Musings
Safety In Numbers
While most of us would be stopped short by the violence and criminal activity, many of us have probably thought at least once that it would be awesome to belong to a gang. In interviews with gang members, Joe Killian, a writer for the News and Record, reported that they considered fellow gang members to…
Read MoreOpportunity Knocks Softly
While watching Ford vs Ferrari with my wife and two youngest sons this past weekend, I was struck with the example of a management style that creates a toxic environment. If you are unfamiliar with the film, or the story it portrays, let me catch you up. In the mid-sixties, Henry Ford II decides to…
Read MoreCompound Interest
I was talking to someone recently about our 401K program at Kimray. There is the initial benefit of the Kimray match that doubles your money, but the real magic of an investment account is the compounded interest over time. The simple math is that if a 25-year-old who makes $40K a year puts 5% of…
Read MoreGrow Your Own
“Leadership is not about you; it’s about investing in the growth of others.” Ken Blanchard The average adult human body contains over 30 trillion cells. Every single adult started as a single cell that divided into 2, then 2 divided into 4, then into 8 and so on. This is growth. When we were babies, our…
Read MoreBorrowed Not Owned
Have you ever rented a piece of equipment, like a floor sander or wet vac? Maybe you needed a tile saw for a bathroom project or a trencher to put in sprinkler lines. Did you take the time to read the fine print (or maybe not so fine print)? There is always a clause in…
Read MoreSome Words Are Deeds
The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. – Eliezer Wiesel Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, also called MLK Day, an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. King was the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. While most of…
Read MoreVision Without Sight
“The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision.” ― Helen Keller Each year during our family vacation to Colorado, my kids and I climb at least one 14,000 ft peak (a 14er.) I say climb, it’s really a very difficult walk over loose rock and sometimes snow that…
Read MoreA Member Of The Herd
I like bison. The American Bison is the largest mammal in North, Central and South America. In 2016 it was named the National Mammal of the United States and the Bison has been the State Mammal of Oklahoma since 1972. When I tell people I want to have bison they usually say, “Aren’t they hard…
Read MoreHappy New Year?
When we wish someone a ‘Happy New Year’ it is not the emotion of happiness we are invoking, rather we are wishing them a fortunate and lucky year. Interestingly, a wish is a strong desire for something that probably won’t happen. So as we welcome in the new year, we are (mostly inadvertently) saying, “I…
Read MoreAll That I Can Give You
My mother makes the best peanut brittle in the known universe. You may think I’m biased, and I probably am, but it is really good. Every Christmas she gives us a very large tin packed with this special treat. It always has a small label on it that says, “Merry Christmas, Much Love, Mom”, in…
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