Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth®

SHOW NOTES: We strongly suggest you view the video of this conversation using this link: https://alanweiss.com/mercedes-and-anastasia/ Mercedes and Anastasia Korngut are two teen sisters, and co-founders of the company, Small Bits of Happiness. Their mission is to help individuals of all ages find more happiness in daily life. They have reached over four million teens and adults. As two teens, Mer...

SHOW NOTES: One of the most corrupted words in the language recently is "unicorn," which is a mythical creature. "Mythical" means "not real." Yet all kinds of people have decided they are unicorns and, therefore, are unique, better than others, more valuable. Yet if so many people are appropriating the title, then are they really "unique"? Outstanding performers may be rare—in sports, business, en...

SHOW NOTES: •We should avoid generations stereotyping. •We're really better off than we're led to believe. •Try living in Denmark or Iceland. •Magic bullets won't help. •Can a culture survive on gambling? •There is extreme unhappiness in the land. •It is exacerbated by the internet. •People would rather blame themselves, the boss, or the system rather than accept accountability. •Conspiracies and...

SHOW NOTES: Here's just a part of the obituary of my friend and former subordinate, Francis X. McGuire from 2010: "...a unique man whose professional life began as a late night disc-jockey in New York City, led him to serve in the Kennedy White House, work for the ABC network (hiring Ted Koppel), to be on the ground floor side-by-side with Fred Smith during the Fed Ex start-up, and there with Colo...

SHOW NOTES: Fight, Flight, Fright, or Fall Down Quaking We feel powerless in an age of volatility and disruption, of lack of trust in our institutions, and of polarization among those supposed to represent our best interests and not merely their own. Fight or flight has added fright to the equation, but it seems to me there's also the new option of hiding under the bed (fall down quaking). Whining...

SHOW NOTES: ° State of the art robots for pools. ° Found two years ago in a high-end magazine. ° Took a chance. ° Outstanding results. ° Second season, this year, one robot fails. ° Company says to send it back, they'll send a replacement first. ° True to their word, everything is good. ° Chinese company, locally in Texas. ° Two people ask to visit. ° Thought it was a scam. ° Two Chinese people, o...

SHOW NOTES: Covid was a surprise, but not completely unexpected. Financial people were prepared for some "big event." The scientific, medical, and political responses were mixed, politicized, and hurtful. In retrospect, was it necessary to suspend schools and deny kids of years of learning and socialization; to prevent families from assembling for important occasions; to shut down businesses and d...

SHOW NOTES: Why are politicians asking for support without revealing the party they represent? Because they're embarrassed or duplicitous, or both? Why don't they admit to errors their party has made, or they have made? "We shouldn't have supported this" or "I'm sorry I supported that." Why campaign as if fighting an enemy (the other party) instead of supporting their constituency? Why become a la...

SHOW NOTES: There are jobs that many of us would prefer not to have and businesses we'd prefer not to own, but they provide valuable services. Someone has to run funeral parlors, cemeteries, cesspool cleaning, mold removal, and junkyards. Personally, I wouldn't like to pick up garbage, but we need the service or the rats would overwhelm us. Then there are jobs that I can't comprehend doing because...

SHOW NOTES: When I was teaching a graduate course as a "side hustle" for MBA and PhD candidates at the University of Rhode Island, I inherited a student who claimed he had ADHD and the "documentation was coming from health services." He also answered every question in class with a single word, "reengineering." I found out that he had pulled this con with the full-time faculty, and was in his final...

SHOW NOTES: The odds were better for the biggest longshot in the Kentucky Derby. An American has become Pope. It was said that no American could become Pope because the church wouldn't vest its power in someone with a Super Power. I would think, however, that there is no greater Super Power than God, so we shouldn't worry. Many people are pointing out that he spend twenty years in Peru so he's act...

SHOW NOTES: •There was once a Readers Digest staple by this name, still available in summaries. •Here's mine. Keep in mind, when you critique someone who happens to be black, it's 'de rigueur' to announce, "I'm not a racist." Well, I'm announcing to you that I'm not a Trump supporter (and I'm also not a racist). •Years ago we thought about selling our home. Every realtor who showed me "comparable'...

