• Put something new in every day. This is a natural antidepressant.  Further, we will become progressively more valuable to ourselves and those closest to us.
• Two universal strategies.  Change of speed; change of direction (or a unique combination of both).  In basketball, combining these strategies while dribbling is so lethal, it is called a “killer-crossover” dribble.
• All businesses are resource-challenged.  No business ever has the exact needed and well-balanced amount of time, money, equipment, or personnel.  We all deal with limitations, priorities, and choices.
• Price, quality and/or availability.   There are three primary strategic business directions. Picking where to start is hyper-important. If you choose to change strategies down the road, your customers won’t believe you.
• What is the lifetime value of a customer?  It depends if the customer most prizes price, quality or availability.  You will find big differences in the lifetime value of differing kinds of customers.
• Raison d’etre (why I, why we).  If  you can’t describe why your company or you exist, do not expect your work to be accurately described by and to others.
• No one wants to be put through a system and/or be processed.  One size does not fit all.  One size doesn’t even fit most.
• Advertising supports a lot of employment.  Unfortunately, advertising supports less sales than is hoped.
• The three C’s in all business analysis and plans.  Customers (clients, patients), Competition and Company (you or yours). It is best practice to (re)assess and address possible adjustments annually.
• The three C’s of business excellence.  Concepts (product and/or service leadership), Competence (operation excellence) and Connections (customer intimacy).   All three need constant attention, and nourishment.
• Slick.  Unfortunately, this will never go away.  Competitors will try to get better at it.  Customers will fall prey to  it.  Fortunately,  all markets make room for the unslick.
• Double nots.  1 is not knowing what we don’t know.  2 is not doing anything about it. This is a knot like no other.
• Sucks vs. Yippies. Our fear of sucks limits are opportunities for yippies.
• Suck and blow.  High emotions suck you in and blow you off course.
• Basketball strategy for business.  A pick and roll makes best use of 2 pieces of strategy. Piece 1 is to cause the competition to transition.  Piece 2 is a possibility of creating a mismatch. These 2 strategies combined cause the pick and roll to be particularly “offensive.”
• Positioning.  If you are not demonstrably different, the market response will be noticeably indifferent.
• Hitting the bull’s-eye vs. the target.  I   used to stand on a golf tee aiming for any 1 of 3 fairways; then I started aiming for the proper fairway; then I started aiming for the green; then I started aiming for the flag.  At long last, I started to improve.
• Early.  It’s the best type of assessment, adjustment and/or correction.
• A swing and a myth.  A popular business development idea is to “just keep swinging.”  However, we may want to work on our eyesight and our execution; that is, both how we see and do our work.
• On-ball vs. off-ball strategy. With the basketball in our hands, we can pass, dribble or shoot.  Without the ball in her hands,  we can help someone pass, dribble or shoot.  Similar options exist in our work world.  Do the work -or – help someone do the work.
• Profits.  These do not show up magically.  They take work; most of it hard.
• Darkness.  This is not the enemy.  Not looking for light is a greater enemy.
• Costs tend to be tied to transactions.  This is not equally true for revenue.
• Your Dunbar number.  At a minimum, know this concept.  Working towards maximum, strengthen the relationships within your Dunbar number.
• Shrinking margins.  Of all the causes and effects discussed for these trends, least discussed and most troublesome is a shrinking margin of error.
• Battles.  The hardest battles fought and most worth winning are those that take place in our minds. 
• Running from Peter.  In 1969 Laurence J. Peter wrote a book called, The Peter Principle.  It states, “Managers rise to their level of incompetence.”  With continual growth, this can be delayed, even avoided.
• A controlled burn.  Light your own fire, manage your weeds, reduce your risk of wildfires, restore nutrients.  All lead to more desirable growth.
• Create multiple feedback loops. This reduces the impact of those with vested interests. This better helps to ascertain trends.
• The value of experience.  All new brooms claim to sweep clean. However, only old brooms know where the corners are.
• Best master’s degrees. Mastering our emotions.
• Reason versus excuse.  We can either do something with reason and purpose to differentiate ourselves – or – do the same thing that everybody else does, and use that as an excuse.
• Early detection.  Leads to early correction – before anything worsens – and – before others benefit.
• Slightly “off” premises.  Lead to way “off” applications.
• Discernment.  Without it, supply will always exceed demand.
• Learning is not limited.  We get to decide if learning stops or continues.
• Continue to invest in yourself.  This will always provide your greatest ROI.
• Organization tip.  Organize less.
• Our best work.  Few will ever see, as it’s an inside job.
• Most failures aren’t.  Rather, these are just things that did not work out the way we prejudged.  Nothing takes the place of making adjustments and trying again.
• Markets can be unforgiving.  This is especially true in adjusting markets.
