WRITTEN STORY ARCHIVES
These business-related stories are from my long running blog, The Saturday Morning Post, stories I write about life, family, friends and work. The whole, growing collection can be found at HankFrazee.com.
Zora
Zora “The wise man in the storm prays God not for safety from danger but for deliverance from fear.” Ralph Waldo Emerson When I was nineteen, I was a busboy at The Magic Pan Restaurant in the Woodland Hills Promenade. They did quite a lunch business, and we were...
Your Excuse is Invalid
Your Excuse is Invalid "Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it." Chinese Proverb It's easy to feel sorry for ourselves, to complain that it's too difficult or unfair, or would take too long, or any number of other excuses....
Workday Destressers
Workday Destressers "Being busy and being productive are two different things." Unknown Sometimes my workday gets very hectic, especially when I just throw myself into the mosh pit of constant activity. So when the end of the day arrives, I'm wound up and have a...
Work Walking
Work Walking "Sitting is the new smoking." Anne Hathaway in The Intern If you haven't seen The Intern, which came out in 2015, I recommend it. It's a terrific movie, with wisdom, experience, and heart, and you can even watch it with your kids. But you be the judge of...
What Do You Want Now?
What Do You Want Now? "God, please teach me to speak (and email) the right words at the right time with the right tone, so I can live in peace and happiness." Anonymous I regularly communicate with several hundred people over email, and I’ve been doing this for years....
What’s Up?
What's Up? "Give and you will receive." Luke 6:38 "Give and you will receive" is the central concept of my book Referral Upgrade and is also what makes it work. I tend to think that the idea behind this quotation is that when we give to others, we receive favor from...
Under His Wing
Under His Wing "The most important of the Lord’s work that you will ever do will be the work you do within the walls of your own home." Harold B. Lee This photo was taken in the summer of 1961 at Incline Lake, seven miles above Lake Tahoe and my favorite place on...
Trust
Trust "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." Corrie ten Boom This is the reason people buy from you. They believe in you and without it you are sunk. And trust comes down to who you are as a person and who you are to other people too. Do you put...
Tough Decisions
Tough Decisions "Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement." Will Rogers In business and in life, we come across lots of opportunities. Most of the time, they are fairly straightforward. Sometimes, they’re not. And when that's the...
Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods "Everything begins with an idea." Earl Nightingale My friend, John, is an accountant by training, and, by all appearances, he looks and acts like a normal C.P.A. But he is a pop culture trendsetter. I discovered this one day, when we met for lunch at the...
Thinking of You
Thinking of You "If you're worried about what other people think of you, just remember this, most people are more concerned with their slightest headache than with news of your impending death." Norman Vincent Peale People generally don't notice things. If you had a...
Three Magic Words
Three Magic Words "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." G.K. Chesterton When I started to get some traction in selling life insurance in my first few years, newer agents would come into my office sometimes to lament. It was too hard, they didn't know anybody,...
The World’s Second Best Referral Method
The World’s Second Best Referral Method “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Seneca Years ago, I invented a very effective and very simple referral method that worked nearly every time I used it. I stumbled on it over time working with dentists...
The Window That Opened the Door
The Window That Opened the Door "Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today." Tim Fargo While in between quarters at UCLA, I had a sudden interest in learning to make stained glass windows. In reality, it wasn’t all that sudden, as I had been wanting to do it...
The Three Steps
The Three Steps "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." Abraham Lincoln Have you ever noticed that some people can be difficult to get along with? Well, I have, and some of them are related to me. For instance,...
The Question
The Question "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Robert Frost Out of the blue one day, when I was about twelve, my grandmother asked me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Without...
The Storyteller
The Storyteller "Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for." Lawrence Block A long while ago, before I was married, I flew to Texas to give a speech,...
The Question
The Question "Follow your dreams. They know the way." Kobi Yamada I was playing golf one day, with a guy I only met once. Nelson was a friend of a friend. We were all planning to play together that day, but at the last minute, our mutual friend couldn’t make it, so it...
The Promise
The Promise "A joy that's shared is a joy made double." John Ray My Aunt Janice and Uncle Gordon had five kids between them. So, when my cousin Hawley was born, they hired a nanny to help out. And oh, what a nanny she was! Mrs. Edna Duvall was her full name, though we...
