Musings
Unpack Your Adjectives
In March of 1974, the Schoolhouse Rock episode “Unpack Your Adjectives” aired for the first time. Schoolhouse Rock originally ran from 1973 to 1984. I saw all the episodes many times, and I can still sing most of the songs. The adjective song helped children understand how to verbally describe what things are like instead…
Read MoreCruel To Be Kind
In 1979, Nick Lowe released “Cruel To Be Kind” which peaked at #12 on the US charts that summer. The video for the song was played on MTV on the first day of broadcasting and was shot during Nick and Carlene Carter’s wedding (shooting the video actually made him late for the wedding.) The refrain…
Read MoreRidin’ The Storm Out
REO Speedwagon is a 70’s rock quintet named after a light motor truck introduced in 1915 by the REO Motor Car Company. The REO Speedwagon (the truck) served as delivery, tow, dump, and fire trucks, as well as hearses and ambulances. REO Speedwagon (the band) was founded by Neal Allan Doughty who, like the founder…
Read MoreNothing To Fear But Fear Itself (And Spiders)
I designed a shirt once that said, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself…and spiders.” You can see the design here. The shirt would be gray with black and red print. The ‘l’ in ‘itself’ extends down as the web and ends in a black widow spider. There is another spider on the back, left…
Read MoreIllusion Of Control
I was recently in an office building downtown. When I arrived at the elevators, there was another person waiting, and the call button for “up” was already lit. In a few moments, a third person approached the elevator and forcibly mashed the already lit “up” button. Moments later, a fourth person arrived, and the already…
Read MoreExcellence Of Every Kind
When Hercules was a fair-faced youth with his life before him, he went out one morning on an errand. As he walked, his heart was full of bitter thoughts because others no better than himself were living in ease and pleasure, while his life was full of labor and pain. He came to a place…
Read MoreSafety 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…
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