After many years of doing a weightlifting maneuver called a “clean,” I got one almost right. For most of this period I blamed my poor cleans on genetic issues. “It’s my mother’s fault!” But the coaches at my current gym won’t listen to my excuses and are correcting years of bad practice; 15 years of […]
One of the most egregious time wasters in companies is meetings or energy spent without a real purpose. I was reminded of this as I read our local paper recently. (I live in Boulder, Colo.—a wonderful community that has a whackadoodle reputation, sometimes warranted.) There was an article about a meeting with the city council, […]
This is the most worn book on my bookshelf. First published in 1973, I bought it in graduate school decades ago and still pull it out frequently. If you’re in business and don’t know who Peter Drucker is, you’re not well-versed—like an American history major who doesn’t know Abraham Lincoln, a foodie who doesn’t know […]
Once there was a company so bold, They ignored artificial intelligence, they were so cold. They thought they knew better, they thought they were smart, But oh how they faltered, and oh how they fell apart. They refused to listen, to algorithms and code, They stuck to their old ways, and thought themselves bestowed. But […]
When skiing bumps (moguls), you must do numerous things right. Keep your weight centered, hands forward, and face down the fall line. Find your line by looking multiple turns ahead. And so on. Get one wrong and it’s messy. Best thing to do when you’re off your line? Stop. Have a conversation with yourself and […]
The lawn care crew came yesterday to do fall cleanup on our yard. We have a few trees that don’t drop leaves until December, so I’m often one of the last in the neighborhood to do this. I walked down to breakfast and as the sun came up, I thought, “The yard looks great!” Half […]
As I sat in the dental office awaiting my appointment, I pulled out a business magazine from the rack—Fortune, I believe. It was over a year old, but something on the cover caused me to peruse it. Inside was a feature article about a woman who was going to “crush” the cryptocurrency space (I suspect […]
My son recently left a job (perhaps torture chamber is a more apt description) and was fretting because he didn’t know what he wanted to do. We had a long chat, and he devised a plan, even though he still didn’t have clarity. Doing nothing isn’t an option. Several weeks later, a client referred a […]
After a recent family picnic, I walked back to my truck and found that someone had keyed the driver’s side. Four panels. Because it was low and looked like the “pictures” my 3-year-old granddaughter draws, I assume it was a child. Several months ago, someone scratched the other side. The body shop, understaffed like everyone […]
My friend and I raced to Alcova, Wyo., one night to fish the Grey Reef section of the North Platte River. After spending the day on the Cache la Poudre River outside of Fort Collins, Colo. we were heading to “the Reef,” which has thousands of large trout per mile. We figured we would have […]