Life moves quickly. Work. School. Kids. Travel ball teams. Friends. Social media. Keeping up with pop culture and the latest Netflix series. You’ve got to have the right job that combines social consciousness and financial reward. All while saving the environment and being politically conscious and staying in great shape and finding time for yoga or meditation so you’re not too anxious or stressed or depressed. And don’t forget to post the latest vacation on Instagram to show everyone else your ...
Jun 05, 2019•10 min
Not long ago, a group of friends of mine were having an email discussion about a problem facing our nation at the time. They’re all good, well-intentioned and successful people. We all agreed that a certain behavior was deeply wrong, but we had deep disagreements about the nature of the problem and the best solution to fix that problem. The email exchange got spirited. At one point, one of the participants said that if you didn’t understand the injustice his way and you didn’t agree with his sol...
May 29, 2019•7 min
If you are like many people, when you saw the title Why Faith is Critical to Your Business Success, you probably got uncomfortable. We’re not supposed to talk about faith and business together. We’ve been taught to see life segregated into two different areas: your public/work life versus your personal/private life. Work and business go on public side. Faith goes on the private side. You shouldn’t bring your faith to work, right? Wrong. You definitely need to be careful about how you bring your ...
May 21, 2019•9 min
The college admissions cheating scandal is filling the news lately. I led a college prep high school for 14 years and put three daughters through college myself, so I’ve got some experience in that admissions game. Yes, the college admissions scandal is about cheating. Yes, the college admissions scandal is about wealthy people having a big advantage over 90% of American families trying to get into elite colleges. But these are really just symptoms of a deeper and more important problem: our soc...
Apr 02, 2019•7 min
A recent Wall Street Journal article, The Tech Whiz Behind Vine and HQ Trivia, tells the story of Colin Kroll. Professional Success Colin was a young, self-taught computer programmer who left Detroit In 2007 to go to New York City and do app coding. He worked 12-hour days at the office and did more work at home. Eventually, Kroll found backers who funded a video app called Vine. You’ve heard of it. Vine was an app that allowed people to publish 6 second videos that looped. It was a big hit on th...
Feb 26, 2019•11 min
Marine Corps Officer Candidate School Way back in the summer of 1985, I spent my June and July in a special kind of hell called Marine Corps Officer Candidates School—Marine OCS. Most people, when they hear the word “school”, think that Marine Officer Candidate School would be a place where you learned how to be an officer in the Marine Corps. Nothing could be further from the truth. Marine OCS was all about putting you under a tremendous amount of physical, mental and emotional pressure to see ...
Feb 13, 2019•11 min
Tragedy, Unhappiness and Burnout This week I read an article about a 27-year old young woman who hanged herself in her New York apartment. She left her mother apology notes online and in her apartment that read she “felt absolutely nothing during what should have been the happiest and darkest times in my life.” The notes continue, “I realize I am undeserving of thinking this way because I truly have a great life on paper. I’m fortunate to eat meals most can only imagine. I often travel freely wi...
Feb 05, 2019•10 min
Attacking the Bad and Stupid People So, America, are we pissed off at each other enough yet? It is seductive and easy to get pissed off at bad people. Stupid people. You know the ones. The idiots out there on the other side. The fake news ones. They are ignorant. Selfish. Hateful. They deserve whatever bad things happen to them. Doesn’t it feel good to be righteous? To defend your truth? To fight for something you believe in? To tolerate the good stuff and be virtuously intolerant of what they’r...
Jan 25, 2019•11 min
Last week a writer from the millennial generation, Anne Helen Petersen, published an essay, “How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation”. My millennial daughter recommended it to me. She said Petersen’s article captured the way she and many in her age group feel about life. Petersen’s article is a good read that captures the real pain—the burnout—that millennials are feeling today. Before any conservatives out there automatically dismiss her article because it’s on the liberal Buzzfeed websit...
