Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth®
354 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 15 hours ago - ★★★★ - 33 ratingsAlan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth® is a weekly broadcast from “The Rock Star of Consulting,” Alan Weiss, who holds forth with his best (and often most contrarian) ideas about society, culture, business, and personal growth. His 60+ books in 12 languages, and his travels to, and work in, 50 countries contribute to a fascinating and often belief-challenging 20 minutes that might just change your next 20 years.
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Episodes
Two Guys
July 03, 2024 09:00 - 8 minutes - 11.1 MBI recorded and wrote this prior to the presidential debate. When I couldn’t publish it before the debates, I was going to abandon it. But in view of what occurred, I’m publishing the recording and show notes now. In the upcoming debates, no notes will be allowed, and the moderators can mute the microphones. Moderators have had undue influence on past debates, becoming the inappropriate centers of attention. Think Meghan Kelly. It will be even easier now. One of the candidates is 78, and the...
Innovation
June 28, 2024 09:00 - 13 minutes - 18.8 MBThe only way to “coast” is when you’re going downhill. Even on a plateau, you have to pedal to keep moving. However, there is a way to “coast uphill.” To succeed, businesses must keep growing. And to keep growing, they must innovate. No business can grow simply by solving problems and “fixing” things (or, worse, blaming people). Problem-solving keeps you afloat, but it doesn’t raise the water level or get you into a boat. There are three kinds of innovation, and we speak in this session abo...
They Shoot Horses, Dont They?
June 20, 2024 09:00 - 6 minutes - 9.53 MBThey Shoot Horses, Don’t They? No, they don’t. The advent of the automobile around 1895 did not engender a huge equine genocide. We use horses today: for work, for recreation, for crowd control, for sport. Hence, the internal combustion engine is not disappearing in your lifetime, despite stupid political statements such as the recent “all cars must achieve 65 miles-per-gallon by 2031.” (Let’s also pass a resolution that there needs to be world peace by November. That should take care of th...
The Reunion
June 13, 2024 09:00 - 5 minutes - 7.49 MBOur 60th High School Reunion On the way to the reunion We’re on Amtrak on our way to our 60th high school reunion: Emerson High School, Union City, NJ. It was then and is now the most densely populated city in the country. Emerson is now a middle school, but back then it was one of two full-fledged high schools with all sports, and dances and typical teenage angst. We had about 200+ in the class. About 30 of the original class will be at the reunion, along with spouses and assorted hangers-...
The Bartenders
June 06, 2024 09:00 - 26 minutes - 36.2 MBShow Notes Mario Abbondanza and Noah Chantharangsy have been bartenders for quite a while, Mario for about a quarter century. I see them so often from the customer side of the table that I thought it would be fun to “step around the bar” with my listeners and discover what that would be like. You’ll find out that the hours are often brutal, but the job—rewarding. There’s fulfillment in helping people. And the belief that people turn to bartenders to discuss even intimate details of their li...
The Breath of Others
May 30, 2024 09:00 - 6 minutes - 11.6 MBWe claim we don’t like elites, but we eagerly follow every ridiculous and pompous movement of the British Royals. (They’re now upset about a Nigerian trip that Harry and Megan took where they were treated too much like a state visit!) We belong to air clubs, hotel clubs. We have Amex green, gold, platinum, and black cards. Hertz has a platinum service. On our recent trip to LA, we arrived and departed though Amex suites. Once upon a time, elite offerings were only open to invited, important ...
A Conversation with Doug Durand
May 23, 2024 09:00 - 29 minutes - 53.2 MBI met Doug at Merck where he worked as a sales executive and I was an external consultant. Some years later, he called me from his current pharma company and asked my advice about an ethical issue he was seeing. About five years later, he was presented with a huge (listen to find out how much) “whistleblowers award” for turning the dangerous practices in for the government to investigate and eliminate. We talk here about the courage and risks of being a whistleblower (two such people formerl...
