Archive | Business Relationships

Helping without Realizing

Sometimes in life people make a difference without even realizing it. Without trying to make a difference. “Leading by example” is the term often used to describe this phenomenon. Melissa was pleasantly surprised when the owner of a small hotel and conference facility “comp’d” our stay at the hotel for a non-work event. The woman, […]

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As corny as it sounds, I try to “let my light shine” in my dealings with everyone.  When I was growing up, my parents treated everyone with respect, whether they were dealing with the lowest or highest members of society.  Mom always told me to watch what I was doing because I never know when […]

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Everyone you meet knows something you don’t know

“Everyone you meet knows something you don’t know.” This was the text of Facebook post I saw recently. And, my first thought was, of course they do, they know their name, address, hometown and many other personal details. But, as I thought about it, I realized how true this is on many levels. Everyone has […]

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David’s writing reminds me of the childhood taunt, “I know something you don’t know.”  It’s true; I do know something, many things, you don’t know.  It is equally true that you know something I don’t know.  It isn’t possible for any of us to know everything about everything.  Meeting someone in one’s field of study […]

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Lesson from a Roofer: “I just do my job”

I have learned some things while observing the roofers who worked on David’s and my roof for 4 months (that seemed like an eternity). I have written past posts about some of my observations, including my amazement at how happily the roofers perform their jobs. On the last day of the 14 day installation of […]

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Sebastian told me something similar when I told him it seemed unfair to make him work on a (dangerous) roof by himself.  He shrugged and said “It’s a job.”  He seemed indifferent to which roof, which tile, how many co-workers he had.  He just knew what needed to be done and went about it without […]

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Making Friends

A recent email conversation with a friend, Tom, made me think about a fact of life that has some unfortunate consequences. As adults in the working world, we typically relate to each other on a single dimension, that of work. Whatever the work relationship, co-workers, client/consultant, or otherwise, our interactions are narrow in comparison to […]

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Luckily for me, I have always made friends in every kind of situation.  David’s friend, Tom, is an attorney at a large law firm, but neither David or I knew this when we met him while sitting next to each other at a RUSH concert.  David and I also met another, prominent and high profile, […]

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All the World’s a Stage

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players… (William Shakespeare, As You Like It). All the world’s indeed a stage and we are merely playersPerformers and portrayers, Each another’s audience outside the gilded cage (Neil Peart, RUSH, Limelight). I know the origin of this thought was the Bard, but it […]

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David ended his part of this post by saying, “Let the show begin,” which reminds me of a song written by Rolf Kempf, sung by Judy Collins, then popularized in 1973 by one of my all time favorite bands, Alice Cooper.  The song is “Hello Hooray” and it begins with the lyrics “Hello.  Hooray.  Let […]

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Is your consultant a criminal?

This is a strange topic: Is your consultant a criminal? In this context, it is related to your trial consultant. When one hires a new employee, most often, a variety of background checks are conducted. A lawyer’s criminal history is policed by Bar associations; similarly, other licensed professions are vetted. But, what about professions not […]

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In the decades Magnus has been in business, we have found out many things about our employees, vendors, and prospective employees that, absent our checking into them, would have remained hidden.  Often, these secrets were nothing serious, for example, the office administrator we hired, even though we knew she had been arrested for D.U.I.  Then, […]

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Work Life Balance

The term “Work Life Balance” seems to have existed for a long time. In writing this post, I did a bit of quick research and found the concept was not well defined until the last 20 years. Researchers have identified 3 key balance components: time, involvement and satisfaction. When work or life (family) demands are […]

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Due to the lasting impact of COVID-19 on our nation’s workplaces, the issue of work/life balance has taken on a new urgency.  Although many corporations are requiring their employees to return to the office full time, and some workplaces, such as hospitals, never allowed remote working, other employers are struggling for ways to keep their […]

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Hire a Great Attorney

A Point of View

Melissa Pigott, Ph.D.

On June 1, 2021

Category: Business Relationships, Magnus, Magnus Insights, Small Business Success

Here is some free advice: When you, or someone close to you, is in serious trouble, legally speaking, hire a great attorney. This seems pretty straightforward, but in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Hiring a great lawyer is different from hiring a good lawyer, or a lawyer who advertises on the nightly […]

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Another View

David H. Fauss, M.S.M.

On June 1, 2021

Category: Business Relationships, Magnus, Magnus Insights, Small Business Success

Hiring an expert, a professional of any sort, has a degree of risk.  For finding and hiring plumbers and air conditioning businesses, there are resources like Yelp and Angi (formerly known as Angie’s List).  For lawyers, doctors, and trial consultants, these resources, including review based processes, are limited, or non-existent.   In the case of hiring […]

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Retainers

Call it a deposit; call it a retainer. Magnus doesn’t start work without one (except in rare circumstances beyond the scope of this post). We need money, we want money; importantly, other people want money. We learned, the hard way, that clients need to “show us the money.” One of our first cases blew up […]

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No one works for free.  By definition, work is performed in exchange for compensation.  (The obvious exceptions, such as slavery, human trafficking, etc., are beyond the scope of this post.)  The fact that one of the largest law firms in the U.S.A., as well as its client, one of the largest corporations in the world, […]

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Hiding behind Email

Prompted by my posts about “different direction” and “ghosting,” a related phenomenon is hiding behind email, especially as a way to deliver bad news. Maybe it is just me, but it seems a matter of professionalism and fairness that, if one asks someone else to do something like prepare a proposal for consulting services, the […]

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I love to discuss, and write about, etiquette.  As a social psychologist, I am keenly aware of the social norms involved in etiquette, which involves far more than knowing which fork to use.  There is a certain etiquette involved in communicating with others, in both professional and personal settings.  This includes “responding in kind” to […]

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