Where Does the Fire Go?
Where Does the Fire Go? A cold night. A cozy room. A fire lit in the fireplace. You fall asleep by the fire. When you wake, the fire has gone out? But where did it go? You set the table for dinner. The candles are lit. Conversation ensues. The candles finally go out. But where […]
Wolfing vs. Tasting
Trader Joe’s sells a very nice 500-gram dark chocolate bar for about $8.00. We break it apart and put the pieces in a jar. It’s super easy to walk by, grab a piece, and wolf it down before I make it to the other side of the room. In the same pantry, we keep single-origin, […]
Triple Bottom Line
The best jobs live at the intersection of three values . . . Good economics Good work Good relationships There is no objective definition for those terms. We get to decide. If you’ve been around long enough, you realize how rare a “triple bottom line” is. When you find yourself loving all three, be sure […]
What are Your “No Matter What’s?”
A “No Matter What” is a promise you make to yourself and to the people around you. It’s something they can count on . . . no matter what. It’s the other side of “What happens if” or “I could have if only.” Nope, this you do no matter what. You don’t need many of […]
Take Care of Yourself
Our bodies are capable of extraordinary endurance, agility, strength, and sensitivity. We are capable of feelings and acts of profound sensitivity and love and great insight, inspiration, and intuition. Modern people ask much less of their bodies than they are capable of and yet subject their bodies to all manner of abuse due to poor […]
Role Models and Teachers. Choose Wisely.
Perhaps you have too. Over the years, I’ve read broadly the stories of the titans of business, statecraft, and war: Rockefeller, Morgan, Lazard, Duveen, Rommel, and Patton are some names that come to mind. The same is true for biographies and hagiographies of contemporaneous figures like Pat Reilly, Phil Jackson, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Tim […]
Boundary or Beacon?
Right after early men and women figured out how to start a fire on purpose, they realized a new boundary. Light a candle or light a pile of tinder, and we perceive a boundary, an edge. Inside the edge, we can see. Beyond, we can’t. It’s dark. Beside the fire, it’s warm. At some distance, […]
Return the Damn Call, No Matter What
I got a note from the wife of a college roommate and friend the other day. It was that note. My friend passed away a few months ago. I guess I wasn’t much of a friend that I was just hearing about it. My friend had been in decline for the last several years. He […]