“Aaaask Alan” In the late ‘80s when my wife’s children were young and we first began dating, when an unusual question came up and I would know the answer, they’d say “Aaaaask Alan!” Everyone would laugh that I was the font of useless knowledge. That actually used to happen to me a lot. Billie would […]
“I know I should . . . , but I really want. . .” The angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other is a common visual device in cartoons: Tom the cat chooses whether to eat Jerry the mouse, Sylvester the cat struggles with a similar dilemma with Tweety Bird or as is […]
Everybody wants to be a star My brother-in-law was an English teacher before he went to the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business for his MBA. He was hired by Cooper’s & Lybrand as a consultant. He soon went to Indonesia putting a management accounting system in the state-owned oil company. Somehow I developed […]
“I hope I die before I get old” Well, that didn’t happen. Not for me nor for Pete Townshend, who wrote that song for The Who’s debut album released in 1965, the year I graduated from high school. I remember the song, though I was blissfully unaware that it had been banned by the BBC. […]
The X Things Every Leader Must . . . We’ve all read these articles, “Five Critical Traits Every Leader Must. . .” “Every Leader Should Do These Three Things.” “When the Chips are Down Leaders Keep Focused On.. .” The articles are filled with leadership buzzwords originating in the 1980s. Words like Vision, Empowerment, Empathy, […]
Consulting, a good start. Consulting is an early career choice that allows smart, resourceful people who have mastered sounding confident to find responsibility beyond that available in other industries. Consulting firms recruit from top undergraduate universities, business schools, and other graduate institutions, looking for “smart, nice, analysts with legs.” Firms want smart, analytical people because […]
My First: Tank My first summer at Oyster Harbors Caddy Camp I was thirteen. I was slow to learn and reluctant to work, but with help of an older caddy, I finished strong and was voted “Most Improved Camper.” I learned to hustle, earned respect from the caddy-master and older caddies and earned $250 net […]
Farm Radio In the late 1980s I did projects for a firm that sold national spot advertising on thousands of radio stations across the United States. The firm’s salespeople would call on media buyers to pitch stations they represented for campaigns for which radio was a part of the advertising plan. Of course, radio advertising […]
“I’m a consultant, not a coach!” He said this with a sneer dripping off the word coach that you could smell across the room. The problem was we were not really hired as consultants, at least not as he was defining a consultant. We were hired to teach a client coaches how to support continuous […]
My haircutter history When a was a curly tow headed two-year-old my hair drew a lot of attention. I’m told I was not happy with my first haircut. I bawled uncontrollably when my father took me to his barber shop, which amused the barber. They finally gave me a cookie to shut me up. No, […]