• Spurring activity.  Raise the stakes.  Make the penalty bigger for inaction.
• Weather is.  Whether isn’t. You can actually impact your whether.
• Premier clients.  None will be gifted to you.  You can earn them.  By your consistent good work, you can create them.
• The ladder of life.  Has rungs unevenly spaced.
• The entrepreneurial life ladder.  Uniquely requires some rungs be built as you climb; often without a safety net.
• The best way to share our experience.  Do it with integrity, that is neither understate nor overstate.
• Improving your oral skills.  Ask others to swallow less. 
• Research.  This is what we do when we don’t know what we’re doing.
• Value.  If we don’t add any, we won’t collect any.
• Confused people.  Do not act, and therefore also do not buy.
• Expenses.  Education is least expensive.  Ignorance is most expensive.  
• Educating buyers.  Price buyers are easy to educate and easy to lose.  
• Much of learning is elective.  We get to decide if this is an opportunity.
• Oops.  Just say it.  A simple admission can be an admired act. Nothing earns trust like honesty does.
• Something for nothing.  This desire bites most; often in the ass.
• Cheese slices.  Often when change is required, and confidence is lacking, it can seem democratic to make small cuts “across-the-board.”  This does not remove the bad stuff and it weakens the good stuff.
• Destiny.  This gets shaped with or without our help; we might as well be proactive.
• Chasing everything.  Just like running from everything, we get nowhere and will die tired.
• Just like cancer.  It will always be advisable to detect and take care of little things…before they get bigger.
• Stupid.  It may not hurt, but it does tend to be terminal.
• Our own special blend.  Starting in kindergarten, we get judged on how well we work alone and with others.  We’ll need a unique blend of both.
• Know different.  Or be no different.
• Byways.  The desire for ease or speed causes us to look by things, including people.
• An early and lasting leadership concept.  Learn how to lead yourself.
• A winning hand.  If we want to improve our hand, we’re gonna’ have to use the discard pile.
• Slow, look and listen.  You don’t need to stop in order to look and listen; observation improves greatly just by slowing.
• Growth rates.  If the business grows faster than we do, trouble grows even faster.
• Cash flow.  Turnover (sales) can mean little.  The growth of cash can mean… everything.
• Scarcity.  When there are no easy substitutes, value increases.  Create scarcity when you can.
• Work like a chiropractor.  When things are not aligned, remove interference and work towards realignment.  
• It’s over.  The day our education ends.
• Our best educational promise. Promise to never stop educating ourselves.
• Cognitive work.  Yup, this hard work means thinking about our thinking.
• New connections.  Unless you connect with a new part of yourself, or with others, learning does not take place.
• Living the dream.  It is easier to do when we don’t try to live somebody else’s dream.
• Leverage. It’s hard to leverage old info, habits and talent. New info, habits and talent leverage best and most.
• You can do this.  This means little when others say this to you.  This means lots when spoken to yourself.
• Forever imbalanced.  Working to better understand the world around us, but failing to work on better understanding ourselves.
• Big words.  We may know some, how to spell some, even how to correctly use some.  But, often they divide people rather than unite them.
• Hard work breeds success. Inside work accelerates outside work.
• Crap happens.  Move forward anyway.  Bodies in motion tend to jettison crap.
• A case of the runs.  Some run at everything.  Some run from everything.  Consider a case for the slows.  Move, but slowly until sure.
• Turn around/restructure.  The initial assessment in this kind of work includes, “Are we attempting to heal the sick or raise the dead?”
• A dog’s breakfast.  Table scrapings from one day can become an animal’s breakfast the next day.  This experience can surface in differing ways. For example, most of us prefer products and services both well-constructed and skillfully delivered.  No one orders leftovers, and no one deserves a dog’s breakfast.
• Competition.  We have more than we think we do, especially given that some will choose nobody/nothing.  It is rare that the market giant owns even 30% of any market.  So lots of customers are available. If we don’t speak to them and for them, customers will choose others – or – nobody.
• Our personal stock.  If we won’t invest in ourselves, why would anyone else?
• High impact.  All business plans assess customers, competition and your company (in smaller settings this means you).  You can significantly impact only one piece of this puzzle.
• Sales at “any cost.”  Increased sales volume never justifies selling at a loss. This hope just speeds the business end.
• Judgment day.  Every day you are judged by what you say, and do; further by any difference between what you say, and do.
• Put a little vacation in every day.  Even better, put a little sabbatical in every day.
• Can’t.  Won’t.  Both equal don’t.
• Deep draw.  With little experience, little fits your experience.  Added experience fuels pattern recognition, risk reduction, and better decisions.  Draw deeper.

Further interest?  I have written nearly 600 of these Nudgits.  If helpful to you, I can email you a pdf of my Nudgits.  There is no charge.  Please email your request, [email protected].