend to be everyone’s favorite blogs (especially mine). Today I had to give the keynote speech at an early morning […]
People often think they can’t change their past, but I disagree. Perhaps we can’t change every mistake in our past, but we have to remember that the past is a moving target. Every day that goes by us becomes a part of our past history. Whatever we do today will become a part of our […]
Living in the moment is not always easy to do. It seems that we all have a tendency to focus our thoughts on our past mistakes and feel discouraged about them, or we focus our thoughts on a future that we wait to someday have. It seems that we rarely focus on our todays, our […]
I often come across people who have a deep desire to be an entrepreneur and start their own business, but who haven’t done so yet because they “can’t come up with a good idea.” Too often I hear: “All of my ideas are dumb.” And in those moments, I cannot help but say: “Define a […]
It takes tremendous fortitude to utter the words “I was wrong, and I am sorry”. I love that word: fortitude. I could list the dictionary definition of fortitude, but let’s be honest, why go to that trouble when Bill Gates blessed us with Microsoft Word’s single click to see its synonyms, which are: strength, courage, […]
Employees who stand out in a company are the employees who stay standing through downturns, layoffs, and corporate restructurings. Standing out is the secret to gaining peace of mind that your job is secure. Whether you stay employed with the same company you are with today, or whether another company picks you up, your future […]
Our self-concept is made up of two things. The picture of ourselves performing today, and the picture of our ideal self – the person we want to become. The beautiful thing about our self-concept is that we can choose to replace the current picture of ourselves with the picture of who we want to be […]
I can hardly believe that it was exactly one year ago, last Saturday, that we signed the closing documents to sell MediConnect (MCG). Since that day it has been a sheer whirlwind of activity so when I realized that it was the one year anniversary over the weekend all I could think of is how it […]
Have you ever had a week where you get to Wednesday and you feel like you it’s been three weeks, yet it’s only been three days? Yeah, well it’s been one of those weeks so far. I haven’t slept enough, I’ve pushed myself to hard, I’ve taken on too much…I know all of you can […]
Passive-aggressive behavior in any company is one of the most destructive cancers to a culture that ends up killing both a great company, and the self-esteem of the individuals working there. For any wondering what passive-aggressive behavior looks like, I will try and give some examples that paint a picture. A passive-aggressive person is someone […]
Behind every company, whether it’s a multinational corporation or the smallest startup, is an intersection of talent. Each person is uniquely capable of performing their job: the company spokesperson is a gifted public speaker; the administrative assistant is a master multi-tasker; and the CEO is excellent at setting the vision and leading the team. Every […]
I have spent many years as the leader of several companies. I hope that during that time I have learned a bit about what it takes to become a great leader. Many of the lessons I am still learning, but I wanted to share a few of the things I have come to learn thus […]
In the book Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll writes: “If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.” Obviously none of us set out to intentionally drink poisons. Yet, it is amazing how innocently they seem to show up in our lives, first in […]
I moved around a tremendous amount growing up. My family lived in Oregon, Washington, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, California, and finally Utah. Living in so many places was rough as a kid, but as an adult I found that it came to help me tremendously when it came to finding connections with people which helped […]
One of the greatest lessons I learned during my time as a CEO was that great employees are not replaceable. It isn’t the technology or the product that make a company great, it’s the people. And companies who see their good employees as “replaceable” are wrong. Good employees are not replaceable. Let me clarify what […]
Today I was invited to attend the Credit Suisse Entrepreneurs Conference being held at the Sundance Resort. For our dinner tonight Tony Hseih, CEO of Zappos.com spoke to us. Years ago I read Tony’s book “Delivering Happiness” which, by the way, is an excellent book and a must read for entrepreneurs and leaders. His understanding of […]
Some days I get really frustrated at the fact that there are a million things I really want to get done, yet there are just not enough hours in the day to do them all! And trying to pick and choose which things to put first can be one of the most challenging parts of […]
As I start off each new week I always try to find some sort of quote or thought that will help inspire me to improve myself as I head into that week. I am a HUGE believer in the importance of trying to constantly improve ourselves. I think when we allow ourselves to become complacent […]
Just over five years ago, my husband and I were married. At the time, I had been a divorced, single mother of two for many years with a daughter who was 11 and a son who was 14. We were married on New Year’s Eve, so winter weather was in full force here in Utah, […]
