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On a trip away from Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor took time to talk to us at tompeters.com. He and Erik had a great conversation about his latest book, A Christmas Blizzard, and many other topics, including a note from Julie Christie. We know you'll enjoy reading his Cool Friends interview. View our Archives for past interviews.

Comments

Thanks for the brief but substantive, motivational "slap" to remind us of the crucial stuff!

Posted by Cesar at November 19, 2009 10:11 AM

Thanks for a great event! You were awesome - as always! You should add "lucky" to the list - that was a good one.

Posted by Teri Temme at November 19, 2009 10:18 AM

Is a recorded version of your presentation available?

Posted by Josh at November 19, 2009 11:25 AM

Thanks for the inspiring presentation in SF last night at the Inc awards. It was excellence in action!!

Posted by Yasmeen Assisi Rogers at November 19, 2009 2:38 PM

Josh - thanks for asking. Inc did record the event, so feel free to check with them about when it might be available.

Posted by Shelley Dolley at November 19, 2009 3:19 PM

Great post Tom! I have to admit, I like # 3 the best good accountant (I think that should be CPA). In these turbulent times, we are finding that businesses (large & small) need a trusted advisor who can be objective, has integrity, and understands the business at a fundamental level. That is what CPAs can bring to the table, whether as outside advisors / consultants, or inside as Chief Financial Officers, etc.

Posted by Tom Hood at November 19, 2009 5:11 PM

And, of course, from the past...

http://www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk/static/cs/uk/11/features/tompeters/12truths.html

Posted by g at November 20, 2009 3:08 AM

The list was obviously pitched at the audience but I'd suggest it's also a very good checklist for running your own department in Big Co, Inc.

Posted by Mark JF at November 20, 2009 4:02 AM

Tom, looks like your carefully designed hammer hit the nail on the head, based on this feedback.

Love the list.

Posted by Patrick at November 20, 2009 7:44 AM

Tom:

Thanks for taking time with our winning Camp BizSmart business plan team at the Alibaba, Inc. Magazine event wednesday night. It was awesome, and our "Tweenpreneurs" are still talking about having their picture taken with you. Local Silicon Valley investors selected their concept, mentored by Hara www.hara.com for an Apple iPhone app to track personal energy use based on it's entrepreniurial metits. But meeting you was the icing on the cake

By the way, HSM is a strategic partner for Camp BizSmart www.campbizsmart.org. They hosted our 2008 winning team at the World Innovation Forum at the Nokia Theatre in NYC. As a case study on how the team developed an sugar free water drink for kids, they were interviewed on stage by Padma Warrior,CTO at Cisco. They had a blast.

Jose Salibi Neto is a good friend of ours, and I enjoyed reading your post from 2005 about him.

Best,

Mike Gibbs
CEO
Camp BizSmart

Posted by Michael Gibbs at November 20, 2009 2:20 PM

Unfortunately, once success is achieved, the "insane" entrepreneur is evaluated as a "risk" by the stock-analysts, and so the Board dump him/her in favor of a boring, but safe, stuffed shirt.

Posted by Mike L. at November 21, 2009 6:06 AM

If the Beatles were as prolific with songs as Tom Peters is with ideas, they would have quit writing songs after their hit "I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND"

Posted by zorro at November 21, 2009 7:15 PM

Thank you for the great conversation at the end of the event about women in leadership. I very much appreciated your willingness to take time to speak with me. I continue to be inspired by your work and carry your ideas with me as I encourage women to step up to leadership where ever they are and what ever they do in their lives. And, of course, your very vocal support of women as entrepreneurs and leaders is invaluable to all women.

Posted by Barbara Mark, Ph.D. at November 22, 2009 2:34 PM

Zorro, the Beatles only wrote one song , All you need is love. They just found quite a lot of brilliantly different ways of writing it, each according to the needs of that moment.

Posted by Andrew Baines at November 23, 2009 6:28 AM

Zorro and Andrew - I guess the same can be said of the English alphabet, for example. Words have all the same vowels and consonants, but it's the arrangement of words as it relates to meaning that matters most. Of course, in business Tom has done this better than most. There is also the same amount of notes in a single scale in western music, but what matters most is how these notes are arranged in popular music and Chuck Berry did this better than most. The Beatles did what others had already done. But such is true generally; individual touch matters and the acceptance of the hearer or reader too. Culture plays its role in how we perceive what we perceive in business or music. Why we accept one or the other matters culturally too. This is played out again and again with products that come to the market before its time and artists that bud too soon. The products are then rolled out later and accepted as original when in fact it is an arrangement of the work of another. We are all builders on the work of others. The honorable thing would be to acknowledge predecessors which Tom does and the Beatles too.

I love this list, Tom. Thank you.

Posted by Judith Ellis at November 23, 2009 7:12 AM