Author Archives

Voting for a Tenant (Random Idea)

As a commercial property manager, I’m often asked why we don’t “put Starbucks {or name any other big name tenant} in that space?” – referring to available retail space or retail space that is occupied by a struggling tenant. I’ve even found myself doing it at strip malls or multi-use developments: a coffee shop would go great here, or this is perfect for a large book store, etc.

The Stickiness of Urban Legends (Made to Stick Book Review)

What’s your favorite urban legend? The Kidney Heist? Bloody Mary?

If you’ve heard those stories before, you can probably recall them; maybe not all of the details, but the general concept, theme and/or idea.

Chip and Dan Heath explore why these stories stand out better than many in their book Made to Stick. Released in 2007, this book breaks down what makes stories or speeches memorable into six principles: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and Stories; or SUCCESs.

Success Principle 5: Believe in Yourself

Most entrepreneurs have heard it before:

That won’t work
You can’t do that
Dumb idea
Who would use that
Those are the naysayers. Unfortunately, those types of comments often come from family or friends you have shared your ideas with. It’s reasonable to assume that most great entrepreneurs also heard the words of naysayers: Michael Dell

Success Principle 4: Believing It’s Possible

This is an interesting story:

Doctors in Texas studying the effect of arthroscopic knee surgery, assigned patients with sore, worn-out kees to one of three surgical procedures: scraping out the knee joint, washing out the joint, or doing nothing.

During the “nothing” operation, doctors anesthetized the patient, made three incisions in the knee as if to insert their surgical instruments, and then pretended to operate. Two years after surgery, patients who underwent the pretend surgery reported the same amount of relief from pain and swelling as those who had received the actual treatments. The brain “expected” the surgery to work and it did.

Finalize Your Vision and Find a Way to Capture It

he past week I focused intently on clarifying MY vision for the 7 categories defined in The Success Principles. I finished four (1, 2, 3 and 4) of the seven categories which hopefully gave you (the reader) an example of how to complete this task. There are three categories that remain to be clarified: relationships, personal goals and contributions to the larger community.