My good friend Joe Plumeri is one of the greatest people I have met throughout my career, and it’s no surprise that he was asked to helm some of the most successful corporations in the country.
To be the CEO of both Citibank and Willis Holdings Group you need an understanding of how to lead a successful team. Recently on Project X, I got some insight from him on this concept.
A lot of companies tend to have what they think is a collaborative approach; a “think tank." Essentially you think about what you want to accomplish and you plan a strategy to reach a goal.
Joe, though, emphasizes a “do tank” approach. Instead of thinking about what you want to do, just go out there and do it!
As he always says, “Execution eats strategy for lunch," and I couldn’t agree more.
Execution eats strategy for lunch.
- Joe Plumeri
With this mindset, Joe Plumeri was able to take the Sears Tower in Chicago (at one time the world's tallest building) and change the name to the Willis Tower.
Show me a person who has great ideas, but never does anything about it. Then, show me someone who is willing to just go out and try something, even if they might fail. I’ll take the latter every single time.
“Show me 10,000 people who always complaint about the problems in the Sports Card & Autograph hobbies and I’ll show you ONE person who actually does something by discussing or even fighting the right people to fix these problems!” James McCay, nice to meet you.
I’ve lived this mentality my entire life. To be more specific in these hobbies from 1992 to present. Why? Because no one else was. So I did it FOR FREE always. Once I set a goal I’d go through blood, sweat and tears to accomplish my goals. I’d spend time in jail (even after I became very physically disabled), and refused to quit even when I became homebound and mostly bedridden. My accomplishments were vast, but almost no one even knows I exist- which is fine by me.
I never cared about personal glorification; if I did I certinly wouldn’t be doing everything I physically could since 1992 (1997 online) to rid these hobbies of as much fraud as was possible. Price Guides and hobby publications NEVER do stories about companies still currently in business, and that’s almost always my targets. I don’t wait until after someone else does the work, then do a report on what happened; which is why the Sports Card hobby really has no Hobby Educational Publications left! I was doing all the work, and they’d do the reporting (sometimes) but only after the fact. Too little, too late…
If you wait for “others” to do the work, this hobby with be swallowed up forever by greed, fraud, and mistrust: THEN THERE WILL BE NO MORE SPORTS CARD HOBBY LEFT! As for autographs, keep watchinmg those forgeries on eBay and DO NOTHING and see if third-party sellers of autographs EXIST in 10-years, or maybe even 5-years or less. That all depends on the ignorance of the people buying these very questionable 3rd party autographs. Right now the buyers will buy anything that “looks good to them.”. Based on that logic, I could make a million dollars a year if I cared to because even with my shaky hands from Myassthenia Gravis, I can still fake autographs SO WELL that PSA/DNA and JSA will still “Authenticate” most of them. That’s a sad state of affairs!!! PLEASE WAKE UP PEOPLE!