Family Business
May 16, 2024 09:00 - 5 minutes - 9.53 MBThe old apothegm is that the first generation starts it, the second expands it, and the third ruins it. Probably not so true any more. It’s not about a mandatory spendthrift or wasteful generation. It’s more about hunger. I don’t know about you, but I grew up poor, and when I was fired as president of a consulting firm, we had relatively little money in the bank and two small kids with private schools and a wedding ahead of them. We also had elderly parents who needed our support. So I di...
Generosity
May 09, 2024 09:00 - 6 minutes - 12.8 MBThe best leaders and most successful people I’ve met also exemplify generosity. This is not an accident. “Generosity” means “giving or sharing,” and being liberal in so doing. It isn’t primarily about money, but it is about credit, recognition, time, listening, coaching, supporting, and so forth. If it’s authentic, then it’s consistent, not situational. I’ve always thought the award winners who get on stage and thank 20 people are many times those whom the people being thanked have thought o...
A Great Education
May 02, 2024 09:00 - 9 minutes - 17 MBI was required to engage in a “liberal arts” education at Rutgers. That meant that I had to have credits in languages over two or three years, science every year, history for two years, and English for two years. Although I majored in Political Science, because I thought I was going to law school (!), these other classes were required. The length and amount of education is far less important than the quality and depth of education. A lot of people attend school (sometimes for far more than f...
A Conversation with Al McCree
April 25, 2024 09:00 - 29 minutes - 54.2 MBAl McCree is a former fighter pilot who has flown 196 missions! He is an executive in the music business and has managed all kinds of talent. He’s also worked with top business executives. We talk about the differences and similarities of combat flying and the competition of the music business and the challenges of changing hearts and minds in a business setting. Ironically Al thinks music can be a distraction at work, even though we see so many people with ear buds in all kinds of workplace...
How I'd Change Education
April 18, 2024 09:00 - 11 minutes - 21.3 MBPrimary and secondary 1 End the “warehousing” of children • Chronology is silly and hundreds of years old • Socialization is important, but not at this cost • Move kids as they learn • Measure learning by outcomes: application, tests, etc. 2. Stop defaulting to college educations • Prepare for a range of employment opportunities • I sat next to too many duds in college • Teach life skills: civics, account management, do-it-yourself repairs (remember shop and home economics) • Growing tenden...
Conspiracies
April 11, 2024 09:00 - 10 minutes - 18.4 MBNot just about the government or the banks or big Pharma, but even sports when YOUR team loses! “The refs were crooked, it was rigged.” 9/11 was an “inside” job, and we never landed on the moon. Key elements: belief in a pattern underlying the event; provocative and deliberate plans; coalitions or groups are involved, even disparate ones; there is a clear and present danger; secrecy that is hard to justify or believe by non-conspirators. Groups blamed are typical targets: wealthy, politicia...
Pressure
April 04, 2024 09:00 - 9 minutes - 16.8 MBThe more pressure you feel, the more your talent is “masked” and the worse you perform. You control pressure. You can’t allow yourself to feel “judged” every time you speak, write, or perform. And when and if you do need feedback, never accept it from unsolicited sources, which is always for the sender’s benefit, not yours. Seek solicited feedback from trusted people you respect. It’s fine to feel anticipation and eagerness to proceed, which should heighten your performance, but not fear an...
Skechers
March 28, 2024 09:00 - 10 minutes - 18.6 MBDo you need shoes that you can put on without touching them, without bending down, without even sitting down? Barring those whose illnesses or conditions prohibit bending, just how lazy are the rest of us becoming? Skechers sells some shoes which have a patented device near the top of the heel that allows you to slip into them without manipulating the shoe: no shoehorn, no wiggling, no close proximity at all. (Of course, you have to have the mental capacity to know your toes go in first.) I ...
Control
March 21, 2024 09:00 - 11 minutes - 20.8 MBSome things we can control, some we can influence, and some we can neither control nor influence. It’s important to understand the differences, and it’s vital to never cede control nor underestimate our abilities to control. Facing a prospect for the first time, what do you think you can control, influence, or affect neither? (Listen to the podcast to hear the examples.) Do you tend to surrender control because the prospect is powerful or wealthy? Do you sacrifice personal time, change impor...
