- Greg Bustin - https://bustin.com -

30 Truths from 30 Years in Business

Advice I Wish I’d Gotten Sooner

Tempus fugit.

We express this idea as “time flies.”

But the ancient Roman poet Virgil who introduced this concept in his book Georgics wrote “fugit irreparabile tempus,” and the more accurate translation is, “time escapes irretrievably.”

It’s true: time waits for no one.

Two thousand years later, Andy Rooney found another way to think about time.

Rooney had been hired by CBS as the network’s resident curmudgeon and every week from 1978 to 2011 he was given three minutes at the tail-end of 60 Minutes to opine on whatever topic suited him. One month after delivering his final commentary Rooney died at age 92. He knew a little about time, observing, “that life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.”

All to say that my May 2025 speaking tour in the U.K. seems like yesterday.

Iain Lindsay arranged for me to make my fourth trip over to speak to groups of business leaders in England, Ireland and Wales. I expected my two weeks to be delightful (they were) and I wanted something new I could share with these leaders.

So I bundled up thirty lessons I’d learned since opening the doors of Bustin & Co. thirty years ago and presented them in a free, digital format.

With the passage of months and more time to review what I’d prepared, I’ve made two decisions:

First, what I’d written could be improved. So I sharpened my writing and added a sentence here and there for greater impact.

Second, I decided that as much as a free digital copy might be the right price, it might not be the right format. So my thirty lessons—some I learned the hard way and others I wish I’d learned sooner—are now collected in book form. Not available on Amazon. Only available from me.

Here’s an example:

I’m particularly grateful to my friends at Longevity Marketing for providing the design and illustrations.

If you’re interested, you can purchase this little book for $10 per book, plus shipping costs. Minimum three books per order. Send me an email at greg.bustin@bustin.com and we’ll do the rest.

Naturally, this offer is available for a limited time.