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“A man ordinarily has time to do all the things he really wants to do.” Anonymous

Shiny stuff is akin to the “sirens song” of Homer’s Odyssey, a promising beginning that ends with a bad result. Just as the sirens of mythology lured sailors to their deaths, “shiny stuff” could potentially sink your boat.

I often take the train into the city of Chicago and then take a cab to my final destination. For the most part I’ve found cabbies to be pleasant, compliant with traffic laws and knowledgeable of the city. However, failure by the city to hold a few reckless cabbies accountable for their actions casts a dark shadow on cab drivers as a whole.

You’ve probably seen the poster. It may even be somewhere in your office building. The poster depicts four men in a boat rowing as one. It’s titled “Teamwork” and the caption reads “together we achieve more”. If you have this poster in your office, you’ve probably looked at it so many times that it no longer stands out. It’s become part of the furnishings. The message may even have lost its meaning.

Are you hoping that things will be better in 2012 or do you have a plan in place that is fueling your optimism? Are you worrying about things that are outside of your control or addressing issues that are well within your control?

Years ago, when I was with Pizza Hut, someone in the marketing group calculated that a loyal customer purchases over $10,000 worth of pizza during his/her lifetime. At that time pizzas were selling for about $10 so, that’s about 1,000 visits or roughly one visit per week for 20 years. We called these folks “heavy users”.