Jim Randel's (jimrandel) Blog

What is it that drives some people to uber-success? What drives people who become Olympic gold medal winners, self-made billionaires, Presidents of the United States?There are of course a variety of factors. But one that psychologists seem to find consensus on is a childhood sense of loss.In the ...

Successful people have an ability to visualize exactly what they want out of life, and then stubbornly hold on to their vision – notwithstanding evidence to the contrary.One of my favorite stories is that of Derek Jeter. To those of you who don’t know him, Jeter is the shortstop for the New York ...

Many of us confuse efficiency with effectiveness.Let me explain the difference.Efficiency means doing something well within the time you have allocated to it. Effectiveness means doing just those things that move you closer to your goals and objectives. It is much better to be effective than effi...

Making an analogy to sports, the current economy has a lot of people playing hurt. When you play hurt, you tend to lose your confidence and, carrying the metaphor a bit further, can do further injury to yourself by being tentative. How can you fight the instinct to be overcautious when you are pl...

Lately I have been researching the subject of time management. I have read a lot of books and articles on the subject which frankly has been a waste of time. That’s because there are 25 or so principles of time management that really matter and all the books and articles say the same thing over a...

Last week I had breakfast with an attorney friend of mine. He was furious and he wanted to talk. A client that he had represented for many years had recently hired another law firm in the place of my friend’s. When I asked for an explanation, he believed it was because he had not returned the ex-...

No real estate professional or entrepreneur can go through a career without tons of mistakes.  I have made more than my share. For reasons I have wondered about in hindsight, I have purchased properties which turned into dogs quickly after purchase.  What was I thinking?  Well at the time of purc...

This past week I read a book titled The Power of Less by Leo Babauta. Mr. Babauta lives in Guam and writes a popular blog titled ZenHabits.  Five years ago he was an out-of-shape smoker. Today he runs marathons. Five years ago he was in debt. Today he is debt-free and has a successful website wit...

Two weeks ago I wrote about Richard Branson and his act of “sheer absurdity” when he started a magazine without any capital or experience. As Branson noted, he was just too young to know better. I got so many positive responses to that post that I decided to do a bit more homework on the topic of...

A very good friend of mine is out of work. He has been seeking a job for about 5 months (note:  I am writing this blog entry with his permission) The process, as you might expect, is difficult, sometimes humiliating and frustrating.  And yet, my friend “soldiers on” treating his job search as a b...