I just got a call from a colleague who is having trouble with a "challenging" client. Specifics aside, the client was concerned that the work they contracted to have done by my friend was getting done to their satisfaction. Now I completely trust that my colleague will complete the job the job in a stellar fashion and life will be good for all. The trouble they're having having is that there's a creative element involved and it's taking a bit longer to finish. And every day that goes by, more questions come up from the clients, "Are they doing this? Is that being done correctly?" And these questions are ultimately chipping away at the real quality of the finished product. The expectations that the client has are growing and becoming larger than the actual job itself. Could this have been avoided?

Fortunately, the answer is yes and it doesn't involve killing the client. You see, for my friend, the expectations were never considered. They simple assumed their client would just wait patiently, not think about anything until the day of the "big reveal" and magically Christmas would come early and everyone would be thrilled. Never assume anything, but that's a topic for a later discussion. If they simply kept in contact with their client, gave them regular updates, teased them with some progress here and some descriptive details there, the client would KNOW that everything is moving along just fine and they would have nothing to worry about.* By controlling the expectations and molding them so they coincide with your timeline, not theirs, the questions are answered before they are asked. And that too is a fantastic sales technique for another day as well.

I can easily imagine Michelangelo giving regular updates to the Pope when he was commissioned to paint the ceiling of Sistine Chapel. "Yesa, it's a-going to take a couple more years than we originally planned but take a look at this-a cloud. It's-a much-a better than that plain old blue you were thinking. Oh, I can't a-wait-a for you to see this! It's a-going to be-a glorious and everyone will love you!" (sorry about my Italian).

Talk to you client, engage them in the project, let them know how it's coming and even ask their opinion...even if you don't listen to it. Let them know you care about THEM, you are doing this for them and they will give you plenty of room to stretch your creative wings. You don't have to give up the surprise. Tease them, lower their expectations a bit and then


*PLEASE NOTE: Never tell a client "you have nothing to worry about". Try, "I'm going to take good care of you."

Thanks to the forward-thinking folks at Fast Company, the 30 Second MBA is born. With an impressive faculty including the Who's Who in business, culture and social media, these very casual and often humorous 30 second snippets of insight give us a brief peek into the minds of the people that shape our economy. Sure, they're raw and sometimes rushed (30 seconds goes by very fast), but you're constantly learning something and that's always a good thing. This is perfect for junior high kids on up and yes, parents you will certainly gain from this as well.

I especially love the fact that these are short and sweet and really unscripted. And with "professors" like Mark Zuckerberg, Vivian Schiller and Mike Rowe, there is TONS of great information to gather and share with your kids.

Click Here to get your 30 Second MBA

I like Jello, I admit it, preferably something red but you know what I love more? A nice juicy website that is just so chock-full of information that it almost become addicting. For those of you who are fans of Dancing with the Idols or Real Jersey Survivors, I got bad news. The Khan Academy is the new place to be.

In 2004, Salman Khan, a hedge fund analyst, began posting math tutorials on YouTube. Six years later, he has posted more than 2.000 tutorials, which are viewed nearly 100,000 times around the world each day. The Khan Academy is the new home for this wealth of information which is staggeringly awesome to say the least. From algebra to economics, if it's about numbers, there's probably a video on it.

In Salman's recent TED appearance, he goes in depth about the advantages of learning from short easily understood videos and how he's talking these to the schools and finding great success. For those of us not currently in school (or are working to forget school altogether), these videos are an extraordinary way to learn. Need to brush up on Algebra? Done. Want to know about banks and how the Fed creates money? Done. There's even Biology, Chemistry, Astronomy, History and loads more. 

The Khan Academy is your own personal pool of information ready and waiting for you and your kids to stop by and jump on in. On a personal note, I am a bit upset at how many hours I wasted in high school and college trying to digest the topic that are covered in these videos. 

                  Click Here for Salman's TED video.                          Click Here to Go Directly to The Khan Academy

This is a fairly open-ended question that each of us need to ask ourselves. How do we know when we've hit "far enough" on a particular task or challenge? Of course we know our kids best and have the best grasp of their limits but for those kids who don't have a coach (sports or academics) in their lives, don't be too quick to toss in the towel. Just like babies are seemingly made of some kind of magic rubber that allows them to fall and bounce without serious injury (I've heard this is true), our older kids have the same kind of stuff in them that allows them to grow and push themselves too. The worst thing that we could do is to simply shelter them. That just does not work...ever. Here's a little exercise for you when you're faced with the choice of to push or not to push. Think back on your own childhood. Do you have any regretful moments when you didn't go the extra mile, or even the extra foot? Is this the memory you want your kids to hold on to?

Be there for your kids. Acknowledge their struggles and give them encouragement always. Watch them fail and help them up, then guide them to try again and again. Nothing feels quite overcoming adversity and we should never take that away from anyone. The history books are filled with stories of overcoming failure. I'll pull one out this week but for now keep your focus on keeping your kids moving onward and upward. Don't like the word "Push"? How about "Kinetic Encouragement"?

“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want." -- Ben Stein

There’s the rub isn’t it? “What you want” isn’t as easy as it sounds Robert Schuller sums it up pretty well when he says “Indecision is the greatest thief of opportunity.” That is so true! With the thousands of technological distractions available to us and our kids at every moment, it does not take much for them to find a new way to procrastinate. And really, isn’t that what the real problem is? Very few of us have so much work that we don’t know know what to do with our time. The real problem is we just don’t want to think about what we want or we should be doing and we find different ways to distract ourselves. The challenge is even greater for kids. This is where we come in.

Focus is the key and teaching our kids to focus (I mean really focus) could be one of the most valuable things we ever do. Losing focus is very easy, don't worry about teaching that one. Even as I write this I’m subconsciously distracted. With just a glance away or a perhaps a sound catching your attention, you’re out of the moment and your focus is lost. In our quest to be the ultimate multi-tasker, we take on too much and have lost the ability to finish any task effectively. This is certainly something we don't want to pass along to a generation who expect immediate results from everything. What they'll end up doing is abandoning the task altogether. We need to help them to zero in on what's essential so they see the path and the options. Then we can develop the habits of achieving goals.

Start with small tasks and build from there. It could be a hobby, a craft or even a chore. The key is completion. Let them know the satisfaction of starting a task and finishing a task without any deviation from the course. From there, it could be some kind of a job or project, whatever ever suits them best. Build the responsibility, provide the guidance and encouragement, rinse and repeat. I won't happen overnight, though. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Stay patient, stay on course and rewards will come.