“Business is NOT a democracy!” The CEO had raised his voice. I wouldn’t have said he was actually yelling, but his face was a darker shade tending toward red, and he was definitely speaking louder than he had been moments before. My colleague, a consulting partner, was explaining that there was considerable disagreement with his […]

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“People say I should have known. Maybe. There was that thing at the holiday party, but he was really drunk. The girl was drunk too, by the way. And anyway everybody agreed to drop it and she got another job soon after, so everything worked out. “He was such a sick programmer, I mean, really […]

Here, in the United States of America, we just had the quadrennial shouting match we call our presidential elections. We are a very divided country. We have been divided since our founding according to how much government we want and where the locus of power should reside, federal, state, or local. Now we are also […]

Alan Culler and I are comfortable calling ourselves “old sales guys.”  Recently, we each watched a video where a consultant described how a company could connect with its customers using information that they already had, “personalizing” the customer experience. The young man wasn’t a great presenter, but there was nothing wrong with the content he […]

“A woodworker must “apply a thousand skills” to find the ideal use for each piece of wood, respecting the “soul of the tree” and shaping it to realize its true potential”   George Nakashima, architect, artist, builder of beautiful wood furniture worked until his nineties. Now his children carry on his craft. In the fourteenth […]

This picture is a cartoon archetype. A guru, hermit, wiseman sits before the mouth of a cave high in the mountains. Before him sits a young seeker, a supplicant, whose backpack indicates he has climbed high into the mountains looking for answers to his burning question: “What is the meaning of life?” The punchlines almost […]

Carl asks “Why? Whaddyer tryin’ t’be an Influencer or sumtin’?” Carl, a voice from my youth, not a friend exactly, just someone I used to know, questioned why I write this blog, and post on LinkedIn, and Medium, and BizCatalyst 360. He couldn’t understand my motivation. Truthfully, I was having a difficult time explaining it. […]

Immigrants “That dust was everywhere. It got in your eyes, up your nose so you couldn’t draw a breath. So you breathed through your mouth and the grit was always on your teeth and crunched with everything you ate. The quarry slowed and there were no jobs, and then – America, the land of golden […]

There are but Three “There are but Three,” spoke the Eldest, her bright eyes shining in her creased leather face. “Each is tossed and torn by Sister Wind.” We’d watched with envy as our brothers and sisters left for the fire-talks of the Clan. Now it was our turn to meet with the Eldest. The […]