Mark's Blog
January 4, 2023
How You Learn. You Must Learn.
Only a third of CEOs will find this a valuable essay. The other two-thirds will agree with my assessment, but will find less value. CEOs learn both before and after bad things happen. I’ve become an expert on both ways, though I prefer proactive instead of reactive learning. When I started my company, most learning… Read More
September 13, 2022
Controlling the Monkey Brain
I crafted the Fackler Five back in 2010 after 20 years of learning about leadership, especially as a CEO. Number Five is “Do not forget to work on yourself. Though fixing yourself is hard work, it makes fixing the business easier.” A week ago, I completed a 10-day silent retreat at the California Vipassana Center… Read More
February 7, 2022
Algorithms of Business – The Science and Art
I just finished listening to Ray Dalio’s book Principles. It was fascinating to get into his head. For me, the book shows how a very analytical mind figured out the algorithms for investing, but that was not the most impressive accomplishment. Dalio went on document the algorithms for management with a focus on radical transparency.… Read More
November 17, 2021
Is Ego the Enemy of Leadership or Essential?
I have a different take on ego. Though I understand the HBR article titled “Ego is the Enemy of Good Leadership”, I’d like HBR to write the corollary titled, “Ego is Essential for Good Leadership.“ Without a doubt, unchecked ego is a problem as the article explains. As a founder and CEO of a 500… Read More
September 22, 2021
Overcoming Fear of Failure
Until I was about 35 years old, my way of avoiding the fear of failure was to not try my hardest. That way if I failed, I would tell myself the failure was not because I was incapable of succeeding, but because I did not try my hardest. I can remember the moment when I… Read More
September 4, 2021
Infinite ROI
Some fellow Vistage Chairs and I just finished a conversation about the “Core Messaging” of our work. It was fascinating to hear from successful Chairs about their views on Core Messaging. For me, Vistage changed my life when I was a member. I became a better leader, a better husband/father, a better person in general. I… Read More