The short answer is yes. Yes, you should be worried about the economy tanking. We’ve seen the stocks lose significant value over the past couple of days. Now, stock prices and the economy is not the same thing. The economy can keep growing when stock prices reduce. I don’t have crystal ball, and I don’t…
I have a perfect record when it comes to saving underperforming employees. That’s right, I am 100% successful in not turning an employees performance around. Except for this one time… The company I was working for had just acquired another company, and I was given the responsibility of running this new division. I was fortunate…
“Sex sells,” I told Gill when we pitched him for the first time, “except in the Analog IC business.” Gill nodded his head in agreement. And four meetings later he gave us a term sheet for $11M. If only the rest of the investing community was as easy to convince as Gill… [Do you want…
How Much Should You Share With Your Significant Other About The Craziness Of Being CEO? By Brett Fox Being an entrepreneur can suck. Being the significant other of an entrepreneur can really suck. As an entrepreneur, you are living the roller coaster every day. The swings from euphoria to sadness are there every day. Every…
You know, there’s the old saying that “A players hire other A players, and B players hire C players.” And if only it was that easy because most people think they are A players. The reality is that you should be looking at various data points to determine who is an A player. Here are…
“They own the fundamental patents on how to make an integrated circuit. We’re not going to sue them,” Dave Fullagar, Maxim’s cofounder and VP Engineering said to me. Dave was explaining to me the facts of life. I was a running Maxim’s interface business at the time, and Texas Instruments had just second sourced the…
How Can You Improve Your Marketing Spending? By Brett Fox Years ago, I was fortunate enough to work with one of the smartest people I know, Ziya Boyacigiller. Ziya hired me when I joined Maxim. He was a true intellectual, almost professorial in his approach to business. I’ll never forget the interview with Ziya. Ziya…
I’ve worked with really good leaders, and I’ve worked with really bad leaders. Good leaders and bad leaders can get people to follow them because of the proximity to power. What’s the point. The better question is what traits must great leaders possess? And there are many traits you need if you want to…
Maybe the best piece of art I’ve ever seen is the musical, Hamilton. Thanks to Blossom’s insistence, I was fortunate enough to see the original cast in New York, and then see the touring cast in San Francisco. Not surprisingly, the original cast was much, much better. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe…
What Should Your Sick Policy Be? By Brett Fox I had a pretty simple policy regarding being sick: If you’re healthy you should come to work. If you’re sick, you should stay home. And I followed my sick policy as CEO as best I could. There were days when, no matter how badly I felt,…