Under the tree this past Christmas was my very first piece of Patagonia clothing: a greyish quarter-zip, as I now know them to be called. Late to the party, I’ve only recently become aware of how special the Ventura, CA company is when it comes to charitable causes, treatment of its workforce, and manufacturing sustainability, so getting some sort of…
Author: Chris Bond
Seven-Year Glitch: Patience & Other Lessons
In the winter of 2011, I received an inquiry from three brothers who owned an irrigation company. They had come off another monster season of installing and servicing systems (and then plowing snow to continue to pay the bills) and they were wiped out. Already having surpassed 20 years in business together – and far more than that in the…
Book Report – Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Ten years ago, Matthew Desmond climbed deep inside grim, impoverished Milwaukee, WI to study its fraught real estate market. The result is the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize winning Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City and it is a monster to get through, not due to its style (entirely gripping) or length (just 341 pages, including the About This Project…
Book Report – Blue Ocean Shift by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
What’s worse than having to ruthlessly fight for your next deal? Okay, global famine, dictatorships, and Jimmy Fallon are, but perhaps we can agree having to constantly compete (and concede) to win business is awful, exhausting. INSEAD professors of strategy W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne coined the term “blue ocean strategy” – and 13 years ago published an international bestseller by…
Book Report – Side Hustle by Chris Guillebeau
Chris Guillebeau defines a side hustle as “a moneymaking project you start on the side, usually while still working a day job.” It’s safer than telling your boss just where to shove it and then scrambling to replace that steady paycheck and those precious benefits. This is hardly the author’s first rodeo, having unleashed other popular books, ideas, and podcasts…