You Never Regret Being Generous

Chris Guillebeau had an interesting post on his blog earlier this week. It has to do with a tip to a cab driver and a lack of anything smaller than a $5. Because he lacked anything smaller, he kept the $5 and didn’t tip the cab driver. He stated in his post It’s funny how [...]

Rethinking How I Look At The World

Those who know me know how little enthusiasm I have for sports. I’ve never developed an interest. I’ve tried. I just couldn’t do it. Which is why I’m surprised at something that happened. I got a call Sunday night. A friend of mine had Phillies tickets, and asked if I wanted to go to the [...]

John Maxwell: Don’t Shun The Sting

This post by John Maxwell hit home for me. I had to make a phone call last night. I got an answering machine. I’m not very good with voice mails. Even with people I know, I’ve never been good. I sometimes opt to hang up on the voice mail and try to call later. My [...]

INC Magazine: Top Business Books

INC Magazine has a list of the “Top Business Books”. I’ve actually read one of them. You can try to guess which one. Of all the reading lists I’ve come across, INC’s is one of the least inspiring. I don’t know if it’s because the reviews are so short. They’re way too short to tell [...]

The Fastest Way To The Top

Most of my life, I’ve tried to take the fastest path I could find to the top. It’s rarely worked well. At times, I’ve felt like an overachiever. At other times, I’ve felt like a total failure. In November, after I realized that my job was headed south, I bought Rabbi Daniel Lapin’s book “Thou [...]

Commitment Part II: By The Way, The Navy Broke It’s Contract With Me

Yesterday, I published a blog post about commitments. I revealed how I was tempted to get out of the Navy by failing weight standards, but decided to honor my commitment. I honored my end of the contract, even though the Navy broke it’s end before I even signed it. I joined the Navy through the [...]

Alternate Work Schedules: What’s Best For You?

The company that laid me off last month rolled out what they called "Flexible Work Schedules" at the end of 2008. I elected not to participate because I considered these schedules to be far less flexible than a regular 8 hour day 5 days a week. One model required you to work 9 hours every [...]

Judging and Condemning

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time. I doubt it’s going to become the long essay I originally wanted to write. We’ve all heard people make comments like “Don’t judge me” or “You shouldn’t judge people”. Why? The ironic thing is that these statements are often followed by some very judgmental [...]

Do You Know When To Fix Somebody, And When To Just Listen?

This post is hard for me. I like to fix things. I love to have problems to solve. I also love to learn things. I’d love to have the answer to every question. A few weeks ago, a group I was talking with had an interesting discussion. Have you ever had somebody totally drop a [...]

When Bad News Is Good News (And People Won’t Deliver It)

I wrote this post yesterday. Then I deleted the entire thing. What came out of my hands onto my keyboard was very angry and reactionary. It was also immature. I should expect better of myself. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you know the news you’re likely to get is bad? Of [...]