Electric
March 14, 2024 09:00 - 11 minutes - 21.5 MBWe’re going to need tens of millions of electric charging stations to satisfy goals for electric cars in six years set by the government. It looks like we might have 500,000. Electric cars might represent zero carbon footprint improvement. The mining of lithium is dirty and expensive and requires a lot of energy. Disposal of the batteries presents similar problems. Fires are a danger and are harder to extinguish. Hertz is returning or cancelling orders for a thousand electric vehicles bec...
Quantity Over Quality
March 07, 2024 10:00 - 4 minutes - 8.76 MBI send out • Daily video • Monthly video • Weekly podcast • Monthly newsletter • Weekly newsletter • Blog 7 days publicly • Blog 7 days to community • Post on X 7 times per week • Post on LinkiedIn 3 times per week • Send out monthly promo piece That’s 1,651 potential contact points with clients and prospects annually That’s why I receive unsolicited referrals and purchases People can always unsubscribe, I’m never offended How long does this take me: Total is three hours a week ...
The Post-Pandemic Blues
February 29, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes - 13.4 MBThe pandemic is a milestone event. Even if the medical effects have been ameliorated (which is debatable), the social impact is huge and continuing. Some of the evidence: • Some people continuing to wear masks, which also serve as a “warning” to others, and is an extreme behavior if one isn’t otherwise medically compromised. Covid transmission interpersonally would require someone in very close proximity for an extended period of time. Also, masks prompt people to keep touching their faces, ...
A Conversation with Jeffrey Magee
February 22, 2024 10:00 - 32 minutes - 59 MBJeff is the publisher of Performance Magazine which has featured interviews of and articles from people as diverse as Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Shaquille O’Neal, Sir Richard Branson, Joan Rivers, and Larry King, among hundreds of others. In this conversation we talk about the effectiveness, and lack thereof, of the media; the major issues on the minds of executives post-pandemic; how to convince people to accept an interview even if they haven’t heard of you or the publication; and why Jef...
Rudy Giuliani
February 15, 2024 10:00 - 11 minutes - 21.3 MBI’ve met Rudy Giuliani. We belonged to the same cigar club in New York (which has since lost its lease). Those were the days when he was still in the afterglow of “America’s Mayor” from the way he led after 9/11. And those were the days when crime in New York was way down. He and the police commissioner, Bill Bratton, instituted tough approaches to “minor” violations, believing they would lead to arrests and halting of major violations. So there were penalties for blocking intersections (toda...
A Conversation with Noah Kagan II
February 08, 2024 10:00 - 35 minutes - 65.2 MBHow do you create a million dollar idea and begin earning on it in one weekend? Noah Kagan is one of my buddies and a guy I greatly admire. He’s founded and sold several multi-million dollar enterprises—and readily admits to his share of failures, as well—and he’s put together an approach, summarized in Million Dollar Weekend, which is a clear recipe for success. I know about how to make millions of dollars in consulting, for example. Noah has accelerated that process for most of you. He m...
Irritations
February 01, 2024 10:00 - 5 minutes - 9.44 MBIsn’t Starbucks just a tad affected when the have “baristas” and sizes like grande and venti and trenta and Huey, Dewey, and Louie? Is it possible not to want to body slam a “barista” who informs you they don’t like to put whole milk in a cappuccino because of “poor frothing”? I saw a couple enter a diner for breakfast carrying takeout Starbucks coffee. That level of self-absorption can cause implosion. When it’s ten degrees with a wind-chill of minus 15, why do women in skirts and dresses h...
Discipline
January 25, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes - 13.1 MBOne of the major issues with a lack of success is that people don’t hold themselves accountable. They fail to meet deadlines, fail to fulfill obligations. They put more work into making excuses than they would have doing the actual work. The old “dog ate my homework” is now “there was traffic,” “we have child care issues,” “my internet was down.” There are no consequences for our failing our own accountabilities, and no rewards for meeting them. I’ll get around to it, unless I decide not to...
