About

Optimum is about small businesses, and serves as a complement to America’s Best magazine, the official publication of America’s Best Companies. We are currently preparing the first issue for publication and expect to see it some time in May.

As for me, I am Leif Johnson, the magazine’s editor. I have something of a grand vision for America’s Best, and I hope that I may one day see it on the newsstands with other business publications. As for the Web log, readers will be able to find links relevant to small business and to communicate with me in a way unavailable to them in the main publication. Readers are welcome to send me e-mail at leifabc@gmail.com with interesting links or ideas for essays. In addition, I will always welcome submissions for the magazine itself.

I live in Chicago, where I’ve lived for the last four years. In the process of picking up a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, I fell in love with the city and now call it home. Along the way I met Evonne, the love of my life, and we plan to get married in September. My “real” home, however, is Texas, as anyone who’s ever heard me speak in person can confirm. My family still operates a small ranch in South Texas and I always look forward to the visits. I like to think that I’ve had an interesting life: In addition to collecting degrees, I’ve traveled quite a bit and was once a prominent figure in the cowboy poetry movement of the 1990s.

I enjoy photography, travel, writing, and reading, and after years of slushing through academia, I am happy to be out in the world trying to help others succeed.