Late last month, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and NASA (along with Northrup Grumman) presented Apollo 50 Go for the Moon. It was a spectacular (if not blazingly hot) few evenings on the National Mall for 500,000 lucky people. As it was 50 years ago as the Apollo 11 mission took off for the moon, all systems were go to celebrate the anniversary.

Without the systems in place, the original launch, landing, and walk never would have happened. And without the systems in place in Washington on July 20th, the re-reation never would have happened. Are your systems in place?

A system is a planned-out series of steps taken at the right time, in the right order, to ensure the desired…

A travel professional I speak with frequently called me the other day to talk about an idea for an article. She wanted to write about the need for agents to continually update their skill set in destinations, technology and sales techniques. I told the agent that I was impressed that she was so deeply interested in continuing education, and I asked her if the other travel agents in her agency felt the same way. She indicated that some did, but in general most seemed content to do things the way they had always been done, to service the clients the agency ownership put in front of them and to clock out at 5:00. I asked the agent what motivated her, and I really liked her answer:…

Driving up from Baltimore one day I found myself tuned into one of those radio call-in talk shows. You know the ones. People call in to have their lives straightened out in less than a New York minute.

To kill a few hundred miles, I thought I would eavesdrop on a few words of wisdom.

A young man called in seeking financial advice for his recently laid-off father, who happened to be a skilled mechanic. The host of the radio program sounded like he was going to wet himself with excitement and repeatedly told the caller that his dad was in the catbird…