Shakespeare said, somewhere in there among the zillion good and incisive things he wrote that: “nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so.” It occurs to me upon reflection that a significant portion of our “troubles” as humans come not from actual events, but to our flawed reactions to them. Sometimes, we…

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I am immersed in a 27 year-old book, the memoirs of Clark Clifford entitled Counsel To The President. Clifford was a Washington power broker for 40+ years between the 1940’s and the 1980’s and served many Presidents during some truly historic times…not all of them pleasurable. At the same time that I’m reading Clifford’s book,…

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As a lifelong reader, I am long past the discovery that the simple act of reading can produce sustained pleasure of surprising power. Right now, I’m alternating some weekend business work with the final chapters in Stephen Kotkin’s terrific book, “Waiting For Hitler”, about the machinations and challenges surrounding Joseph Stalin in the years leading…

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“I saw your memo to Bill Jones today.” Norman Brinker was sitting back behind his desk, feet up, relaxed. It had been a long week in Miami and he’d be heading back to Dallas in the morning. Outside, the headquarters parking lot had emptied and the sun was sliding down over West Kendall and the…

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I was on a flight from New York to Las Vegas and flying first class (these were the old days). We had yet to take off and the plane was still filling with passengers. I was in a window seat and the aisle seat next to me was still vacant. An older African American man…

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I was nearing the end of a public dialogue with faculty and students at the Cal State San Marcos College of Business Administration, when a graduating senior was picked to ask me one final question. The question was: “What upon reflection has been the biggest single lesson you’ve learned over your 40+ years in business?…

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I have today only fleeting memories of the train ride up from Fayetteville through Washington to New York. I remember that the day was sunny and warm and I remember looking at the public buildings in Washington with a new fascination as they passed by the windows of the coach in which I rode. I…

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It was the late fall of 1967 and I was an Officer Candidate at the U.S. Army’s Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia (affectionately known at the time by its inmates as “The Benning School For Boys”). In early December, we were taken to an unusual facility called the Leadership Reaction Course. On an otherwise…

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Back in the 90’s, I did some hiking in northern Spain with a group led by Erik Perez (pictured), a skilled mountain climber and highly experienced guide for Sobek Mountain Travel. We were hiking in the Picos De Europa, the mountain range that skirts the northern rim of the province of Asturias and had just…

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Here’s a great Wisdom Capture video by Doug Lipp of Disney U. Learn more about Wisdom Capture at WisdomCapture.com! https://app.wisdomcapture.com/v/1/watch/overcoming_obstacles