In a follow-up to his best-seller, “The Six Fundamentals of Success,” business-consultant-to-the-stars Stuart Levine shares 100 practical and, thankfully, crisply written tips on how to get your life in order. Here’s a taste of what you’ll get in this exclusive excerpt of Levine’s latest self-help book, “Cut to the Chase.” As soon as you understand [...]

The holidays can be a crazy time of year, but in many businesses, things slow down. You can’t reach clients because they’re tied up with the holidays or in the final stages of budget completion. It’s virtually impossible to get major decisions made between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, as each link in the business-to-business [...]

Every business conversation I’ve been involved with for the past month has focused on the same topic: the Mets. We came so far, had so much fun, and Beltran struck out looking instead of swinging … I was reminded of what a generous game baseball is, compared to business. In baseball, you get three strikes. [...]

As I work on this column, Patricia Dunn, former non-executive chairman of Hewlett-Packard’s board, is preparing to testify before Congress about recent revelations that HP was spying on its own board members. As the lead director of a public corporate board, I’ve watched the situation deteriorate and important lessons surface. These lessons have applications for [...]

In life and business you need to test yourself. This is particularly true if you’re a leader. In fact, as a leader, it’s your responsibility. I challenge you to define a leadership goal for yourself for the fourth quarter. Yes, it takes energy and focus. But it pays off for you and your company. I’ve [...]

There’s an ongoing criminal investigation in Boston and I suspect all the facts will not emerge for some time. At this point, several things are clear. In 1991, Boston began construction on the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel project, or as it has come to be known, “the Big Dig,” on which it intended to spend [...]

By now everyone knows it: Phil Mickelson imploded on the 18th hole at Winged Foot to basically give away the U.S. Open. In the past two weeks, I’ve heard his play on the last two holes analyzed about 40 or 50 times. I have to admit, I was right there with the gang picking apart [...]

I filled up my gas tank yesterday — $60 (and I don’t drive a mini van).  Everyone is feeling the sticker shock.  But look beyond consumers and it doesn’t take long to see that the unabated gas prices are presenting a huge challenge for businesses.  And not just those that rely heavily on travel, delivery [...]

Ken Lay, Andy Fastow and Jeffrey Skilling are easy targets these days. Fortunately for us, we’re all safe in our self righteousness, protected from the evil of acts like those of which they’re accused. If they did the things prosecutors allege leading up to Enron’s collapse, they reached an astonishing extreme of greed and entitlement. [...]

What would you say if someone asked you, “Would you be in favor of a gas tax?” My guess is, “no thanks.” You’re not alone. In a recent survey, when asked, “Would you support the idea of a gas tax?” 85 percent of the people questioned said no and only 12 percent said yes. Not [...]