Tag Archives: business

La Dolce Vita

A pretty interesting thing happened to us yesterday.  As we were driving back to Praiano from Pompei, the Amalfi coast road was closed due to falling rock.  Apparently the intense rain storms we had loosened the ground enough that some rocks tumbled down the cliffs and onto someone’s windshield.  Talk about ruining a vacation!  Anyway, we ran into a police roadblock in a little town called Piano di Sorrento.  The police were busy yelling atchatting with all of us who had climbed out of our cars and were trying figure out what was going on.  At some point, he got tired of the verbal abuse (and Italian is SUCH a great language for this) he was receiving for delaying everyone’s trip and told us “due minuti” – two minutes.  A big cheer arose , we climbed back in our cars, and hurdled forward down the narrow road.

In another due minuti, we ran smack into another cop who was at the pile where the rocks had indeed fallen.  Two guys were climbing up a pretty steep hill to inspect the state of the remaining rocks and no one was passing.  We ended up going back almost to Pompei and taking another route home and as of this morning the road still isn’t open.  Only two hours delay.  Non che problema.

I write this because clearly the first cop decided it wasn’t his job to get abused so he’d pass the Euro on to the next guy.  The only one whose situation he fixed was his own.  You may have thought he was trying to be helpful but he wasn’t.  Any cops like this in your business?

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Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks

Winemakers and Farmers

Wine grapes.

Farmers and winemakers have more in common than just planting things. They share a dependency on climate and as a businessperson I’m not sure I’d like to be so dependent on something so out of my control. But they also share another quality which I think we all should emulate in our daily lives, both business and personal. Continue reading

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Filed under Reality checks, Thinking Aloud

The King

YN3 Arnold Palmer, 23, played in the North and...

Arnold Palmer is 80 today. Even if you have never put a peg in the ground and tried to play golf, you know who he is. What you may not fully understand, however, is that his accomplishments on the course are exceeded by his accomplishments off the course and those pale by comparison to his achievements as a human being. Some big business lessons here! Continue reading

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Filed under sports business, Thinking Aloud, What's Going On