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WALLY AMOS: BE POSITIVE
Wally Amos is the
founder of Uncle
Wally’s Muffin
Company. You
can reach him at
www.wallyamos.com.
taught by the Tibetans. The Tibetans believe we
should take in the negative and transform it to
positive within us: Inhale darkness, exhale light; A challenge for
inhale pain, exhale joy; inhale anger, exhale love.
Martin commented that inhaling the positive CEOs
and exhaling the negative actually seemed quite
selfish. Inhaling love for yourself and exhaling
your anger into the world may be great for you,
but what about the rest of humanity?
Catch a
breath
The place of transformation is within the
human being. As you inhale the anger of the
world (or your own anger) and transform the
energy, you are able to exhale love into the
world (creating an infinitely more desirable
place to live).
IN AN INTERVIEW, I was once asked, “What do Martin reminded me that breathing is the
you like best about life?” Without hesitation, I process of being reborn. You die a miniature
replied, “Breathing!” (Cookies and watermelon death at the end of each exhalation, for if you
are a close second.) never inhale again you will surely die. You are
If I continue to breathe, I have a good chance reborn as you inhale. The more scientific name
of putting everything else together. Miss enough for exhaling is "expiration" and for inhaling
breaths and it’s all over. "inspiration.”
Some folks believe in the concept of inhaling Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. If ever there
the positive and exhaling the negative: Inhale was a time to inhale the negative and exhale
faith, exhale worry; inhale order, exhale confu- the positive, this is it. What a wonderful gift to
sion, etc. I have a very insightful friend, Martin give humanity.
Shapiro, who believes differently. He told me of a Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
meditation technique called tonglen breathing, The beginning and the end. C
A HAPPY CUSTOMER is a good ments and advance
customer—he or she will come notice on upcoming,
back often and is likely to tell limited-availability
friends about the business. And products. Golden
one way of making customers Oaks Stables, an
happy is to offer rewards for their online business spe-business, advises Kim T. Gordon, cializing in collectible
a Costco member and small- toy horses, has 7,000 customers second $3,000 bike free.
business expert based in Florida. enrolled in its “Stable Friends” “Rewards programs do a
Companies can come up program. They receive e-mail stellar job of keeping customers
with dozens of creative ways to with special announcements loyal to you. And since it can
say thanks to their clients and every four to six weeks. cost up to five times more to
make them customers for life, • Product manufacturers, win a new customer than to
Gordon says. She offers a and many other types of small retain an old one, it pays to
few examples. businesses, can reward cus- invest in a program to keep
For your customers:
Rewards
BRAND X
• Restaurants can offer tomers for referrals. Bike Friday, your customers coming back
customers a point for every dol- a Eugene, Oregon, company that for more,” says Gordon.
lar they spend on food and gift custom-manufactures folding Gordon lists these tips in
certificates; when they reach a bicycles, provides its customers her latest book, Maximum
certain level, they receive a gift with referral cards printed with Marketing, Minimum Dollars:
certificate for the restaurant. their names and an ID number. The Top 50 Ways to Grow Your
That’s what Stanley’s Tavern in When a referral prospect buys a Small Business (Kaplan Publish-Wilmington, Delaware, does. bike, the Bike Friday owner who ing, 2006). More helpful infor-Today, the restaurant’s Frequent sent in the card can receive a mation for small-business
Fan Club has 5,400 members. $50 check or a $75 credit. One owners can be found on her
• Retailers can offer cus- customer who actively generates company’s Web site, www.Small
tomers new-product announce- referrals recently received her
BusinessNow.com. C
CAN A CEO do good and
still make good in today’s
competitive business
world? Yes, argues one corporate leader, Leo Hindery
Jr. In fact, today’s CEOs
can make significant social
changes, well beyond a
corporation’s walls.
That’s the gist of
Hindery’s book It Takes
a CEO: It’s Time to Lead
with Integrity (Free Press,
2005). The book blasts a
handful of recently deposed
CEOs, but, more important, it offers a checklist
of lofty ideals for today’s
CEOs—and the benefits
that will come if they’re
followed.
Hindery is managing
partner of InterMedia
Partners, a major private
equity firm. His own CEO
experience came from
building cable and telecommunications powerhouses at TeleCommunications Inc. (TCI) and
AT&T Broadband.
His CEO checklist
includes some obvious
requirements—bright,
exceptionally hard-working, inquisitive. But others
are more challenging.
For example, a corporate leader should live
life with grace, Hindery
writes: “A CEO needs to
be comfortable with himself and with the world.
He needs to be able to
forgive other people and
forgive himself. He needs
to have grace.”
A CEO must also love
people, act on conviction,
hate bigotry, delegate,
demonstrate patience (up
to a point) and spot talent.
And, ultimately, a CEO
must be prepared to be
lonely, because “the truth
is that great responsibility
is a great isolator.” C
