We spent the past 12 months interviewing the best and brightest in the business world — Whole Foods Market co-founder John Mackey, Google's productivity expert Laura Mae Martin, Food Network host Robert Irvine, and many more — to find out their top strategies for growing your business and making it the kind of place people want to work.
We've compiled all the insightful, surprising, and game-changing nuggets of wisdom. Read our choice selections below and check out the full roundup at business.com.
On negotiation
"Negotiating is a type of game, and it can and should be fun most of the time. I always seek the win-win when negotiating with anyone. I never try to take advantage of the other person when negotiating. I want the other person to experience that they are winning instead of losing in the deal. If the other person feels like they are being taken advantage of in some way, then they will often seek some type of payback in the future."
—John Mackey, Whole Foods Market co-founder and author of The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism
On entrepreneurship
"If you're an entrepreneur, you need to expect it to be hard. If you go into it thinking it's 100,000 Twitter followers and a private jet and a unicorn company, you're just going to be perpetually miserable. You've got to expect that it's going to be a grind. It's going to be chaotic. There's going to be change all the time. And if that's your expectation, then you have a chance of meeting the moment."
—Brad Stulberg, author of Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything Is Changing — Including You
On starting a business
"Operate conservatively. People often underestimate the time it takes for sales and product development. Be conservative in your estimates and layer in contingencies — essentially, plan for the worst and hope for the best."
—Carolyn Rodz, CEO of Hello Alice
On business opportunities
"If we go with the premise that there are truly no more ideas that could be considered completely original — and I think there's a sound argument to be made in favor of that notion — then the mandate for any of us is to not just do a thing well, but to do it in a way that is unique to us, in the way that only we can do it ... to imbue the customer experience with things that personally excite you. If you feel strongly about it, then there are probably a lot of other people out there who will also love it, even if they don't know it yet."
—Robert Irvine, Food Network host and author of Overcoming Impossible: Learn to Lead, Build a Team, and Catapult Your Business to Success
On productivity
"Busy is not important! Churning out work, if it's not the right work, is not productive. Attending tons of meetings, if they're the wrong use of your time, is not productive. An inbox full of emails is not a badge of honor; it's a drain on your energy. … You want to keep a trade-off mindset at all times: Where am I spending energy? Where am I getting the best ROI for how I'm spending my time? Is it the right time to do that task? Are you handling distractions ahead of time to make sure you can make the most of it? Those are more important than the time itself. Time will come with good energy and attention practices."
—Laura Mae Martin, executive productivity advisor at Google and author of Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing
On marketing
"I see so many companies that make emotionless, vague ads. When you look at successful brands, their ads remind you of their key value — clean design from Apple, reliability from Amazon — but there are a lot of brands that just mimic each other's content, from the graphics to photography to the copy. I think it's all about finding a way to keep your … unique brand footprint."
—Fiona Frills, CEO of Frilliance
Want more where that came from? See our full roundup of the best business advice of 2024.
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