The Oldest Guy in the Yoga Class
The Oldest Guy in the Yoga Class "With old friends, you've got your whole life in common." Lyle Lovett I met Dick Kelsey when I was fifteen. He was forty-seven and had just moved in around the corner with his wife Jane and their kids. You could have knocked me over...
The Name Game
The Name Game "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." William Shakespeare Well, it turns out there actually is quite a lot to a name. No doubt, you have had the same experience as I had at one of my daughter’s sporting...
The Marathon
The Marathon "Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it." Danny Kaye One day, hanging out with a few friends in my early thirties, I asked them a question. "How would you like to do something you can tell your grandkids about?" When they looked at...
The Long and Winding Road
The Long and Winding Road "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you imagined." Henry David Thoreau My longtime friend John, and his dear wife Michele, moved north to Morro Bay about ten years ago to enjoy a slower pace of daily life. John...
The Gift of You
The Gift of You "Nothing you do for a child is ever wasted." Garrison Keillor Now, let me say this right up front. What I am about to suggest to you is very powerful, so only do this if you are going to do it with a sincere motive of giving. Having said that, I have...
The Leap
The Leap "If it's both terrifying and amazing, you should definitely pursue it." Erada Svetlana On one of my family's Model A trips that took place over many summers, we went to the spectacular Monument Valley in northern Arizona. Many of my cousins, friends, aunts,...
The Gift
The Gift "Young people need something stable to hang on to — a culture connection,a sense of their own past, a hope for their own future. Most of all,they need what grandparents can give them." Jay Kesler My good friend Matt Davis told me a story a long while back...
The Check
The Check "They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel." Carl W. Buehner I don’t know when this started, but I know it went on for a lifetime. My dad, Harry, and his brother, John, were close. They pulled pranks together, loved...
The Curse of the Bambino
The Curse of the Bambino “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” Babe Ruth For years, I’ve stood accused. So today, let’s set the record straight. Babe Ruth was sold for $125,000 to the New York Yankees on January 5, 1920, by Boston Red Sox owner, Harry...
The Buffett Test
The Buffet Test "Regardless of the numbers, I never work with anyone I don't like, trust, or respect.” Warren Buffett When I first read Warren Buffett’s quotation above, I realized that I had been putting up with a lot of baloney for a long time in order to make...
The Battery Test
The Battery Test “Does it charge my batteries or does it drain ‘em?" Harry Shiavone The Screen Tests described in these three successive posts illustrate an easy way to help you identify the best people and opportunities for you. The beautiful thing is that the...
The Agency Holiday Party
The Agency Holiday Party "If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees." Khalil Gibran When they think you might make it in the insurance business, they send you to career school for a week of training. I was a...
The 1988 World Series
The 1988 World Series "You know, we just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening." Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, Field of Dreams Thirty-six years ago this month, I took my dad to a baseball game, not unlike last night's...
Staying Out of Trouble
Staying Out of Trouble "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience — well, that comes from poor judgment!" John W. Lang If the quotation above is not one of the great truisms, I don't know what is. This is so in nearly every aspect of life, and particularly...
Snake Eyes
Snake Eyes "Be sincere, be brief, be seated." Franklin D. Roosevelt My dad and Dick Jappe were great friends. They met as newbie pharmaceutical reps in the mid-fifties when both went to work for the Stuart Company, the maker of Mylanta, Mylicon, and other products. My...
Road Rage
Road Rage "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" George Carlin I don’t know if you have noticed this, but some of our fellow drivers can get a little tense out there when things don’t go...
Relax
Relax "The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat." Jules Renard This is a picture of Roady, our beloved European Burmese, doing what he did best. Roady came to us, along with Tika, who is featured in my post “Trust.” We rescued them through my sister, Mary Ellen, and...
Regret Not!
Regret Not! "The retrospectoscope has 20/20 vision." Mike Bromberg, D.D.S. I don't know about you, but I used to spend a lot of my time regretting things I had done or hadn't done. Ok, I still do that...but not as much. That changed long ago when I was having lunch...
Press On
Press On Some things are hard to improve upon, as is this advice from Calvin Coolidge. Every truly successful person history shares this characteristic. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful...
Plan to Succeed
Plan to Succeed "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Abraham Lincoln One of my mentors, Dan Sullivan, founder of the Strategic Coach, says that one hour of planning is worth ten hours of activity. I love that and...