Suits
January 18, 2024 10:00 - 10 minutes - 18.7 MBIf you want to see writing exhaustion, this is the series. After two pretty decent seasons, the show devolved through the ensuing six as if the writers had become deprived of oxygen. Every time someone knocks on a door, the response is, “What are you doing here?” It’s not, “Good to see you,” or “How can I help you?”, or “Are you lost?” People discussing matters in a private office are interrupted with a solution or dramatic new information by a colleague simply traipsing in from the halls. ...
Healthcare
January 11, 2024 10:00 - 8 minutes - 14.8 MB• We’re seeing huge changes in healthcare. • About 25% of patients used telehealth last year, far exceeding the 5% who accessed care this way before the pandemic. • Pharmacies with physicians present (like pet stores with vets present) • Physicians in private practice greatly reduced. • The share of doctors who worked in practices wholly owned by physicians fell from 60.1% to 46.7% from 2012 to 2022. • More people seeing nurse practitioners • From 2016 to 2021, the number of primary care ph...
How to Improve Your Profits
January 04, 2024 10:00 - 11 minutes - 21.2 MB• Cut your expenses: virtual assistants, subscription software, subcontracting (even in the Philippines). • Move work to the client. • Focus on advisory work, not project work. • Increase number of sales. • Increase amount of sales. • Increase duration of client relationships. • Increase solicited referrals. • Create community evangelism. • Produce new products and services for existing clients. • Reduce marketing expenses. • Reduce time waste (internet). • Stop overdelivering/providing what ...
Overdone
December 28, 2023 10:00 - 12 minutes - 23.7 MBWhen you have a great talent on stage, do we really need dancers, other singers, flashing lights, and magic tricks? What does Starbucks gain giving us all those choices in its own strange language? Have you ever noticed how visitors from Europe are astonished at the size and number of our restaurant dinner courses? Have you ever tried to quickly find something in a car’s owner’s manual? Can you read all the menu options at Dunkin’ Donuts drive through window before the person in the car behi...
Lowering Higher Education
December 21, 2023 10:00 - 8 minutes - 15.6 MB•The American Council on Education reports that 33% of universities and colleges have female presidents. • In the Ivy League it’s six of eight. Several for the first time ever. • The three women in front of the congressional committee were clearly over their heads, ill prepared, stunned, and soon reversed some of their testimony. • We’re focused on identity, not talent. • Boards used to seek academic excellence and a track record of outstanding leadership. • Now they want the first woman, o...
Profanity
December 14, 2023 10:00 - 6 minutes - 11 MBI find the use of profanity is the last resort for the inarticulate. It’s supposed to be “daring” and “shocking” but it’s actually just lazy. I sometimes surf through the comedy channels and hear standup comedians simply repeating m…..f….. over and over. There is no intellect there, and intellect and pain are actually the basis for almost all real comedy. Putting profanity on a book cover is boring, but it beats trying to come up with an appealing title. But most alarmingly, it’s simply ente...
Cultural Curiosities
December 07, 2023 10:00 - 12 minutes - 23.5 MBHave you ever wondered about how other people might see this society? The proliferation of “tip jars” when virtually no service is performed; the intense scrutiny of head injuries in football, while players who make great plays deliberately bang their heads together; cars that can go almost four times the speed limit, manufactured and sold despite it. Why do we smuggle dogs into restaurants, refuse to merge in traffic, and think AI will become sentient and rule us when we still have to unplu...
Devolution
November 30, 2023 10:00 - 8 minutes - 15.7 MBThe opposite of evolution is devolution. Merely moving forward in time chronologically doesn’t guarantee higher standards, better performance, or improvement. Our speech has declined. People support this, claiming that speech must “evolve.” But does evolution include mindless, ubiquitous profanity, unintelligible statements, and confusing grammar? The arts haven’t made great strides, and on television and in the theater we see a procession of diluted revivals and low quality spinoffs. Athl...
True to Yourself
November 23, 2023 10:00 - 12 minutes - 23 MBWhy do people immediately leaving a church service proceed to cut you off in the parking lot or, immediately before it, park in “no parking” fire zones? Don’t you think Bernie Madoff’s entire family figured out he was crooked and simply ignored what they knew? Politicians curry favor with popular positions but then feel free to change positions once elected and safe. The pandemic was, I believe, dishonestly manipulated by politicians and the medical community which led to more illness than n...
