October 2025

Hunches or “gut instincts” have their place but not as a substitute for actual hard data. As entrepreneurs we are predisposed to thinking in extremes. Everything can seem amazingly good or disproportionately bad. A little benchmarking against industry norms will go a long way towards setting the record straight. – Dad

New directives won’t stick unless someone other than the boss champions the process. Most employees will wait it out rather than embrace the suck. To optimize success you must build a coalition of the willing if the juice is to be worth the squeeze. – Dad

In every business, employees tend to fall into four categories. Your A-players drive the majority of revenue. At the other end, D-players contribute as little as 6% and create drag on the organization.

The real management challenge lies in the middle. B-players often embrace the culture but lack the skills to perform at a high level. C-players have the skills but resist the culture.

The key to leadership is recognizing who sits where—and then deliberately leveling up your middle, while refusing to carry the dead weight.- Morne Smit

For a while I didn’t understand how AI would help my business given the fact that our primary customer is still working off CRTs from 20 year ago. What I’ve come to understand is the tremendous amount of research and development which can be accomplished for pennies on the dollar. I can learn about things in a matter of moments that used to require years of first hand experience. Best practices about how to market my company, pay my sales reps and create digital content is all available with some skillful prompting. This technology has leveled the playing field and has the potential to turn those of us who embrace it into superstars. – Dad