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There are certain people you have to drag into understanding of what you’re trying to do. Perpetual doubters who demand answers and evidence and details before even considering cosigning your dream.  When you encounter them, run. As fast as you can. Battling a tide of nonbelievers is an exhausting, discouraging and wasteful use of your time. It doesn’t matter how closely your image of reality intersects with theirs. You’re…

I have no desire to sell my company. I’m not in the business of managing employees. There’s nothing about scaling that sounds even remotely attractive to me. And I have no exit strategy in mind.  Small is an acceptable destination.  In fact, it’s not just acceptable, it’s manageable, flexible, approachable and most importantly, profitable. However, I’ll never forget the words of my mentor, who once advised me to think…

We should all be grateful anytime someone gives us a safe place to spew some of our emotional bile. When the dam of what we need to say builds up behind us, having a friend generous and patient enough to help us unleash the river is a cleansing, cathartic experience.  Of course, the heart has limits. There’s only so much burden we can spread around. And if we spew…

I attended college about six hours from my hometown. To me, four hundred miles was far away enough to feel like I was an independent adult, but close enough where I could still come home for free food and laundry on a long weekend.  Something I noticed, though, when driving between home and college, was the landscape. Or lack thereof. Because when you’re driving six hours across prairie states,…

I have a friend whose childhood centered around ballet.  Dancing was her whole life. And she thought it would be her whole career, too, until she sustained a serious ankle injury during college that ultimately ruined her chances of dancing professionally.  Naturally, she was crushed. As any artist would be. Can you imagine the agony of realizing that you can no longer do what you thought you were put…

The first thing I do every day of my life is a twenty minute journaling exercise.  I vomit out every single thought and feeling and idea that’s running through my racing brain. Dreams, worries, fears, annoyances, ideas, people who annoyed me the day before, everything. I continue writing until I’ve filled up three pages.  And then, about twenty minutes into the exercise, I take the most important step. I…

I recently read a story about a collegiate sprinter who made a crucial mistake during his race. While competing in the men’s steeplechase event, he raised his arm to celebrate his victory as he led the trailing runners towards the finish line.  Unfortunately, his celebrations slowed him down enough for a competing runner to catch him and win the race. He lost by one tenth of a second.  It’s a classic…

Shakespeare famously said that one man’s tragedy is another man’s comedy.  And yet, when sad things happen in the world, our response shouldn’t always be to laugh, but to internalize. To check ourselves. To get out of judgment mode and take this moment of introspection to create some positive movement in the development of our own character.  One technique I find helpful is responding to external tragic moments with…

Every business has a handful of dream clients. Ideal candidates they’d love to do work for. People they’d give their left arm to collaborate with. Sometimes sales departments will even write a persona or tape a hot list the wall or compile a vision board or even write a full blown strategy for ultimately securing their so called whales.  But more often than not, most businesses just sit back…

When there’s something in your life that’s siphoning your vitality, making it hard to keep your fire burning, getting in the way of your efforts to live the best life you possibly can, that thing has to be exorcised.  Plain and simple. Otherwise it will drag behind you like an anchor. And if you don’t leave now, you won’t leave with yourself.  Over the years I’ve been in relationships,…