When I was a kid, we had the same white phone hanging on the wall in our kitchen. I vaguely remember that we had a traditional black rotary dial phone early in my childhood, but for the most of my youth, we had the small rotary one with a long cord that always seemed to... Continue Reading →

One of the best lessons I continue to learn throughout my life is the power of failure. We all want to be successful. We want to get things right, but when we fail or make a mistake, we learn how to do things right the next time. If there's one thing about society that I... Continue Reading →

Statistics lie. I've always had a tough time with numbers. How do you tell the difference between 50,000 and 50,000,000? I look at them and I see two big numbers. It's like a Fun House of Mirrors. I look at one number and it looks huge. I look at the other and it looks the... Continue Reading →

The sweat dripped down my face. I had to take a break. I had been working in the yard, first helping my wife pull weeds and then pruning our bushes and had moved onto mowing and the work was kicking my butt. I bent over to take a quick break and cursed my youngest son... Continue Reading →

When I was a young boy, I was scared of the dark. We lived along a rural lane and I was convinced that ghosts and goblins and other scary things came out to play at night. It didn't help that a large walnut tree right outside my window would creak and saunter back and forth... Continue Reading →

Like many folks, I've been glued to the news, watching the aftermath of the wildfires in Maui and their trail of death and destruction. The total dead have risen to more than 106 and is expected to continue to climb. One disaster assessment firm has estimated that the fire caused more than $3.2 billion in... Continue Reading →

(Reposting a previous blog with some slight editing and an updated ending) I’ve long been fascinated by stand-up comedians. When I was a young kid, I loved to catch Bob Hope and Steve Martin on TV. Hope would make fun of his golf game or the intelligence of some hulking college All-American football player, Martin... Continue Reading →

When I was a young manager, my team and I were going through a tough time. I was new in my role, we faced a number of tough obstacles, and didn't have a lot of time to plan and get acquainted. We needed to get to know each other on the fly. I remember feeling... Continue Reading →