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A friend asked me last weekend why I didn’t show up for the men’s choir practice at our church. I replied that my singing was so bad that, when the crowds get a bit unruly, some local bars hire me to come up and do a karaoke number at closing time to clear out the place. … Read More

“Eighty percent of success is just showing up.”  Woody Allen Every great cause requires a person to step forward and make that dream a reality. Several years ago I had the pleasure of working with a leader who underestimated her ability to make the dream of a critically ill young man come true. In 2008 … Read More

From my desk I had a clear view of the guard station in the atrium entrance to our office building. One morning a delivery man caught my eye–a delivery man with a bouquet of a dozen red roses in a white vase. Although deliveries like this were a common sight on Valentine’s Day, it was unusual … Read More

Think about the oddest “wrong number” phone call you’ve received. I remember picking up a voice mail left by  a panicked homeowner—who was looking for a plumber. I guess the “Dennis & Laurie can’t come to the phone…,” didn’t make it clear we weren’t the local Roto Rooter. I hope they didn’t drown trying to … Read More

Too many people wait for leadership from the top when it is often in their own grasp. I’d like to share a story about when desperately needed leadership came from the middle. I was working for a startup that was suffering from a layoff hangover from “right sizing” many months prior. As one of my … Read More

My former barber is a friendly woman who greets every customer as they enter her shop. Her cheery mood brightens many a dreary day. Except for one customer. When she would greet him with a “How are you doing today?” he’d respond curtly. “Fine.” If she tried to engage him in conversation with questions such … Read More

Christmas traditions have many origins. Nobody really knows who first had the idea of chopping down an evergreen tree, propping it up in their hut, and decorating it. The tradition of Silent Night was supposedly born when the organ in the the church of Obendorf, Austria broke down on Christmas Eve. Father Joseph Mohr wrote … Read More

In the first eleven years of our marriage we moved eleven times. And no, it was not because we were fleeing the law. I was an Air Force Officer for seven plus years and we then spent three years in a New Jersey corporate America stint. During each of those moves we accumulated great friends … Read More

A friend told me about his Michigan cousin who scheduled his wedding to be on a Saturday morning. An unusual time for a marriage ceremony, but it seems that was the only way the the newlyweds would be able to attend the local tractor pull that night. You might understand their priorities. To me, it … Read More

We’ve all shot ourselves in the foot. My own two feet are covered with the scars of many self inflicted wounds. But one of my friends topped that when he almost shot down his own fighter plane in 1951. John Robertson started the Korean War flying the P-51 Mustang and later transitioned to the F-80 … Read More