Higher Education
November 16, 2023 10:00 - 10 minutes - 19.1 MBAccording to Google, the average college/university tuition in the US is $26,000 a year, but they range up to nearly $90,000 per year. We know this, these are statistics. Philosophy majors in the US make an average of $62,000 per year. The same for history majors. English majors average $56,000. All teachers in public schools average $65,000 (private schools $50,000). We know this, these are statistics. Apart from a very wealthy family supporting you, how much debt can you incur and pay off (...
Screed Part Three
November 09, 2023 10:00 - 18 minutes - 33.3 MBWhat are the major concerns of leadership in the near future? • Managing the transient worker • Metrics for true performance and not “presence” • The 40 hour week myth • The environment for intrinsic motivation • Voids of personal fulfillment • The loss of travel • Volunteerism • Abandoning guilt for not adhering to archaic work standards • Pushing accountability down and over to the individual • Triaging customers • Finding honest and authentic communications • Embracing true diversity not...
Immediate Gratification
November 02, 2023 09:00 - 8 minutes - 16.2 MB• Gratification is pleasure • Immediate means done at once • Why do we seek this: ° To avoid delay in important matters personally/professionally. Evolutionary need for food, protection ° A fear of opportunity lost ° Impulsivity. Especially as we age. If not now, when? ° Intellectual curiosity. ° Poverty, desperation ° Boredom. Here’s a new shiny object. ° The alternative of long hard work (I can make money selling cars now, being an engineer would take six years.) • The trouble is that...
Overhead Overboard
October 26, 2023 09:00 - 12 minutes - 22.9 MBHere’s how I saved the entire $450,000 tuition bill for my kids by not having an office. I’ve never needed nor desired employees for my strong, seven-figure business. I want help that’s “in and out” very quickly, no long-term obligations. I use very good outside firms because I believe in investing money to save money. My worth isn’t based on “virtual assistants” whom I find virtually worthless. Observe the “total days to cash” dynamic, and improve your cash flow by collecting early, not l...
Bonanza
October 19, 2023 09:00 - 8 minutes - 15.8 MBBonanza: A situation or event that creates a sudden increase in wealth, good fortune, or profits. It was also a TV show in the heyday of westerns, and ran from 1959 to 1973, second only to Gunsmoke in longevity. It’s still shown in reruns on a variety of cable channels. By accident, I happened to see one the other day with a disclaimer on the screen, citing racial stereotyping on the show and to be aware of it. My first reaction was that this racial and gender stereotyping was all-too-commo...
The Second Smartest Guy in the Room
October 12, 2023 09:00 - 6 minutes - 12.3 MBThe Second Smartest Guy in the Room by Alan Weiss
A Conversation with Barry Banther
October 05, 2023 09:00 - 29 minutes - 54.8 MBWe are in the midst of the largest transgenerational shift in wealth in the history of the country. Part of this are the maturing retirement funds created under the Reagan administration, and part is the succession of small business owners from founders to the second (or third) generations. Barry Banther has worked with hundreds of family businesses, from $50 million to $500 million in revenues. He creates strategies for continuity and succession, from family ownership to outright sales with...
Virtue Signaling
September 28, 2023 09:00 - 10 minutes - 19.5 MBIs an economically disadvantaged kid better off because of an insistence on how many black film editors, or baseball executives, or executive chefs receive awards? Is climate change really helped by expensive legislation that kills jobs and causes inefficiencies? (The prohibition of gas-powered anything.) Virtue signaling is the public expression of opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one’s good character or social conscience or the moral correctness of one’s position on a partic...
A Conversation with Jeff Herman
September 21, 2023 09:00 - 26 minutes - 48.3 MBJeff has been representing me for over 30 years, and was responsible for acquiring publishers (McGraw-Hill, Wiley, Macmillan, AMACOM, et. al.) for my four best-sellers, including the 30-year, 6-edition Million Dollar Consulting. He is responsible for thousands of published works and hundreds of authors’ happiness. For example, he represented the famous Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. We talk of the takeover of publishing by large venture capital firms. We discuss why hard copy books h...
