Work Life

I recently laughed to myself about an old scene from the movie Airplane. At one point, they turn on the emergency autopilot, and a funny blow-up pilot with a hat ends up flying the plane. It had me thinking about the concept of autopilot in our lives and how it can help or hurt us.

Marshall Goldsmith, the top executive coach in the world, and Barack Obama both talk about how they put their daily wardrobe on autopilot. They both own multiple pairs of the same shirt and pants they wear every day.…

Would you like to hear the three questions to ask yourself to find freedom in your business?

In 2018, I chose to leave the corporate world. It was a huge expression of my commitment to personal freedom. And it was terrifying because I was leaving behind everything I knew. I was Christopher Columbus sailing off into a great mystery, trusting with all my heart that a whole new world was out there… somewhere. I knew that if I discovered this new world, I could chart the path for other people who w…

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." – Edmund Hillary

My mind is focused on my next adventure, so I wanted to share a vision that is really inspiring me. Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain above sea level (Mauna Kea measured from the seafloor is higher) in the world: 19,341 ft (5,895 meters) above sea level. However, most people don't realize that it is a dormant volcano consisting of 3 volcanic cones (Kibo…

"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you." – Anne Lamott

I love this quote by the author Anne Lamott because it speaks to something profound.

From my own experience and the experience of the countless people I have worked with, we have to unplug from time to time to be at our best. Think about it. We wear ourselves out if we don't take breaks throughout our workday. We get fidgety, tense, and constricted. It starts to get harder to think clearly or f…

This photo from Madagascar (one of my bucket list destinations) shows some of the most unusual and fascinating trees on the planet. Baobab trees, sometimes referred to as "upside-down" trees, are not fast growers, taking up to 15 to 20 years to bear fruit. They are some of the world's oldest trees, some dating back to 2,000 years or more, and now due to climate change, they appear to be dying. It turns out that rainfall patterns in Africa, where all baobab trees can be found, have completely cha…

“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” – William Arthur Ward

Have you ever watched a scene from a movie that stuck with you? In the film “Glengarry Glen Ross,” Alec Baldwin is a high-pressure, “motivational” trainer sent in to give a speech to a real estate sales team about the ABCs of selling, which in this case stands for “Always - Be - Closing.”

I like my own ABCs better. They stand for “Always - Be - Curious.”

Humans are creatures of habit, so it can be easy to get stuck in pa…

“Beauty is perfect in its imperfections, so you just have to go with the imperfections.” – Diane von Furstenberg

If you have been to the Louvre Museum in Paris, you might have noticed one statue that stands out. The Winged Victory of Samothrace stands majestically at the end of a long staircase. Have you ever wondered what the story was about this statue? Well, the exact origins are not known. However, archaeologists and art historians have extensively studied the sculpture for more than a cent…

“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” – Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso is probably one of the most well-known artists of the Late-Modern Era. But why are we so drawn to his painting? One of the paintings that have always impacted me is his famous large-scale painting Guernica. I remember seeing it during a trip to Madrid many years ago. It took up an entire wall at the Museo Reina Sofia.

What I find interesting is that this painting, like many of his works, is an exploration of …

So… Tell Me About Yourself?

"A blank canvas is a playground for the imagination." – Marty Rubin

If you have sat through an interview or been to a networking event, you have heard this question before. It seems straightforward, but why do so many of us get tripped up by this question? I think it is because most of us don't like a blank canvas. A question like this is way too open, and it leaves so much up to creative expression.

Do they want to hear my life story or my job history? How much de…

Do you remember the days of HiFi stereo equalizers?

Back when music was still on vinyl records or cassette tapes, there was something profoundly fulfilling about being able to adjust and control the quality of my own music.

I was passionate about Hendrix. Zeppelin. Otis Redding. The Clash. The Velvet Underground. At the time, this was music that brought my spirit alive. So, as a true audiophile, I had to make sure it sounded incredible. I had this expansive stereo control panel full of knobs a…