While scrolling through Twitter tonight, I glimpsed a news tweet about Tracee Ellis Ross rallying supporters for one of the US presidential candidates. “Let’s make history” is the phrase Ross used to hype the crowd; the Black Voices editors highlighted this phrase in their promotions. It’s a phrase that sometimes comes up when a member of […]
When good doesn’t want to be great
When I first heard Maya Angelou teaching Oprah Winfrey, “When people show you who they are, believe them,” I said amen with the rest of the viewers. Believe them! They know themselves much better than you do.” —Maya Angelou Just as Winfrey said, though, it’s a lesson that can be easy to affirm and challenging to apply. People and organizations set the […]
Tools: Use them
As the last third of the year begins, I’ve been reviewing this summer’s finances. I spent about 6 hours combing through transaction records today—until I realized that there are no prizes for suffering, just as there are no awards for doing every job myself or taking every course available without putting them into action right […]
Playing against the house
I didn’t expect to see so many people in a countryside casino on a Sunday afternoon. I was at a national park resort with an adjacent casino-hotel—an easy way for park visitors to find lodging and an even easier way for the House to make money. There were rows upon rows of flashing, beeping, humming […]
Keeping ambition in proportion
The whole point of dancing is the dance.” —Alan Watts Alan Watts was a British philosopher who popularized Buddhist philosophy for receptive U.S. audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. I first heard of him during grad school, while I was around extraordinarily bright and motivated people. Many of whom were strangers to failure and most […]
Getting your own way
A healthcare CEO sometimes asks other executives to examine how fast they move to quash disagreement and other kinds of relational discomforts. “Do you sacrifice reconciliation for resolution?” —Curt Nonomaque I thought of Curt and this question as I read a thread about networking on LinkedIn this week. “I have received very positive responses even from cold contacts,” the writer said. […]
