Honest Hearts, Honest Actions

When I walk in the morning, I pass a house where a cat lives. Most mornings, the cat comes out to greet me. It rubs up against my leg and seems to be glad I am there, but this is not the most likely explanation. Cats love to rub up against people and things. This…

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True Leaders Gone

True hunting is overNo herd to followWithout game, men prey on each otherThe family weakens by the bite we swallow          – “Three Days”, Jane’s Addiction I watched a very disturbing thing happen on social media recently. A post by someone I know and care dearly about became the subject of a…

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Into The Storm

What are you afraid of? Not the small, temporary things. I’m afraid of spiders, but that doesn’t alter the course of my life in any real or meaningful way (unless not being willing to go camping except in winter months is meaningful). I’m talking about the big things—unanticipated change, being alone and lonely, failure, rejection,…

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It’s The Real Thing

I have always been interested in branding and marketing. Done well, branding can create a recognizable identity that carries very complex messaging within very simple symbols and icons. I recently visited The World of Coca-Cola, a museum of sorts dedicated to the Coca-Cola brand. Asa Griggs Candler bought the formula and the brand for the…

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Intentional Unintentionality

Spencer Silver failed in 1968. He was trying to develop a new super-strong glue for his employer, 3M, but instead, he created the opposite: an adhesive that stuck to objects but could be easily lifted off. He tried to get the folks at 3M to see the potential for his new adhesive, but it took…

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Soda And Snake Oil

On May 25, 1992, Victoria Angelo listened intently to the evening news on television from her tin-roofed shack in one of Manila’s more squalid slums. For weeks before, Pepsi’s advertisements, splashed all over Philippine newspapers, radio and TV, were hardly subtle: “Today, you could be a millionaire!” The unemployed mother of five and her husband,…

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Bear In Mind

There are approximately 750,000 black bears in North America. They have killed 67 people since 1900. This fact became fairly important to me Wednesday when I came face to face with a black bear on a trail in Grand Teton National Park. I was on my annual trip with the Whistlepigs, a CEO peer group…

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Good Is Hard

Author Scott Alexander wrote, “All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy.” I recently read some articles related to something most of us could very possibly have lived our entire lives without ever knowing. I was attracted to the article, “The Speedrunner Who Wasn’t:…

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Certainty

How many things are you certain about? I mean absolutely, positively, no doubt about it, certain. If you are like most people, the answer is, “not many.” I used to be certain about most things. I “knew” I was right, and I worked hard to help others see things my way. However, that certainty wasn’t…

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Experience + Innocence

Wednesday night my wife and I took 4 of our children to Tulsa to see the opening night of U2’s North American leg of the Experience + Innocence Tour. The show was exceptional, they always are. Experiencing it with my kids was special. I’ve been to see U2 many times, but this was the first…

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