Show Notes: I knew kids in high school and college who cheated. They stole exams or looked at other people's answers or had someone else take tests for them. (Ironically, grammar school was far more honest!) My daughter had a friend whom she abandoned because of her chronic cheating and requests to help her out. She even cheated at sports unless the officials caught her. When you're successful, of...

Show Notes: •Quality diminishes as numbers increase. •As everyone joins in, fewer and fewer real authorities. •A guy doesn't publish directly, but is "presented" by others so you can't block his inanities. If you click on his site, there is a ridiculous training program hawked with absurd promises. He's a hustler. I block the people "presenting" him. •All those people with 17 "rules" for great lea...

SHOW NOTES: The threshold of rational behavior and values overcome by opposing normative pressures. The rioter's justification. The battlefield. The social media and "influencers." People who have low self-esteem and seek bias confirmation and approval. Fear begets fear, panic begets panic. The "drug" of the "magic bullet." Handholds when you're confused—they may be even more dangerous. Example: A...

You can't deal with Hardly Relevant or Losing and Dying. You must be paid at least a deposit in advance. You must have "non-cancellable" under terms and conditions. You have to deal with a legitimate buyer. (I'm a buyer, I just don't have the budget.) The difference between budget and money. Don't argue over small matters and fall into the legal trap. Meet whomever is a stakeholder, especially in...

While it's true that nonprofits often fail for lack of funding, there are reasons that they don't achieve funding or that they use it incorrectly and/or inappropriately. Here's my experience from eight boards, including chairing two of them: The boards are weak. They are made up of "names" who would seem to be significant, but who provide very little in terms of governance skills, strategic viewpo...

Uncertainty leads to poor choices. People seek certainty at the cost of their well-being. We have been "certain" about such horrors as eugenics and such trivialities as not swimming for an hour after eating. We've had brutal endings to cults, in Waco, in Jonestown, because conmen had convinced followers that they had certainty. We have polarization today because opposing politics or values cause a...

I'm a capitalist. Socialism and the rest simply favor the few at the top, from Lenin to Hitler to Castro. Yet we do have too high a level of poverty. In the face of this we are paying athletes tens of millions a year and hundreds of millions in contracts. Connor McGregor makes $180 million annually, Lionel Messi $130 million. Juan Soto, a good hitting but poor fielding right fielder has signed a $...

SHOW NOTES Let's stop using inaccurate terms, such as VITO (Very Important Top Officer) or "C-suite," which doesn't actually exist. Let's focus on real buyers. And that also calls for accuracy. A small business owner is a small business owner, not a CEO. That buyer has differing frames of reference and motivation from an executive in a large organization. Trust and credibility are reliant on under...

Usually found on AM radio, sometimes TV infomercials, sometimes online ads. They involve an "authority" you've never heard of and an interlocutor you've never heard of who's as eager as a puppy, e.g., "Media personality Joe Shmo." The issue is weight loss, erectile disfunction, leg pain, backaches, congestion, hearing impairment, of any other popular problem. There are "studies" and the suggested...

Radon is a radioactive gas that has no smell, colour or taste. Radon is produced from the natural radioactive decay of uranium, which is found in all rocks and soils. Radon can also be found in water. Radon escapes from the ground into the air, where it decays and produces further radioactive particles. Radon from soil gas is the main cause of radon problems. Sometimes radon enters the home throug...

"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore" This is a line from the 1976 movie Network. The line is spoken by Howard Beale, a character who is angry about the state of America. The executive vice president at a huge bank asked where I was from. "So you left that cesspool to move up here," he said. I said, "Why are so many of you so jealous of New York, is it an inferiority complex...

Show Notes: Consider two axes, one or importance (of a job, career, project, relationship) and the other of courtesy. Thus, we run from unimportant to important, and rude to polite on the two continua. If something is important and it is performed with courtesy and consideration, it is effectively done. Consider the flight attendant ensuring that seat belts are fastened or the server apologizing f...

Lisa Miller is an expert and thought leader in efficiencies and effectiveness in health care, including how to sell in changing environments to health care executives (and avoid procurement, for example). In this rapid-fire conversation, we discuss the pros and cons of AI, the multitude of options, the projected shortage of physicians, the ability to obtain fast, comprehensive results, and much mo...