World War II proved to be a turning point in Chanel’s career. Despite being wildly successful, Chanel decided to close up shop in 1939, when France declared war on Germany. She closed the doors of her stores and stopped designing altogether. While other couturiers were leaving the country, Chanel decided to remain in her beloved Ritz Paris apartment. It was here where she would live out the controversy that was soon to surround her life.

“I just wanted to make a million dollars,” says Gardner. “But I couldn't sing and I couldn't play ball, so I said to my mother, ‘How am I going to make a million dollars?’ And she said to me, ‘Son, if you believe you can do it, you will.’” He couldn’t sing, he couldn’t play ball; he was also homeless and he was black – Gardner definitely had the odds stacked against him. However, he took his mother’s lesson to heart and was determined to succeed regardless.

“I don't like formal gardens,” said Disney. “I like wild nature. It's just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess." Despite his apparent disregard for structure, Disney was a hands-on entrepreneur, who enjoyed taking control over all aspects of his company. While it was in part personality-driven, Disney’s hands-on nature was also due to a lesson he learned the hard way early on in his career.

In additional to a monthly mailer, you should think about a quarterly mailing that is more personal in nature. Let your customers know what is going on in your life. It is like sending a personal letter to each of them. Olympia Funding is very successful in using this technique; they call this "Letters from the Heart".

Being shunned by former boss Jack Welch was what made one executive realize he was "adrift." Another up-and-comer quit a blue-chip job to sell coffee brewers. Careers gone off course? Hardly: Those two now run Fortune 500 companies: Amgen and Starbucks.

I've been hearing for years that a successful business needs to have a USP (unique sales point). The problem is that most businesses find difficulty in identifying what their USP is. And even if they have a USP, eventually they find their competitors doing the same thing.

“We weren’t trying to just go public and get rich,” recalls Gates of his early Microsoft days. “There was no near-term thing. It always was this many-decades thing where there were no shortcuts and we’d sort of put one foot in front of the other.”

“If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just,” says Roddick – a phrase that could very well be her company motto. She has taken her $6,500 loan and turned it into a successful multi-million dollar corporation that continues to not only make popular cosmetic products but also push the boundaries of corporate social responsibility. She may no longer be the driving force behind the company, but her influence on the business world is undisputed. How did she do it?

The biography of Donald Trump has it all, from lavish properties and beautiful women to lots and lots of money. But, behind the glamour and glitz of what the world knows as Donald Trump, there is a story of hard work, failure, determination and finally, triumph.

Get in, get it done, get it done right, and get out.

“If you want to sell a car and you spend five dollars to wash and polish it and then apply a little extra elbow grease, suddenly you find you can charge an extra four hundred dollars,” says Trump, “and get it.”

“The most important thing in life is to love what you’re dong,” says Trump, “because that’s the only way you’ll ever be really good at it.”

"Great job - well done..." or "You need to improve..."

Which one would you rather feedback on?

Giving honest feedback is one of the hardest skills to master...

A manager in Belgium eases employees' tension by giving advice and feedback throughout the year

The annual and dreaded performance review. Do you prepare for it? It is a waste of time? It's your personal review...so prepare!

"What You Tolerate Becomes Your Standards." This is a critical management philosophy that will assist you in driving high performance. When your employees are not performing, here are the steps to take to analyze why that performance is lower than the standard and suggestions for imbedding this philosophy into your organization's culture.

Do you have people in your office that dislike each other?  Do they cause problems for everyone else?  Conflict in the workplace is a painful reality. 

The goal is to recognize friction and tension and deal with it before it escalates into a major problem.  One point is clear--conflict does not magically go away if ignored.

Certain types of conflict in the workplace, such as sexual harassment and discrimination, are very obvious and readily identified.  Other forms of conflict may not be so easily identified. 

Feedback is a valuable gift,
but unless it is delivered properly,
it may not be appreciated.

Delivering Feedback

Feedback on performance is essential for improving performance. The way feedback is delivered, however, can have a tremendous effect on its receptivity. Here are some thoughts on giving and receiving feedback that might be helpful to you.

There is a noble promise at the heart of the new world of business: Everyone has the right to meaningful work, and people who do meaningful work create the most value in the marketplace. Even as the talent wars have fizzled into pink-slip parties, few senior executives would dispute the vital importance of finding, engaging, and developing the best people. Ask any CEO, "What's your company's most precious asset?" Without hesitation, the answer will be, "Our people." Ask the same CEO, "What's the primary source of your competitive advantage?" Chances are, the reply will be, "Our unique culture."

In my town there’s a lawn service that comes by three or four times a year to check up on the lawn. They examine the grass for diseases and apply a little fertilizer and other treatments to keep things going. They finish after about 10 minutes and then head off to the next lawn.

All managers expected to carry out performance appraisal should have some training. Ideally this should not just be on the skills of performance appraisal � the �how to do it, but also on the reasons for performance appraisal the �why we do it. Managers should understand how it fits into the wider strategic process of performance management and how the information and data generated contributes to understanding of the capacity of the human capital of the organisation to contribution to business strategy and value.

I have always worked with the following formula:

Attitude + Skills + Process + Knowledge = Success.

I first learned of this particular concept of strengths and excesses in the context of annual performance appraisals. Periodic performance feedback, coupled with an annual performance appraisal, is an integral part of a well-run business. Honest appraisals which inform the employee of his or her development needs are critical to helping the employee improve. They also help the business improve because its employees are improving their performance. It’s a “win-win” proposition.