While I have cut back on my traveling time significantly I have always attempted to use travel time effectively. When I had two to four hours to “kill,” I looked for something to do that's productive.

I prefer to take headphones that cancel noise when traveling. The sounds around me can be distracting and I attempt to shut out as many as possible. This allows me to stay focused on the task I have before me. When I block out distractions waiting in a terminal or flying on an aircraft, I've been able to write articles or other serious communication; something I can't do without my headphones.

Many years ago I participated in a high school glee club.  The good part was that a multitude of voices overcame my ability to sing like a cow. A local television station wanted to highlight the group and asked them to perform three Christmas songs.  In the spirit of full disclosure, the program’s producer was the father of one of our members. When the producer came to watch part of a rehearsal, he thought the music was pretty good but he was clear about one thing: we needed to look like we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Frequently a presenter on Shark Tank will talk about how passionate they are about their product, service or business. Unfortunately for the presenter, the investors don't really care much about the person's passion; they care about what the presenter can do and how the business can be successful. We've all seen people who are passionate about a concept that eventually fails.

Most of us occasionally buy a product on an unfamiliar website. We may think that it's not being run by scam artists; however, the reality is that some commerce websites are fake. They look for ways to defraud unsuspecting buyers on transactions.

A great resource is the scam advisor on this website:  https://www.scamadviser.com . All you have to do is type or cut-and-paste a website address into the appropriate box of the scam advisor.  The scam advisor will report whether the site is a high or low risk for fraud. 

The good news is that the scam advisor gives our site, www.Stevemarr.org , a “High trust - safe to use” rating.  As President Regan said, “Trust but verify.” 

Management expert Peter Drucker frequently said that the purpose of any business is to create customers. As simple and accurate as this statement is, we often miss the mark.

The challenge arises when we make decisions based on what we prefer to offer versus what our customers demand. An example is “Ken” who owns a pet store that targets healthy ingredients for animals. Ken decided to carry only expensive products. I pointed out that he could easily carry less costly products that would appeal to a wider cross-section of customers and increase sales. By my perspective Ken was too narrowly focused on the product line. He could easily maintain healthy products for pets while adding some lower-cost products. He simply would not do it. In going over a number of issues about how Ken ran his business, I believed Ken was more interested in providing what he wanted to sell rather than focusing on what customers demanded. I tried to repeat that I was not suggesting that he forgo his passion for healthy pet food.  I simply wanted to show Ken how to create more customers.