The Digital Hangout of James Hill: Author, Marketer, Entrepreneur
Back in 2016, I stepped away from my 30-year career in marketing communications. Since then, I’ve thought about business nearly as much as I did when I owned a company. Retrospect, it turns out, is a marvelous business professor. Most recently I found myself questioning whether I sold my business at the right time. What … Continue reading The Perils of Thinking Small
Leave it to an ex-literature major to read his annual Social Security statement as a life narrative. But that’s exactly what I did. You see, my driver’s license expired just after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, and I’m only now able to schedule an appointment at the DMV to renew it. New York State is … Continue reading In It for the Money
It’s been a while since I posted anything new on my blog. That fact is particularly ironic given that I am, like most everyone in the country, in lockdown with a ton of time on my hands. Strangely, I have found time to wipe down my door knobs and countertops like every 20 minutes. Now … Continue reading America Can Handle the Truth—As Scary As It Is
Note: From time to time, I invite posts from friends and colleagues whose insights I think will be of interest. This post from real estate consultant and educator Jeff Peshut discusses how to make decisions that will build a rewarding career. I once had the pleasure of hearing football coaching great Lou Holtz speak at … Continue reading How Can I Make Better Decisions and Take Better Actions Along My Career Path?
One of the great benefits of having a daughter in college is getting to see her assigned readings—and then indulging myself in those that capture my interest. It’s like a dividend payment for all those tuition checks we wrote. In the last three years of my daughter’s studies, I’ve been turned on to the works … Continue reading Business and the Moral Life
One of my former employees recently recalled some advice I gave the editors at our marketing communications agency: “You only get one exclamation point in your writing career. Use it wisely.” At the time, I thought I was quoting Tennessee Williams, but I can’t find any such remark from him. My search for the origin … Continue reading Exclamation-Point Leadership
The things you learn on Twitter. A couple of weeks ago, Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and notable Twitter gadfly, tweeted that “Wall Street bonuses totaled $27.5 billion last year, which is more than 3 times the combined annual earnings of all American workers employed full-time at the federal minimum wage.” Now … Continue reading Paycheck Madness and the Shining City on the Hill
To be honest, I wasn’t enthusiastic when my daughter’s riding instructor convinced us to let her compete in horse shows. Having grown up a middle-class kid in Colorado, I was suspicious of the whole East Coast horse show scene. It all seemed too focused on who had the fanciest horse and where did you buy … Continue reading What Equestrians Learn Early About Succeeding in Life
This post is the final installment in a three-part article begun with 15 Things I Learned When I Sold My Business and continued in Part 2. In each, I recap insights I shared in a 2006 presentation to McMurry staff after selling my firm, Redspring Communications. Part 1 focused on building a business and readying it for sale. … Continue reading 15 Things I Learned When I Sold My Business—Part 3
This post is a continuation of my earlier article, 15 Things I Learned When I Sold My Business. In it, I recap insights I shared in a 2006 presentation to McMurry staff after selling my firm, Redspring Communications. Part One focused on building a business and readying it for sale. Here I continue the discussion by looking … Continue reading 15 Things I Learned When I Sold My Business—Part 2