Most people will spend more time researching a restaurant than they do choosing the person who will guide them through the largest financial decision of their lives. I have always found that curious. Before we spend fifty dollars on dinner, we read reviews, compare menus, ask friends what they … [Read more...]
You Have to Read the Book
We say it all the time. Don’t judge a book by its cover. And yet most of us still do. Not always out of arrogance. Often out of efficiency. Life moves quickly, decisions pile up, and our minds try to protect our time by forming impressions early. A quick glance. A short conversation. A first … [Read more...]
The Quiet Agreement Between Who You Want to Be and What You Do Today
There is a quiet tension most people carry but rarely name. The life they imagine for themselves feels expansive, almost inevitable, yet their days feel small, repetitive, and constrained. Somewhere between the two, something starts to feel off. I have come to believe that the problem is not … [Read more...]
What We Lose Quietly
Loss rarely announces itself. It often does not arrive with a single moment you can point to, name, and explain. It accumulates in the background, in the spaces we stop paying attention to, in the things we assume will hold without care. I have come to believe that a lot of what we regret … [Read more...]
There Are Always Jobs. The Question to be Asked Is Different.
This past Friday, after class, two students stayed back to chat with me. For context. They were international students. Thoughtful, capable, and clearly carrying something heavier than coursework. As we sat down, the frustration came out quickly. The job market is terrible. No one is hiring. … [Read more...]
The Power of Being Trusted Before You Prove It
Sport has a way of exposing something many organizations try very hard to hide. Most teams say they believe in people. Very few actually do when performance dips. Pressure reveals the truth. When results stall, belief is usually the first casualty. Selection committees grow restless, leaders … [Read more...]
Separate the Sadness from the Worry
Ambition can make even a gifted mind impatient with reality. A few days back, I sat across from someone I care for deeply. She is young, brilliant, and clear in a way that takes most people decades to earn. You speak with her and you sense direction. Not the loud kind that needs validation, but … [Read more...]
Make the Cost Visible
The most dangerous word in leadership is yes. Not because agreement is weak. Not because change is bad. But because yes, when offered too quickly, hides a bill that someone else will eventually pay. Over the years, whether in technology, higher education, community foundations, or in rooms … [Read more...]
When Proximity Breeds Carelessness
It is a strange truth that we often reserve our sharpest edges for the people who have already chosen us. I have seen it in boardrooms, in partnerships, in community work, and in the quiet spaces of home. The further someone stands from us, the more measured we become. We listen better. We are … [Read more...]