“Anything that costs you your peace is too expensive.”
— Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
I was dying to work for a Fortune 500 company.
Continue reading “Walking Away from My Dream Career Path Saved My Life”
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Category: Career
Don’t Break the Chain: The Value of Persistence
I began playing organized basketball at the age of six.
By the age of ten, I was playing year-round for various travel teams in various leagues, almost always in the age bracket above mine. There was never an offseason. Camps, practices, summer leagues, fall leagues, spring leagues, open gyms – I did it all. When state rules prevented us from holding official practices, we all met at our point guard’s home and conducted practices on the full court in his backyard.
Basketball was an everyday thing.
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10 Books That Are as Valuable as an MBA
You can’t learn everything in school.
In fact, many of the greatest lessons are found outside of the classroom. As someone that went to graduate school (twice) and did get an MBA, I will not diminish it by saying that reading some books is the equivalent of completing a postgraduate degree. It’s not. I learned a great deal from reading case studies, listening to lectures, and engaging with my fellow students.
However, there there were some gaps that business school did not address.
To fill in those gaps, I turned to books.
Workaholism Is Overrated
“My old man worked hard. All they did was give him more work.”
— Larry Wilson, Weekend at Bernie’s
There are people that take pride in being the last one at work, their car always in the parking lot, their light the only one on in an otherwise pitch-black office. Their career is their life. They’re still at their desk while the cleaning crew vacuums around them.
The Work Is What Matters
“The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There’s far less competition.”
— Dwight Morrow
As Ryan Holiday writes in Ego Is the Enemy, John Boyd is “one of the most influential strategists and practitioners in modern warfare,” yet he’s “someone most people have never heard of.”
The fact that Boyd is unknown is fitting, because his lasting legacy is a speech he gave to scores of young officers that has come to be known as the “To Do or To Be” speech:
The Twitter Reckoning
For those of us that are old enough to remember rotary phones and Columbia House music for a penny, we remember a time when everything was slower. Television news was on once or twice a day and the Sunday newspaper was thick enough to use as a step stool. Back then, it took a long time for news to travel and for movements to pick up speed. Things like Watergate or Iran-Contra unraveled slowly, over a long period of time.
That’s no longer the case.
Life Lessons I Learned While Working Manual Labor
I lead a sedentary lifestyle. I work in an office and I read and write in my spare time. The most non-sitting that occurs in my day is my nightly routine of doing the dishes, where my six-foot-three frame has to stoop just to reach the bottom of the sink.
This general lack of movement and exertion is the only thing I miss about working manual labor.
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I’m Happy For You! (But I’m Jealous Too)
Recently, I learned that someone close to me had received a promotion. A big promotion. They would now be doing a job that is reserved for very few people in the world. It meant plenty of perks and tons of responsibilities. It was one of those jobs that comes with a press release.
A Surefire Path to Success? Ask Smart Questions
One of the perks of my job is that I am fortunate to sit in meetings with the leadership of the organization – President/CEO, COO, CFO, VP’s, directors, whomever.
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