Persistence
Persistence “There is nothing impossible to him who will try.” Alexander the Great I’ve noticed something about many people, including myself. We allow ourselves to be distracted by our own negative self-talk. An antidote to this is to bring your mind back to your...
Persist
Persist "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson When I first began in business, I was as green as they get. I went through all kinds of training, licensing, and study, but it was a long while...
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost "What hath night to do with sleep?" John Milton Back when I used to golf more regularly, I would occasionally go on a trip with a group for two or three days at a nice course nearby. Several years ago, we went up to Santa Barbara and stayed in the...
Our Hidden Customers
Our Hidden Customers "Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again, and bring their friends." Walt Disney When we think of our very best customers, specific images come to mind. And it is unlikely that when we do this, we think of our "hidden customers."...
ODCTMW
ODCTMW "To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it." Mother Teresa I always knew I wanted to get married when I grew up. I thought about it a lot. Over time, I began to think there must be something wrong with me, or I would have found her by now, all...
No Whining
No Whining “Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now.” Mattie Stepanek How much of our time and energy do we spend complaining about circumstances and other people? Well, I know every moment I spend doing that is a waste of energy- my...
My Dad
My Dad "To understand a man, you must know his memories." Anthony Quayle My father, Harry Frazee Jr., passed away in 2015 and would have been 105 this year. He and my mom were married for sixty-eight years, and he loved her dearly. They were great parents to us, and I...
Mrs. Winston’s Green Grocery
Mrs. Winston's Green Grocery "Loyal customers, they don't just come back, they don't simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you.” Chip Bell When I saw this sign in Mrs. Winston's Green Grocery, which, by the way has the best salad bar in...
Meeting Your Heroes
Meeting Your Heroes "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men." Roald Dahl We all have heroes. Sometimes, we are lucky enough to meet them and still admire them after the meeting. I met two of mine on the same day, when I was in high school, and...
Making a Difference
Making a Difference “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.” Anonymous When you meet my good friend Patrick Finn, you instantly know that he is the kind of person who knows why we are here--to help one another. This year, Patrick has dedicated his...
Lost in the Woods
Lost in the Woods "It ain't over till it's over." Yogi Berra Mr. Black received the land, nearly eight hundred acres, as partial payment on a real estate deal he made in the thirties. As a kid, I thought he must not have been too happy about it, as it was just...
Listening
Listening "Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens." Jimi Hendrix Though I was not a huge Jimi Hendrix fan, it's hard to deny his virtuosity. And I just love this quotation. Having spent most of my career in sales, I have become aware over the years that the less I talk, the...
Life Changing Words
Life Changing Words "If we could see ourselves as others do, the first thing we would need would be an introduction." Mark Twain When I was a kid, Monty's Steakhouse was the place to go when we were celebrating or when someone came in from out of town. Like many...
Life Is Good
Life is Good "Do What You Love. Love What You Do." The Life is Good Company This is my mom and dad, Harry and Mary Frazee, in their element. Their passion was buying, restoring, collecting, and selling antiques. They absolutely loved it, and everyone in our family has...
Just Rest
Just Rest "People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one." Leo Burke Sometimes I have a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep, and the reason for it is almost always the same. I had a nonstop day packed with mental activity, and my mind is just on....
It Can Be Done!
It can be done! "Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, I'm possible." Audrey Hepburn Who says it can't be done? The people who aren't doing it. And the idea that something cannot be done is mostly an illusion anyway. Don't believe it. Here's a tiny sampling of...
Integrity
Integrity "Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way." Aristotle Customers are often suspicious of salespeople, especially those they've just met. You likely have experienced this yourself. Many think that salespeople will say anything...
I need sleep…now!
I need sleep...now! "To sleep, perchance to dream..." William Shakespeare Years ago, I asked my good friend Guy Bond if he had a roommate for a meeting we would both be attending. He replied succinctly, "I'm old enough to have my own room." This struck me as very...
How to Sell Anything to Anyone
How to Sell Anything to Anyone "We are here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know." W.H. Auden My name is Hank, and I am a salesperson. And so are my doctor, lawyer and accountant. In my book, selling is persuading people to take...
