First Word

About the 10th time the cat's paw reached up and grabbed my hand on the mouse, I thought, "I'm going to come unglued." Then the paw reached up and scratched me, "That's it! I AM coming unglued." Ever feel that about work and life? Americans are a bunch of unglued workaholics ... well, not all but many. My friend the other day said to me, "You're CEO. You don't get to give your 100 percent; you always have to give your 110 percent every single day." He's right. I know all you CEOs and entrepreneurs out there are nodding. It's not enough to give only a 100 percent and call it a day. The demands of the business, including the ongoing financial demands to keep the framework and walls all in place take a lot of effort. As owner of the company I am responsible for it all. I have to keep the "glue" going. But some days I just feel unglued, especially when the obnoxious cat won't stop clawing my busy typing fingers. BUT ...

This post comes on the hinges of a deeply personal conversation I had with a dear and trusted family member. She has recently gone through some humps in the road called life. The themes in the conversation resonated not only as important to one's personal life and how they conduct that life, but also in business, and I thought I would share some of the insight. You can take away from this what resonates with you, but the real theme is personal responsibility and boundaries. In this person's case, she was faced with some of the usual corporate politics, and she did not like them. She was also faced with some personal difficulties, as she was ending a relationship. First, what she realized is that she needed to take responsibility for what she had done in the past that put her where she was today. We live in a culture that typically makes the blame game permissible. Something happens, not my fault. I didn't do anything. It's the other person's fault. We even seek perm...