by Tom Tonkin | May 10, 2022
Treat others the way you want to be treated—the Golden Rule. Sounds good, wholesome, and righteous; yet I have concluded that this is not the best advice. That’s right, I said it. Look, I’m not trying to be contrarian or provocative here. I have spent years trying to...
by Tom Tonkin | May 3, 2022
Ask John Boyd. It was the early 50s, in the midst of the Korean War, John “40 second Boyd” arrived on the scene as an F-86 pilot. John Boyd was given this nickname because he was able to defeat any opposing pilot in an aerial dogfight in less than 40 seconds. At face...
by Tom Tonkin | Apr 26, 2022
People often confuse weather and climate. People talk about climate change and often equate it to changes in weather. It’s just not true. Weather is what happens on a day-to-day basis and the temperature can fluctuate 20 to 30 or more degrees within a 24 hour...
by Tom Tonkin | Apr 20, 2022
From one of my academic heroes: “Essentially all models are wrong, but some are useful.” – George P.E. Box We’ll come to his point later in the post. On Friday, we had the misfortune of having my wife rushed to the hospital for some health issues. She is...
by Tom Tonkin | Mar 2, 2022
A few years back, I was commissioned to study the best way to network. Using a rigorous approach and interviewing some of the top business networkers in business, I landed on ten dimensions that make a great network and ultimately a networker. For the first time, I...
by Tom Tonkin | Mar 2, 2022
In a recent interview, psychologist and internet sensation, Jordan Peterson, suggested that the value of going to Harvard is not for the education as much as it is for the rigorous entrance criteria. Peterson suggests that the rigorous entrance criteria brings in the...
by Tom Tonkin | Feb 26, 2022
Trust continues to be one of the main themes in doing business within sales. Many of you have expressed that trust is an essential ingredient for the role of a sales professional to be effective. Though we were all in agreement, there is little discussion about how...
by Tom Tonkin | Feb 8, 2022
I was assigned to sell a brand new product built organically. This software product was to compete with some well-established and mature products in the market. I was the one used as a sales precursor before rolling out the majority of the sales force. My assignment...
by Tom Tonkin | Feb 4, 2022
By now, if you are a reader, and I am assuming you are since you are here, you must have read Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. If not, the boots like here are that to be successful; you need to have a growth mindset as sopped to a...
by Tom Tonkin | Feb 2, 2022
Stage One – Cultivating a Positive Association Reciprocity and Liking Reciprocity: If we do a favor for another person they will feel obliged to return it. There is strong social pressure to square up. Interestingly, a small initial favor can lead to much...