One of the toughest lessons I had to learn as a businessman was to identify and successfully deal with a no-win situation. That’s a very difficult situation for an entrepreneur to navigate because most of us are optimists by nature. We want to believe we can rescue the relationship, deliver on our promise,s and save the day. But with experience and better understanding of human behavior, I have come to believe that sometimes the best course of action is to cut your losses and walk away before the hole you find yourself in becomes your grave. No one wants to admit failure and throw in the towel too soon, but here are a few scenarios that if you find yourself in, you should consider walking away. Lost trust. Whether one or both side loses trust, it’s time to call it quits. If you cannot trust your partner, an employee, a…

Dealing with difficult people is not an option; it’s a human dynamic we all face, sometimes daily. Next in this series, I want to address a type we all deal with, especially in lean times: the cheapskate client. There is a big difference between being frugal and being cheap. Frugal people: Maximize resources Optimizes opportunities Value quality Understand priorities Not afraid of spending on the right tools and opportunities Cheap people: cut corners to save a little sacrifice outcome or quality for the bottom-price deal do not value quality under-resource their organization see where they can save but seldom what they can gain Early in my career as a creative director/designer, I was hired by a former college teacher who was cheap…very cheap. I should have known my challenge when he hired me to develop a book cover. I remember seeing him buy a small soft drink with no ice…

Dealing with difficult people is not an option; it’s a human dynamic we all face, sometimes daily. There are different levels and types of difficult people. In this series, I would like to identify a specific type and how I try to deal with them in a professional environment. Anyone who works in any type of service industry must learn how to manage people well in order to survive, especially dealing with the know-it-all client. You know the type: they know more than anyone in the room, no matter the subject. They always, and I mean always, have an opinion about everything…sometimes even more than one opinion on any given subject. And now it’s your job to manage this person and get your project done to his or her standards. When the know-it-all client starts to pontificate on matters that you are suppose to lead and begins to tell you…

I’m often cautious when local media wants to feature one of our church clients because I never know the journalist’s intent and often hidden agenda. Needless to say, I was very concerned when I got a call early this summer from a writer for The New Yorker who was doing a feature story on Faith Church, in New Millford, CT. Local media is scary enough, but this was a whole new league of potential bad press. Faith Church is our oldest client and its Pastor, Frank Santora, has become a close friend over the many years we’ve worked together. I met Frank before he even had turned 30 years old, and have walked with him duringthree different capital campaigns, a church name change, 400% growth in the last 7 years, a relocation project, major stylistic and staff changes: the works. Faith Church is one of a few mega churches in…