Humility
Humility "Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right." Ezra Taft Benson Thomas Jefferson said, "If you are upset with someone count to ten, if you are really upset with someone count to one hundred." On the other hand, Mark Twain...
How to Get Rid of Stuff
How to Get Rid of Stuff “Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Albert Einstein Well, it’s a whole new year. And maybe you’re like me, and you love getting rid of stuff that is no longer useful. Or...
How To Refer Someone
How to Refer Someone to His or Her Very Best Clients “My father said there are two kinds of people in the world: givers and takers. The takers may eat better, but the givers sleep better.” Marlo Thomas Uh, shouldn’t that title read “How to be referred to your very...
How To Meditate
How To Meditate "The mind should be allowed some relaxation, that it may return to its work all the better for the rest." Seneca the Younger We are passing through challenging times. And sometimes we get so busy that we don’t take a moment to just chill out. When I am...
Golf Is Fun!
Golf is Fun! "Golf is a nice walk spoiled." Mark Twain Ok, golf can be a pain in the neck, that's true. But it is also fun when I remember the following: That it affords me the camaraderie of my friends. When I manage to have fun playing, even when not playing well....
Gifted Children
Gifted Children "Do something today that your future self will thank you for." Sean Patrick Flanery You are gifted. You were born that way. Not only that, but you have so many gifts, talents and abilities that, when blended with your personality, experiences and...
Get On the Jet!
"If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting." Stephen Covey A longtime friend of mine loves to play golf, and he has a great business that he built one client at a time. It's not a glamourous business, but it is a good business that...
Four Simple Email Rules
Four Simple Email Rules "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." Will Rogers Never have an attitude when writing an email. When we have an attitude in writing an email two things happen. The likelihood that the person on the other end will want to help us...
Forgiveness
Forgiveness "Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness." H. Jackson Brown Sometimes I get angry, more than I would like to be, which is not at all. And usually my anger is directed at someone else, rather...
Diapers to Diplomas
"The most important work you or I will ever do, is within the wall of our own homes." Harold B. Lee It's been a long, fast road with three kids in three separate schools. And yet, it seems like a short distance between diapers and diplomas. In two months, all three...
Charlie and Henry
Charlie and Henry "To get an elementary grasp of the game of golf, a human must learn, by endless practice, a continuous and subtle series of highly unnatural movements, involving about sixty-four muscles, that result in a seemingly natural swing, taking two seconds...
Character
Character "Reputation is for time; character is for eternity." J.B. Gough My dad passed away ten years ago, and I miss him and think of him often. I was reminded about the number of people who responded to the post I wrote about him and thought I would reprint it here...
Catch That Plane!
Catch That Plane! "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." Albert Einstein Last week, I headed to LAX to catch an early morning flight to Austin, Texas. En route, I suddenly remembered that they’ve been remodeling American Airlines Terminal...
Can One Person Make a Difference?
Can One Person Make a Difference? "I was in prison, and you visited me." Matthew 25:36 A young man on the wrong path sat in a cell in San Quentin. His drunken, failed burglary of a small cafe in Bakersfield had landed him there. Another young man, once a rising star,...
Big Dreams
Big Dreams "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined." Henry David Thoreau This is one of my favorite quotes. I have big dreams, and I bet you do too. Here is a formula that I use every day to go confidently in the direction of my...
Big Case-itus
Big Case-itus "There is no substitute for activity." Jim Aaron You've heard the cliché about the danger of having too many irons in the fire. And to a degree this is true. In our busy world, we can easily have too much going on in too many areas. I'm very focused in...
Begin with the end in mind
"Begin with the end in mind." Stephen R. Covey Is this among the best advice ever given on succeeding at just about anything? When we begin with no end in mind, we are sailing out of the port with no destination. Beginning with the end in mind gives us a target for...
Before We Say “Goodnight”
Before We Say “Goodnight” “Anyone who thinks the art of conversation is dead, ought to tell a child to go to bed.” Robert Gallagher I know you love your kids, but have you considered telling them bedtime stories about your life and family? It’s easy to do and you can...
Artful Negotiation
Artful Negotiation "The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning." Mark Twain "Can you do any better?" The first time I heard those words, I was seventeen. I...
A Three-Hour Tour
A Three-Hour Tour “Unexpected things happen in life more often than you expect.” Plautus Several years ago, my wife and I went on a business trip down to Newport Beach for a few days with our friends Matt and Jeri, Randy and Suzanne. We stayed at a beautiful hotel...