Proportionality
September 13, 2023 17:59 - 6 minutes - 12.1 MBI received a letter from someone who had subscribed to one of my newsletters for $250 annually. He was late, but I accepted him, and he demanded—not requested—that I send him all the issues he has missed. I did that and he complained that they weren’t always in the same format, although I think that was a matter of his equipment, not mine. Now he’s complained that he didn’t get the final (August) issue and went on to lecture me about responsibilities, living up to promises, what constitut...
Censorship
September 07, 2023 09:00 - 10 minutes - 18.7 MBElin Hilderbrand has a new book called Five Star Weekend. In my view, it’s awful, not at all up to her earlier work, predictable, with paper-thin characters and a dumb plot. You may disagree with me, most people do according to the reviews on Amazon. But I posted a very critical review. Amazon accepted it. However, after accepting it, someone clearly complained, because I received this obtuse communication today: I never mentioned “authenticity” (in a book??). I’m a veteran reviewer on Amazo...
I'm Old Fashioned
August 31, 2023 09:00 - 7 minutes - 13.7 MBAn “old fashioned” is a fabulous cocktail. The official origin of the drink is still heavily debated. While the Waldorf-Astoria in New York by way of the Pendennis Club, a private social club in Louisville, KY has been crested as the birthplace of the cocktail as we know it today, the publication of Modern American Drinks, by George Kappeler, in 1895 mentions the recipe for the Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail that Simonson describes as the evolutionary link between the whiskey cocktail and Old...
The Bridge
August 24, 2023 09:00 - 9 minutes - 18.2 MBIn 1973, D. Keith Mano wrote his only science fiction book, The Bridge. It takes place in 2035, over 60 years since its original publication, but only 12 years from today. It is about radical environmentalism run amok with a “green” socialist government. The government decides to give earth back to nature, after already protecting all animal and plant life, but the fact that we destroy microbes every time we breathe is the final straw. Cars have been eliminated, people return to the fiel...
Breathing Space
August 17, 2023 09:00 - 10 minutes - 19 MBWhen we see an empty ballroom, or stadium, or theater, we can see unlimited possibilities if we have any creative juices at all. We can stage performances, meetings, athletic events, entertainment, networking opportunities, and so forth. But then we think of our fictitious “business life” and “personal life” duality, and we bifurcate that huge space with a wall right down the middle, a line of demarcation with separate pursuits on each side. And then we create meetings, obligations, failure...
Unsolicited Feedback
August 10, 2023 09:00 - 8 minutes - 16.4 MBLet me harshly deal here with people who provide you with feedback you didn’t ask for, don’t require, and can’t use. That applies to feedback which is too positive as well as too negative. We talk here about the trivialists, the hypocrites, the projectionists, and the general pains in the ass. Those who claim the only thing to do with feedback is to consider it are directing you toward the life of the ping pong balls or pickle balls being whacked back and forth. You’ll hear some of my sta...
A Conversation with Seth Magaziner
August 03, 2023 09:00 - 26 minutes - 48.3 MBSeth Magaziner and I met when he ran for, and served as, Rhode Island State Treasurer for eight years. I asked that we make this conversation non-partisan, to which he agreed, and as always was gracious with his time and accessibility. We talk about his view of the three biggest issues he sees facing America: climate change, income and opportunity inequality, and the rise of non-democratic movements inside and outside of the country. He talks about the House of Representatives as the pures...
Meaning
July 27, 2023 09:00 - 5 minutes - 10.4 MBWhat do you mean? What do we mean? What is “meaning”? We seem to be engaged existentially in some search for meaning. The Beatles were famous for a spiritual odyssey with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. We seek such spiritual guidance in many (often strange) forms: sweat tents, therapy, 12-step programs, trodding on hot coals. The meaning in our lives needn’t be religious or spiritual, but one would think it’s above and beyond the trite and every day, sort of a North Star providing guidance. Yet it’...