Things are the way they are for a reason. This 30-day return policy, that 365-day return policy, that infuriating phone tree system, the carpool lane hours, the traffic light that protects left turns. Sometimes it’s a good reason, sometimes it’s a bad reason. Sometimes it’s just because no one has cared enough to change it …
Continue reading “Things are the way they are for a reason.”
Ella Fitzgerald was so nervous at a talent contest that instead of dancing like she was scheduled to, she sang. Roy Orbison wore dark sunglasses to hide from the crowd during performances, and he wore them so often that people thought he was blind. Henry Fonda started his acting career at age 20. At age …
Whenever a Tracy Chapman song is played, I recognize her voice immediately because it’s so distinct. The same is true of countless other singers and artists. They are readily recognizable, uniquely them. There are a lot of O-shaped cereals that taste nothing like Cheerios. What will you do that is as special as your signature?
There was a guy who went rock climbing by himself and he had to cut off his hand to survive because he didn’t go with a friend or tell anyone exactly where he was going. A boulder that he was climbing on shifted and pinned his hand against the canyon wall. He was stuck until …
Continue reading “Don’t go alone. You don’t know what you don’t know.”
The other day I heard someone call the bushfires in Australia “brush fires”. Because that made more sense to him. He’s American and Americans don’t call any fires in America “bushfires”. People have been using maps of their home countries to convey the size of Australia to give context to the current fires in Australia. …
Your brand isn’t your logo. It’s the quality of the products that you make. It’s what makes people turn something upside down to see who made it and how they can get more. It’s how you behave. It’s how you treat others. It’s how quickly your customer support team picks up the phone. It’s the …
Sometimes when I don’t know what to do, I do something easy. Like unloading the dishwasher, or folding the laundry. Or check my email. This is a trap. Not because these things don’t need to be done, but because the fact that something is quick or easy to do is not really a reason to …
It’s sometimes not enough to prepare for one thing going wrong. When things go badly wrong, it’s usually because more than just one thing goes wrong. Being low on gas is no problem, because there are gas stations everywhere. Leaving the house a few minutes later than usual usually isn’t a big deal either. A …
I had been running regularly, training for a marathon, when I decided to run the first part of the marathon course one day as part of my preparation. It had rained the day before and I came to a spot in the road that was flooded with a huge puddle, one that was too large …
I bet there’s not much difference in the way that an amateur and a professional lay one brick. But I bet there’s a big difference in the way they lay a hundred bricks, or a thousand bricks. I remember debating with a friend whether or not a $2 Australian coin was thicker than a $1 …
