Business lessons from a field sprint
Jonathan Pait
Mar12th
Topics: Company Culture, Leadership
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It was exciting when two parts of my life came together. This year The Worthwhile Company is helping sponsor the Piedmont Orthopaedic Association Cycling Team — POA Cycling for short. The team has gotten off to a solid start and I’m glad to be both sponsor and racer.

2010 POA Cycling Team

For me it has been a learning situation and I have been amazed at how often lessons learned on the bike translate to real life — especially a competitive business environment. One such instance stood out to me in a recent race. It exposed for me a weakness on the bike that I also realized is something I need to overcome in my business life.

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A crisis is a terrible thing to waste
Jonathan Pait
Oct13th
Topics: Company Culture, History and Philosophy
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Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s Chief of Staff, caught a bit of grief earlier this year when he made the statement, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Of course, the reaction to that statement varies according to your political leanings. One thing we can all agree on is that we are facing an economic crisis. When it comes to your business, what are you doing about it?

Thinking about this question brought to mind an interview I read earlier this year in Fortune.  It was a question and answer session in a profile section on Jim Collins, author of Built to Last and Good to Great.  The title of the article was, “How Great Companies Turn Crisis Into Opportunity.”  It got me to thinking about how The Worthwhile Company is fairing during this time of economic upheaval.

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Marry your clients
Jonathan Pait
Feb11th
Topics: Company Culture, History and Philosophy
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Recently, a friend with whom I had not spoken in some time happened upon me while I was shopping. We caught up a bit and I mentioned something happening in my family. A sad expression came across his face and then he informed me that he had just filed for divorce.

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Back in time
Jonathan Pait
Jan26th
Topics: Company Culture, History and Philosophy
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One of the things we created when we moved into our new location was a little “nook” with a comfortable chair and a book case for holding reading material. It also gives a place for members of the team to get a change of scenery. It does my heart good to walk through the office and find someone utilizing this little escape area.

That book case also contains some relics from the early days of Worthwhile. I guess you could call it our museum. Looking back on our history, I wish we would have kept a “virtual” museum — copies of software and websites we have created. Looking back always makes you appreciate where you are!

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Rise of the Sialia sialis
Jonathan Pait
Jan15th
Topics: Industry Trends
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There’s a new bird in town. Perhaps you’ve seen the little blue bird on some of the websites you frequent. Facebook, say hello to Twitter.

Twitter is the new Blogger in a sound byte world. Back in my days in media relations I knew that if my message couldn’t be communicated in 15 seconds I might as well keep my mouth shut. Okay, I’m exaggerating about the 15 seconds. Now you only get 140 characters.

Like most new social media applications I approached this new one with a little skepticism. I kind of got it because it was very similar to Facebook status updates. As a matter of fact, that is what first got me using Twitter. It allows me to update my Facebook status using texting from my cell phone.

As an avid cyclist, I started looking around on Twitter to see if I could find some of the professional riders. The first I came upon was Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) and then Dave Zabristkie (@dzabriskie). It wasn’t long before George Hincapie was on board as well (@ghincapie).

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