I think one of the greatest principles is that of constant improvement. In my mind no business or individual for that matter should feel satisfied with their current condition. There should be a constant drive to improve. In order to improve, you need to KNOW what you have. You need to make an assessment of your current state. You must understand the key drivers of your business. I look at Astonish Results as a system. You can view your business as a system too. Let me give you a real life example. Shortly after graduation from college I worked as an intern for a large chemical company (Hoechst Celanese). This company synthesized chlorinated organics (which for the chemists out there means something..). Read more [...]

I watched a program on TV the other night hosted by Jon Stossel. The topic was, “What Makes America Great?” You can see a blog post about it here. It seems like we’ve heard a great deal about what’s BAD about America and not enough about what’s great. One of the reasons mentioned was entrepreneurship. America has grown to be the country it is because it has been friendly to entrepreneurs. I believe we should be doing everything we can to support this, but it seems we are moving away from this trend as a company. I’ve also just finished a book by on VC called, “Mastering the VC Game”. The author, Jeffrey Bussgang described the venture Read more [...]

I had the opportunity to attend a family reunion this past week. My wife’s grandfather had 9 children and his wife passed away when the youngest was 5 years old. The Halvorson / Johnson clan has over 190 members. We spent breakfast, lunch and dinner together and I got a chance to speak with many small business owners. A common theme emerged. Small businesses are hurting. We spoke about the fact that there is no shortage of good ideas, but there is a shortage of capital. Just like social fabric of our country is built on families, the economic fabric of our country is made up of small business. These companies are the source of most of the jobs and revenue which fuels our economy. This is Read more [...]