A Tale of Two Customers
A Tale of Two Customers "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Lao Tzu When in college, the idea occurred to me that, just for fun, I would like to make stained glass windows. Ok, the truth is there was a girl I was interested in who had...
A Subtle Influence
A Subtle Influence "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." Aesop When I was a kid, my grandmother, Vera Hawley McMurrin, lived about a mile away from me. She was a whiz at math and English; as a young woman, she had been the bookkeeper for her...
A Single Push-Up
A Single Push-Up "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Walt Disney My friend Lee Brower has a unique fitness goal. Every day, he puts on his gym shorts with a plan to do a single push-up, because he knows that if he does one push-up, he will do...
A Short Story About the King
A Short Story About the King "The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done." Arnold Palmer The first person to win the Masters four times was Arnold Palmer. With ninety-two career victories, he is rightly considered...
A Man You Can Count On
A Man You Can Count On "Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31 When we were about eighteen, my cousin John and I went to Shaver Lake to go camping with a couple friends. One friend’s dad had a camper truck that served as our base for three days in a remote...
A Man of His Word
A Man of His Word “Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr. When I started in the insurance business, I knew nothing about insurance. But gradually, through the help and guidance of many...
A Man For Others
A Man For Others "Anytime you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on Earth." Roberto Clemente I don't recall seeing Roberto Clemente play baseball, but I probably have, because I have been a baseball fan...
A Giving Nature
A Giving Nature "It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves." Sir Edmund Hillary Early on in our marriage, my wife, Liz, and I took a trip to Carmel, California, one of the most romantic places ever. There is something in the air, or water, or trees in Carmel...
A Brilliant Idea!
A Brilliant Idea! "The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas." Linus Pauling What is a brilliant idea that you can use to help your very best clients and referral sources move towards their best life going forward? I've seen lots of ideas that look...
Little Rex
Little Rex "Wake up. Be awesome!” Heather Dietel How high can you jump? That’s not a question we usually ask ourselves, but I found out just that, when I was twelve years old. My Aunt Janice offered to pay my cousin and me to paint her barn. We jumped at the...
The Greeting
The Greeting “They will forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Carl W. Buehner I grew up in the sixties in Tarzana, on a cul-de-sac with fourteen houses, twenty-four parents, thirty kids, and loads of dogs, cats, fish and lizards,...
Teaching Your Family to Hug
Teaching Your Family to Hug "It's not what we have in our life, but who we have in our life that counts." J.M. Laurence When I first began to succeed in the insurance business, I was thrilled to qualify for The Million Dollar Round Table meeting in San Francisco, an...
Are You an Undiscovered Genius?
Are You an Undiscovered Genius? “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein No one would dispute that Einstein and Picasso are geniuses. Even those who aren’t...
Carl’s Water
Carl's Water "Truth builds trust." Marilyn Suttle Years ago, I had a business deal that I worked on for nearly two years. It looked like we were going to get it, but it was still a bit in question. My partner and I met for lunch with our client, Carl, and his partner...
The Fridge
The Fridge "A penny saved is a penny earned." Benjamin Franklin When our kids were much younger, our son was standing in front of the refrigerator with the door open. He gazed at the interior for quite a while, pondering what to have. And then he gazed some more. From...
Public Speaking
Public Speaking "Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain." Ralph Waldo Emerson I began in the insurance business when I was twenty-seven. As I look back on my path, I felt as though I knew nothing and nobody. But thanks to many mentors, and learning...
Extraordinary
____________________________________________________________________ ex·traor·di·nar·y 1. very...
Dr. Reddy’s Dollar
Dr. Reddy's Dollar "Fill the day with enthusiasm. Give the day all you’ve got and it will give you all it’s got, which will be plenty." Norman Vincent Peale My friend, Kota Reddy M.D., is an internationally-renowned, nutritionally-based cardiologist in Houston, Texas....
The Elevator
The Elevator "Think outside, no box required." Unknown My dear friend, Marc Byrnes, loves to ski. Every year, he goes on a ski trip with a bunch of his buddies, and a while back, I went along as well. We went to Snowmass, Colorado, one of the best ski spots in the...
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at hank@hankfrazee.com.