Make Memories
In the summer of ’86 there was a great Wall Street Journal (hereinafter WSJ) article written about a Frozen Custard Stand in Lafayette, Indiana. I was 13 at the time. What was I doing reading the WSJ? Well, Friday night WSJ review nights, of course. Some of you know that every week we’d have “article [...]
Risky Hires: Wall Street Journal Circa 1997
I saved this article for 12 years, and who knows how much longer I’ll hang onto it. But I remember my dad giving this to me, or rather snail mailing it to me (I was probably just starting my job at Lilly). We all had inboxes growing up, from a very young age. In fact, [...]
Genius: The Modern View
Why do we love the “underdog” story? Susan Boyle. “Mine that Bird” (Derby this weekend). Slumdog Millionaire (brilliant fictional drama). To some degree, I think it’s because it represents more of “us.” Where we think we are, and what we hope to someday do or be. But the reality is that we’re less than an [...]
And to Paul Potts, too
So with all the fanfare with Susan Boyle and her amazing performance on “Britain’s Got Talent”, and my many many views of her performance in the last few days (to the point that my wife is teasing me), I’ve become captured with a few other great stories ofnormal people doing exceptional things that have been [...]
Thank You, Susan Boyle
Sometimes there are certain moments that words don’t describe well. Which is why I won’t try to share much about today’s posting and I’ll let this seven minute video taken from “Britain’s Got Talent” give you chills from seeing someone’s dream realized. I wish I could embed the video itself, but that feature has [...]
Dogged Pursuit
Can we agree on a few simple premises? 1. There’s a huge need for secondary or replacement primary income right now? More than ever in the past three decades, perhaps longer? Everybody is faced with the prospect of layoffs, 401k matches missing, salary reductions, and on. Not to say that everyone is going through [...]
The Phoenix VLOG
This is one of my first-ever predominantly video-blogs (vlogs), but it’ll tell the better story comprised of a few different clips from a great evening. Thanks to all the Phoenix leadership, including Barry and Connie Lucas, Kenny and Esmerelda Rossi, Ron Faunce, Dr. Jack Burns, and many many others who participated and helped. Thanks to [...]
Rocky Mountain High
Growing up we did the annual trip our West, generally Colorado. We’d start in Columbus, Ohio, and 24-hours later we’d arrive into the Denver area. Lots of memories evolve from those trips, including a few funny prospective blog stories, but one of the things I remember most about the journey was the dialogue and the [...]
Austenver
This entry started as what would be a combination of two events, Austin and Denver. Thus the name, Austenver. Then, I started looking at all the great pictures and people from Austin, and I just couldn’t bring myself to pull the two events together. As I type we’re en route to Denver, placing bets of [...]
Nashville (creative heading, huh)
My creativity brain cells are, I believe, starting to diminish. But the excitement on the road for Univera isn’t! Sometimes when I write these entries about the Road Tour I feel like it might read as a bit of over-enthusiasm for these events, but really, if they weren’t good events I either wouldn’t write about [...]
Memories and Mo(mentum)
I’ve got lots of New Jersey memories. My parents moved out there when I was in College, a big move for them. My younger sisters were all raised there. My parents home in New Jersey served as an escape after we lived downtown during 9/11, a place where we ended up staying for quite some [...]
Bon Jour Montreal
We arrived in Montreal on Wednesday night, with a bit of a prolonged adventure what with our RGL and NGL experience which I already addressed in another blog post. Thursday was a day of meetings regarding the Univera/Matol integration, with lots of leadership from Bijan and Jonathan. I can’t mention all the names of the [...]
Happy 4th Birthday Buddy
The reason I write in my blog is to connect with people. Not just from one segment of life, but from many. And as part of the thread of stories I try to share experiences and observations in leadership, volunteerism, wellness, as well as some stories that are simply personal experiences that fall in none [...]
WSJ Article
A few weeks ago I was reading the following article, and I thought it was so great I’m linking it on my blog. You gotta love the attitude of the wounded Navy Seal in rehab, and the appropriate sign he posts, leaving simply zero doubt about his success and the perspective, and no tolerance for [...]
533,000
I doubt anybody missed this announcement, but I’ll include a link below to the front page story of the Wall Street Journal–also easiliy found on the website or cover of any other paper or news site today. The month of November represented the shedding of over 533,000 jobs–the highest monthly total we’ve seen in the [...]
What CEOs (leaders) can learn from Paul Newman
I just returned from the Gold/Platinum Xpand your Business seminar up at Alderbrook this past weekend where my wife and I attended the concluding dinner and had a fantastic time with all those present. While reading various emails this afternoon, I ran across a Wall Street Journal article sent to me a few weeks ago, [...]
Seven years ago today…
It’s taken me five days to finish this post that I started on 9/11. I remember so vividly the crisp fall morning, awakening early to what literally started as a most idyllic day–and quickly morphed into something quite different–from the freshness of having just learned that Erica was pregnant two days before, to enjoying a [...]
One of the Greatest Things…
About the Direct Selling industry is the ability to offer opportunity and development to those who might never experience the chance otherwise. Growing up in the Raz family wasn’t likely a totally normal experience; I think we were a family of restless overachievers yet at the same time each of us were and are, in [...]