Posts by Thomas Hill III

That’s not a misspelling. By ego, I mean a person’s sense of self-importance—not the crispy, fluffy, and delicious frozen waffle. At a recent Bison LeaderLink Leadership Panel, the speakers were asked what the most important characteristic was for a leader. Humility was one of the first mentioned, but then Sarah Roberts, VP of Programs for…

I was watching Where The Crawdads Sing with my wife and one son when a statement by the main character caught my attention. In a conversation with her lawyer about the reality of a jury of her peers judging her on what they knew about her, Kya Clark says, “They’re not deciding anything about me.…

While playing Pickleball recently with some of our executive team, I heard someone say, “Don’t mistake kindness for weakness.” It was in reference to a team member who is characterized at work by being extremely helpful and willing to serve in any capacity. Despite their position, they are the first to pitch in (from picking…

For years, we watched the reruns of M*A*S*H on network television. When I was in high school, I built a sound card for my Apple IIe computer and programmed it to play “Suicide is Painless”, the theme song from both the movie and the TV series. M*A*S*H originally ran for 11 seasons and had 256…

I was wearing a concert shirt from the recent Smashing Pumpkins tour that simply says “ZERO” on it. At breakfast, a dear friend asked me if it was for “zero day.” He obviously has a limited range of music appreciation, but other than that, he’s a really great guy. I told him it was a…

It has not been a great football season for my alma mater. One of the reasons is injuries. Sometimes people say, “He got hurt,” when they are talking about an injury that has taken someone out of the game. I always say to myself (which is something I am practicing),“The whole game hurts; that dude…

I’ve been rewatching Yellowstone. At one point, a Native American elder tells a younger man, “You must stand on a cliff of death to understand your purpose in life. It’s the only place where you can see it.” At first, that may seem a little extreme, but there is significant truth there. Unfortunately, we are sometimes…

I like baby cows. Actually, I like the concept of baby cows. Real baby cows are smelly, dirty, and require a lot of care. I don’t want an actual baby cow; I just like the idea of baby cows. I think sometimes we have a lot of things in our lives where we like the…

Last week, some friends and I got a chance to try our hand at abstract painting. An artist friend, Lauren Florence, walked us through some amazing exercises before turning us loose on a 3’ x 3’ canvas to paint our own abstract masterpiece. The first thing she had us do was select three colors of paint,…

I went to my primary care physician this week for my annual physical. I use the term “annual” loosely as it has been four years since my last one. Not a recommended approach to preventative health care. He ran several tests and had already sent me for some rather invasive procedures that are a regular…