Have you ever wondered why Darth Vader and Johnny Cash preferred to wear black while wedding brides and Luke Skywalker are often adorned in white?  

"We can't find any good people" is an all-too-common refrain from business leaders who choose to ignore two realities.

If you truly want to compete and win in this Second War For Talent, several questions need to be put on the strategic planning table right now. Gather your fellow executives, turn the boardroom into a war room and begin the conversation.

It first rumbled into the internet station in 1999.

Hardly anyone noticed or paid much attention.

22 years after the train has long since departed, there are still plenty of people – especially B2B marketers – unaware of how much they’ve been left behind.

Nothing wastes time and money like activity without insight.

If you could express what you see and feel solely with the written word, there would be no reason to pick up a paintbrush.

No reason to grab a guitar, play the piano or play some sax.

No need to rap, rhyme, sculpt, sketch or create any form of art.

Step inside your story and own it.  

Or stand outside your story and wonder why you don’t stand out. 

You run a small organization and future prosperity hinges on being noticed.

Making people stop what they’re doing and pay attention.

What inspires you to celebrate?

Motivates you to high-five, fist-pump and do the happy dance?

Humans are hardwired to give.

You, me and more than 7 billion others inhabiting this spinning, topsy-turvy globe.

In December of 1985, a bumper sticker armed with four powerful words began appearing on pickup trucks all over Texas.

When was the last time you hopped in your car, truck or SUV and drove aimlessly?

Could you capture that essence in as few as 2-to-6 words?

Entering 2021, the stark reality of the business landscape has become all too clear. 

There is an increasing divide between those who fared well during the 2020 pandemic and those who did not. 

Have you had private conversations lately where both you and the other person agreed on an opinion with societal consequences, but dared not to share those thoughts on social media?

You had already decided the backlash of public scorn isn’t worth it.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new”. SOCRATES

Have you ever walked into a movie theatre and came out feeling like a different person?

Fired-up and forever changed by someone else’s story on the silver screen.

In the midst of this global pandemic and economic downturn, what are the best films any business dreamer could watch to help lift entrepreneurial spirits?

Where there is enormous challenge there is also massive opportunity.

Much like the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the global pandemic of 2020 has presented challenging times for everyone.

But, on a scale never before witnessed or experienced.

Plenty of mixed feelings. Blue melancholy and a touch of sadness blended in with heartfelt gratitude and much admiration for the body of work from a man I have never met.