I grew up in the New Jersey suburbs with typical boyish aspirations of being a football player, astronaut, fireman or Olympian. I didn’t consider growing up to be a leader. But it happened somehow… So here’s why I lead:
Operating a photo retail store is hard. It’s hard work with long hours. It’s hard to make sales. It’s hard to find good employees. It’s hard to keep expenses down.. it’s just damn hard to make a profit—which if you could, would make everything else less hard.
I have to admit, I had no idea the 2015 Miss Universe pageant was taking place this past Sunday. I found out about the contest when video replays hit the Internet. The big story was host Steve Harvey mistakenly naming Miss Colombia, Miss Universe, instead of the real winner, Miss Philippines.
Simply put: all our customers were going out of business, our product was losing margin, and our competition was growing in number, capability, and size. I had to do something or my family’s 60-year-old business would also be done.
It took 6 days from the time my blog, “Hateful Sculpture in Milwaukee Needs to be Scrapped” posted until Jaume Plensa, a world famous artist, was compelled to remove his Spillover II sculpture.
In this video interview with Eddie Geller, CEO and Co-Founder of Tinybeans, and father of 4 boys, we discuss how his new revolutionary app addresses safety concerns and other shortcomings with the sharing of family photos.
There’s no shortage of articles out there about what it takes to make a great leader and plenty of articles on what it takes to be a great parent. And maybe not that many folks who have figured out how to be great at either.
The urgency I felt when my own children were suffering, unproductive and unhappy was greater than keeping my own job. This was a real creative problem unlike anything I knew before because the solutions are not linear. I had significant problems occur every day. They had to be solved.
One of the personality traits that successful parents develop is the ability to multitask. I don’t mean the normal kind of multitasking that one does at work where you complete an expense report while on the phone with the copier salesperson. I mean the kind of “multitasking on steroids” that allows you to handle multiple children at varying age levels, while having little sleep for extended periods of time.