Jan 16, 2019•16 min
Peggy Noonan and Magic Ponies... A few weeks ago, I made a quick post about a column by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal about Americans—that’s you and me—and politics and “magic ponies.” With a new Congress coming in and the 2020 election already starting, it made sense to go into greater depth on this issue. Noonan argues that Americans are voting for “magic ponies” like Trump and Obama based too much on emotion and not enough on their experience and judgment. She is correct. That failu...
Jan 03, 2019•13 min
Merry Christmas! Just a week ago, we passed the Winter Solstice. Darkness dominates our days and sometimes our moods. Just days after the light begins its return, we celebrate Christmas—the birth of Jesus, Divine Love, into our world. Our Divided Nation Light and Love could not come at a better time. Despite all our technology, wealth, knowledge and progress, we are in a bitter time. Our nation is deeply divided economically, socially and politically. We are spending enormous amounts of time, en...
Dec 28, 2018•9 min
It is so easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of life and find the weeks, months and even years flying buy. We are chasing so many immediate things in life—getting the best job, getting our kids into the right schools and on the right sports teams, living in the right neighborhoods and driving the right cars—that it is easy to lose sight of what life is about. And that’s dangerous. There are two things in life that are certain: death and taxes. If you don’t pay attention to your taxes, the IRS...
Dec 20, 2018•14 min
Over the last week, our nation has taken time to honor the life of George H.W. Bush, our 41st president. Thousands viewed him in the Capitol in Washington DC and in Houston. We televised two of this three funeral services. Thousands more stood along the tracks while his presidential train took him to his final resting place in College Station, Texas. Honor is the respect we owe someone because of the kind of person he or she is. For the character that they demonstrate. We have spent the last wee...
Dec 09, 2018•17 min
It’s time again for Thanksgiving! A History of Giving Thanks For most of our history, Americans have generally thought that life was hard deal. Life was tough. Difficult. Not supposed to be fair. If you worked hard and had some good luck, you might scratch out a decent life for yourself and your family. Maybe even a life a little better than your parents had. Hard work and suffering developed toughness, resilience, character and leadership. So, when something good happened—perhaps a good harvest...
Nov 23, 2018•12 min
The Marine Corps Birthday Last night, I took a friend of mine, Tony, out for an important evening. He’s 96 years old, a retired school superintendent, teacher and deacon. I think he is the father of seven. We went to an event that had about 200 people of all ethnic groups, ages 20 to 96. It included a billionaire, federal judges, musicians, attorneys, business people, and moms and dads. Blue collar and white collar. A diverse group bound by one thing: the birthday we share as US Marines. It’s a ...
Nov 14, 2018•16 min
Love and Happiness Today, we’re going to begin an ongoing conversation about the importance and power of love. Love is obviously a subject very present in our lives. When we are in love we’re happy. When we’re out of love we’re heartbroken and unhappy. We love our parents and our kids. Love is the subject of more than half the hit songs on the radio. As present as love is in our lives, I don’t think we have a good understanding of love. Maybe we’re too familiar with it. Maybe we take it for gran...
Nov 06, 2018•14 min
In this blog, we’ll talk about the Meaning of Life, Happiness, what that means and what you can start doing right now to achieve it. You can find a podcast version of this blog article on our website or iTunes. If you want to dive in to the issue of leadership, you can get my book, “On Leadership, What’s Broken in Our Society and How We Fix It” on Amazon.com. What is Happiness? If you ask people what they want in life, they’ll almost always tell you that they want Happiness. Isn’t that what we a...
Oct 30, 2018•11 min
In this blog, we are starting an ongoing discussion about leadership. First, we’ll talk about how fundamental leadership is in our lives. Then we’ll talk about definitions of leadership resulting in what I believe is the best definition of leadership. Finally, I am going to ask you to share your thoughts, experiences and questions about leadership. I want to hear what you think and why. This is a discussion, after all! Real talk about life. You can find a podcast version of this blog article on ...
Sep 25, 2018•12 min
