A conversation It was a story I heard more than once. Different people told the story often making a slightly different point. Some told it to make the Great Gatsby point, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” Some told the story as real success advice –“listen […]
<div class="et_pb_text_inner" data-et-multi-view="{"schema":{"content":{"desktop":" n u201cOK, Alan. If youu2019re interested in us, Iu2019d be interested in you. Iu2019ll need to talk to Sam, my partner. He may want to meet you.u201d n n I had been a booking agent selling engagements for celebrity speakers on college campuses for six years. I was twenty-six years old.u00a0 I […]
Two roads diverged . . . Perhaps you read “The Road Not Taken” in school. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I — I took the one less travelled by and that has made all the difference.” My English teacher told me this was about Robert Frost’s choice to become a poet, […]
<div class="et_pb_text_inner" data-et-multi-view="{"schema":{"content":{"desktop":" Eeeyou! n That is how many people react to bugs. Theyu2019re disgusting, disease-spreading, creepy-crawly creatures. Perhaps the feeling is mutual; there is little reliable data about how insects react to humans. They may be conflicted; we are both food source and predator to them. n Insects may be completely indifferent to humans. […]
<div class="et_pb_text_inner" data-et-multi-view="{"schema":{"content":{"desktop":" u201cOh, Man! I canu2019t believe I did that.u201d n Iu2019m reviewing my life (so far). I suppose that might be expected for someone my age. After all, looking back is easier than looking forward, reflecting is easier than planning to change and at seventy-five thereu2019s a lot to review. n The presenting […]
July 4th – US Independence Day Amid the fireworks and cookouts, Ferris wheels, cotton candy and win-a-stuffie pellet-gun booths at Lion’s Club sponsored carnivals, amid the politicians’ speechifying, “hooray-for-our-side-doncha ever-vote-for-them-evil-bastards-agin,” amid apple pie and chit’lins, samosas, spring rolls, and empanadas, thick-steaks and veggie burgers, Let Us Remember. Remember that 247 years ago today a group […]
The fallacy of values-based consulting “Wait. What?” My regular readers should be forgiven for their cognitive dissonance. I have written often about my consulting values: Be authentic Be helpful Stay focused on results, I have even suggested that all consultants should have these same values. I might even still believe that, despite how self-centered and […]
I call myself a writer now. Sometimes words flow like a river; sometimes they are dammed up. Not elegantly locked behind a Grand Coulee-Hoover architectural-engineering wonder, but stuck in mud and sticks and crumpled leaves emerging in tiny trickles from the buck-toothed beaver monstruction or clogged in neural ruts unable to break free. Yesterday morning […]
Hiring Consultants = Weakness? My social circles do not afford opportunity to attend many black-tie events, but I do own a tuxedo. So, even though I thought it pretentious, I attended my thirtieth LBS reunion formal dress dinner in the Kent castle. “Boards are simply intolerable.” A tight circle formed around Mike, our only a […]
“I don’t get no respect, y’know what I mean.” “You know the definition of a consultant?” I was at a wedding dinner and the question came from another friend of the father of the bride. I had retired recently, but this entrepreneur didn’t accept that as the answer to the “What do you do?” question. […]
