Ghosts, Goblins and 2014 Planning....which is scariest?   I’ll have to go with 2014 planning on this one, as ghosts and goblins are largely fictional, and everybody knows annual planning is a harsh reality. I have been constructing annual plans for a LONG time and it never gets any easier. The process improves, for sure, and the things you stumbled over last year usually go away, but there is always a new crop of obstacles that seem to pop up from one year to the next. They might include: A pesky competitor that didn’t exist last year, or at least wasn’t [...]

“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.”  - Robert E. Lee   The term mandatory continuing professional education bothers me. Given what I do for a living, saying that may constitute heresy. So let me explain. For many, including members of the public that professionals serve, the word mandatory implies that professionals do not seek out continuing education unless they are compelled to do so. Frankly, my belief is that the vast majority of professionals—doctors, accountants, lawyers, engineers, architects—embrace continuing education as a professional opportunity to improve skills and stay current. CE is a professional necessity to [...]