Monthly Archives: May 2023

05/16/23

Dupes v Brand Slavery/Loyalty

Imagine you are a woman in the market for a new set of leggings/yoga pants.

You look at the Lululemon line of products because they are a highly recognizable luxury brand, your butt looks great in them, you can wear them everywhere except church, and decide you are going to buy a pair of Align leggings/yoga pants.

You are a careful shopper, so you check prices and end up on Amazon where the price is $124.

You are about to invoke One Click purchasing when your frugal husband whispers, “They look great and you will look great in anything, darling, but what about a dupe?” Continue reading →

05/15/23

Emotional Blackmail and Coffee Shops

You are walking the streets of your hometown or visiting Charleston — both locations work — and you see a coffee shop. You dart in — you bloody well dart don’t you, because you need that caffeine fix and you are a quick footed darter — and order a simple coffee with room for cream or a triple latte with a spritz of mint.

Continue reading →

05/12/23

Virginia Military Institute — the BEST Mentoring System in the World

Mentoring is/was a fashionable topic amongst the venture capital and startup Illuminati for years. I have written about it for a long time. A good mentor can make a mediocre founder into a winner.

Full disclosure: I run a CEO coaching/mentoring business called The Wisdom of the Campfire and have for a dozen years. I take clients only by referral and personal introduction. I do zero marketing and do not even have a website.

Everybody in startup world had to have a celebrity CEO coach. This was caused by two specific conditions:

 1. Venture capitalists know next to nothing about actually running a business. More than 75% of their investments fail, so what does that tell you?

 2. Young startup founders/CEOs have had zero training in leadership the lingua franca of building even a lemonade stand. Continue reading →

05/6/23

US Navy Cultural Narcissism and Recruiting

The US Navy has had a tough time meeting its recruiting goals. Putting that into numbers, it had a FY 2023 goal of adding 37,700 enlisted sailors and is projecting a shortfall of 6,000. They also failed to hit the numbers in FY 2022.

I think the problem is “cultural narcissism.” Read on and learn why.

The work place of the most powerful naval force afloat. Go Navy!

Continue reading →

05/4/23

Putin Miraculously Survives Horrific Assassination Attempt and Cancels Immortal Regiment Parade

Yawn. Come on, man.

The media — starting with the lapdog, captive Russian media — breathlessly reported that Putin survived a vicious attempt to assassinate him a couple of nights ago at 2:00 AM local time.

First of two Putin-seeking attack drones explodes on roof of building across the street.

Get a grip, man. Are you really this stupid? Continue reading →

05/3/23

You, sir, are a bloody fascist!

The other day I had an amiable chat until the chap says, “You’re a bloody fascist!”

“Truly?” asks your Big Red Car.

“Yes. You’re a bloody fascist.” No exclamation point this time.

“What exactly is a fascist in this context?” asks your BRC.

The chap could not really enlighten me. Deer in the linguistic headlights sort of dumbfounded look.

I then conduct an experiment and ask pals of mine from both sides of the aisle, “What is a fascist?”

Blank stares and one good overview of Benito Mussolini’s bio. Continue reading →

05/2/23

CEO Shoptalk: Pace

Everybody is working 24/7 and fast as Hell — right?

Is that the most effective way to successfully run a business — startup or otherwise?

The answer is: it depends. It depends on a lot of things, but generally the answer is a resounding NO!

In Chinese dragon boat racing, pace separates the winners v the losers.

Continue reading →