Look to the Goal, and Stay out of the Ditch
I took a motorcycle class to get re-certified and learned an important principle that goes way beyond riding two wheelers. The instructor emphasized over and over in both the classroom and on the course that when you’re making a turn you want to look through the turn—look where you’re going—and not at the obstacle near […]
The Art of Selling
The best sales people don’t rely on a smarmy pitch or underhanded tactics. They find out what people want, and then deliver. I spent one Seattle summer working as the ice cream man, selling my wares from a three-wheeled truck. My best route included Alki Beach a sandy summer hangout on the west side of […]
The Great April Fools’ Caper
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 […]
Predictably Bad
History is littered with those who made monumentally bad predictions. In 1901 Wilbur Wright told his brother, Orville, that man would not fly for fifty years.” Two years later the brothers made a mockery of Wilbur’s prediction. At Yale, a professor gave a student a “C” for his paper suggesting that you could make a […]
Against the Odds
What happens when you ignore common business sense? Sometimes doing the right thing pays off—despite being totally against the odds. Earlier this month I had the pleasure of speaking at a local conference on cost benefit analysis for businesses trying to decide on which projects to start—and which to dump. It happened to be a […]
Nuns and Baseball
The back to school season reminds me of a number of teachers that were influential in my life. Over the next few months I plan on telling stories about several of them. If you’d like to tell a story about a teacher that was a notable influence in your life please contact me. If you’re […]
A Bit of Attitude
Winning often requires more than just skill and practice–it sometimes comes down to a bit of attitude; some swagger to back up hard work and preparation. A good example is the turnaround of the football team of my undergrad alma mater, the Washington Huskies. In 2009 after an 0 and 12 and excruciatingly-painful-to-watch-from-our-seats-in-the-stands-season, Washington hired […]
The Rocket and the Jet
When the space shuttle Atlantis landed in July it marked the end of an era in space flight. As a kid I followed the space program with deep fascination and this milestone was sad. This last mission of the shuttle program also reminded me of two stories that connected me loosely to the space program. [youtube […]
A Little Respect, Please
Jim Riggleman quit his dream job because he was “disrespected.” Riggleman was the manager of the Washington Nationals baseball franchise. He took the last place Nationals from division cellar dwellers to contenders. Just after winning 11 of 12 games (including a sweep of my Seattle Mariners) he resigned. For the last two years he’s been […]
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