the upside

"Don't compete with rivals, make them irrelevant." So say W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, authors of the book, Blue Ocean Strategy, a paradigm-shifting look at building your business. "In today's overcrowded industries," they write, "competing head-on results in nothing but a bloody 'red...

It was just three years ago that Australian Rhonda Byrne revealed the not-so-little secret of The Secret. Critics scoffed at the Law of Attraction, but it generated sales of 19 million. Today, with at least that many Americans unemployed, Byrne's ideas aren't so attractive anymore. According to...

Social networking: is it the key to success in the information age or a colossal waste of time? The prevailing opinion is that if you want to sell yourself or your product you have to blog, tweet, share, blab, carp, bill and coo so you can be liked, dugg, hugged, diddled or snagged. Whoever gets...

The other night I was sharing -- okay, whining -- about yet another long and possibly futile day spent writing a spec project that may or may not sell when my partner asked: "What did you expect?" I was stunned -- partly because I didn't know the answer, partly because what I wanted him to say...

The unemployment stats from the recent Pew Research Center report sound dire -- young adults and minorities hit hardest, middle-aged men pushed out of the marketplace, older Americans working into their sunset years -- but there's always an upside. So for inspiration I've been talking to some...

One of the most insidious side-effects of joblessness is Noxious Doubt. After more than two years of underemployment, I've gone beyond the self-defeating exercise of blaming Fate and the Recession to simply blaming myself. Every day, words like "failure" and "loser" circle my head like flies, or...

So I'm standing in a furniture store where, after two months of searching, I have finally found a sleeper sofa that a) fits digg_url = 'http://digg.com/business_finance/How_to_Negotiate_Price_Like_a_Man'; my space, budget and style; b) has passed my official Sitz Test; and c) doesn't feel...

The future of our economy occurred to me while I was doing yoga in New York's Bryant Park. I know I was supposed to concentrate on strengthening my core and breathing through my anus, but I have a restless mind which tends to wander and, with blue skies and Times Square in the background, wander it...

Why do Broadway tickets cost so much? I feel like I've been asking this question my whole life, but prices continue to rise like an entertainment arms race. For instance, if you'd like to see Denzel Washington in August Wilson's Fences, a premium ticket goes for $351.50. Denzel's a great actor...

Sure, Washington passed a historic measure in order to provide millions of uninsured Americans health care, but the media is obsessed with the abortion debate, including why Rep. Neugebauer of Texas shouted "baby killer." (Still no word on whether Neugenbauer has Tourette's or was simply...