As you who follow me closely have often heard me say, “Success leaves clues.” You see, I have this belief that too often we wonder why something went wrong rather than asking why things went well. As a mentor of mine, Dave Sullivan says, “If things are going well, you better go and find out why!”

In this recent blog post from Fast Company, Dan Heath hits a bull’s-eye with this message way better than I ever could. Watch it here and let me know what you think by commenting below.

Memorial Day means a lot of things to us. It’s first and foremost the time of year when we say thank you and remember those who lost their lives protecting the freedom all of us enjoy. It’s a day that I will go to the cemetery and visit my father’s grave and say a prayer for him and thank him for all the lessons I learned from him. It’s a day I will spend with my family, have a little barbeque, have my mom and stepdad over and I might even have a beer, to be honest with you.

Memorial Day is a day we need to embrace; it’s a day that I hope never loses its meaning.  A lot of things seem to be losing their meaning. When I was growing up, you sat quietly in church and used that hour to reflect and try to improve your life. When I was growing up, you said thank you to someone who held a door for you, waved to the person who let you over in traffic, and didn’t throw trash out the car window. When I was little, Mother’s Day was a day you spent with mom.

Today, there’s too much talking in church. People don’t say thank you enough, or if they do, it’s via e-mail, not a phone call or handwritten note. People drive way too fast and aren’t considerate. And, we still have those who throw cigarettes out the window, which might be my number one pet peeve in life. A few weeks ago, I spent Mother’s Day at a soccer field and I still don’t feel good about that one.

I’m not here to complain, although I do sound like Andy Rooney, I suppose. I’m just here to tell you, let’s work together and continue to embrace some of the traditions we’ve grown up with. Let’s not lose sight of what’s best for all of us and let’s remember that two of the best things we can do are to thank those who have gone before us and helped us and spend time with our families and friends.

Recently, a friend and mentor of mine Joe Calloway and I were having an interesting discussion about integrity.

Joe talked about Hewlett-Packard: which interestingly enough is now run by a former client of mine, Mark Hurd. I used to do landscaping work for him. Anyway, here’s what Joe said about Hewlett-Packard, “Their business was admirable; they would be like a gyroscope with a core of values that was absolutely stable – never moving – never shaken – never wavering. This core would be surrounded by strategies and tactics that would constantly change to take advantage of emerging opportunities and changing conditions in the market, in competition, in technology.”

The point my very smart friend makes is their business was based on integrity—everything they did was based on this. People want to do business with companies that have integrity. I could go on and on about how important it is to be honest; we all know that. The question becomes: how do you and your team do in the area of integrity? I’m not looking for any feedback; I’m just sharing with you the fact that integrity is important.

This week, think about what must be present for you to do business with someone? And then see how your own company stacks up against that. Only you will know the answer and only you will know what you need to work on.

Also, buy a copy of Joe’s best selling book, Becoming a Category of One: How Extraordinary Companies Transcend Commodity and Defy Comparison.

This week I want to challenge you to think about where your next client is coming from. This is for those who think social media is a waste of time. I don’t think you should be spending any more than 1 hour per week with it but I do think you should have a presence. Just like you should have a phone, fax, e-mail, and website for your business, you should have a Facebook account and you should have a fan page for your company.

Why? There are teenagers and 20-something folks that live on Facebook and in 10-15 years, if not sooner, they’re going to be potential clients for your business; therefore, it makes sense to put your toe in the water and try it out and see what happens.

Who knows where we’re going to be 20 years from now but it’s silly to assume social media will go away and it’s silly not to have a presence, at least on Facebook. Find me on Facebook by clicking here, and read this interesting article from cnn.com on the power of social media.

Every two weeks a salesperson stops by our office. He sells miscellaneous items we use in repairing our fleet. There’s no way he’s a student of time management because if he were, he wouldn’t be doing what he does.

We spend, at the most, a couple of hundred dollars a month with him. We are not a big client. Yet every two weeks he shows up—without an appointment. One of my assistants in the office said to me one day, “Why does he just show up? Why doesn’t he call or e-mail? Maybe show up once in a while, but what a waste of time.” I couldn’t agree more.

Look, I’m all about relationship selling. I am writing a book on that very subject right now. But, you need to be smart about your time and how you spend it. Spend the most face-to-face time with your biggest and best clients and with the prospects you have the best shot at doing a lot of business with. Think about where you get the biggest returns. There are only so many hours in a day; use them wisely.

I am the sales manager of Grunder Landscaping Company and I want my people spending time with all my clients. You never know who you can turn into a big client. But at a certain point you can tell what’s possible and need to spend your time wisely. Smart business people know where their time can be best spent and only smart people get my weekly Great Idea!