Last night I popped into the Price Chopper grocery store near my home. I needed exactly one item. Spinach. Organic spinach.

There was exactly one checkout lane open. One. That's bad, but it was a slow night in the grocery biz and there was only one person in line in head of me. She wanted to buy stamps. Which were at the CUSTOMER SERVICE counter, not in the check out lane. A long, involved discussion ensued. Finally, the stamps were delivered to the check out lane. Unfortunately no one seemed to know how to ring stamps into the register.

During this entire time, there were SIX, count 'em, SIX Price Chopper employees standing around doing absolutely nothing. Finally, after even more time passed, one of the six decided it might be a good idea to wander down to another check out counter and take care of the line that was forming behind me and the stamp lady.

One thought went through my head: "What's up with this?" I'm not sure exactly what caused the problem and I don't pretend to know how to fix it. But something was way wrong. I'm not even sure why I'm still thinking about it or why I'm telling you about it. It just seemed wrong.

While attending SOBCon '09 I had a chance to spend some time with Phil Gerbyshak. I'd known Phil online, but we'd never met in person before the conference. I found him to be a delightful human being. From the moment we shook hands, he was busy connecting me with "people you just gotta meet" and infecting everyone with his enthusiasm and insight.

Phil's book, 10 Ways to Make it Great! is a treasure – full of nuggets of wisdom and inspiration. Phil is a self-professed relationship geek and here's quote from the book that proves it:

"In order to make it great you absolutely must make the time to nourish the relationships that give you the most energy, provide you with the most insight, and are the best for you, whenever you can."

Now for the really good part: The first ten people who send me an email with "Make it Great" in the subject line will get a free copy of Make it Great!. Make sure you include your physical mailing address in the email, and sorry, we can mail only to addresses in the U.S.

Eduardo Castro-Wright is the vice-chairman of Wal-Mart Stores. He was interviewed recently by the New York Times. In that interview he said:

"I think all of us read far too many business books."

Seriously? Let's consider a few of the published statistics:

42% of college graduates never read another book after college

70% of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

Doesn't seem to me that reading is the problem.

While reading The Breakthrough Company yesterday I came across this quote from Tom Golisano, founder of Paychex:

"Paychex hires attitude and trains aptitude."

I hear that a lot. At first blush, it makes sense. Unfortunately, it's misleading and potentially damaging. To begin with, I'm not sure we know what the optimal attitude is or how to spot it. But even if we did, hire attitude – train aptitude leads us down the primrose path.

Here's why: In most endeavors (including every job in your company and my company) the foundation of great achievement is great ability. If I'm not wired with great ability in accounting, I'm not going to be a great accountant – it's just that simple. And that's true no matter how fabulous my attitude might be.

Mr. Golisano built a spectacularly successful company. That doesn't mean he knows everything. (Keep in mind, at one time, Bill Gates didn't seem too sure this internet thing was going to take off.) Hiring great performers isn't simple and it isn't easy. Cliches like hire attitude – train aptitude minimize the effort and rigor required to identify great talent. Let's not fool ourselves.