I bet you’re either glued to the news, or you’ve made yourself stop watching altogether. Personally I’ve made several resolutions this week—in both directions. As I write this on Friday afternoon, I’ve decided to watch for a minute—just in time to read, “DOW HAS IT’S WORST WEEK EVER.” Enough. As I’ve met with clients and coaches-in-trai...

Yes, an extraordinary week. Maybe you’re among the elated. Maybe you’re with the dejecteds. After three days (so far) of conversations with people in both groups I see some common threads: 1. At either far ends of the spectrum is the sense that a political personality or persuasion gets the responsibility–along with the credit or the blame–for what happens next. 2. Also...

So here we are at the start of a new year with way less money than we had last January, and way more reasons to worry about big and little things. Depending on how you look at it, for most of us in the Northwest, the winter storms that hit us were either a disaster (“snow-mageddon!” “snow-pocalypse!”) or an inescapable slow-down for the holidays Not to sound too cheery, b...

What is the secret of your personal success? There are some standard answers: knowing your craft, knowing your audience, grit, hard work, vision. The men and women I’ve been training would add to that list stuff like meaning, contribution, making things better along with having fun and making money. In the words of the sage, Jerry Seinfeld, “You can’t do good work if you’re...

Got Goals? It’s September tomorrow, a time when a lot of us think about what comes next–of what we want to create, invent, launch or instigate. I know it’s a theme I share with my favorite clients: I’m always thinking about where the next place is to grow and learn and course-correct. Here’s one of mine in a nutshell: It’s been twenty years since the Berlin W...

When was the last time someone paused, looked you in the eye and acknowledged your grace or courage, or your heart and attention? I.e. the character stuff that anchors your life and work. It’s usually a moment you savor and remember. Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that most of us can go days, weeks! without getting a word of acknowledgment. It’s a big enough deal t...

So tonight by midnight, we’ve all got to have something in the mail to the federal government–and by the end of the month, if you’re a small business, the states and cities will expect their payments too. This will be on my mind today as I meet with (and write newsletters to) my usual line-up of gifted men and women. Most of my clients and coaches are entrepreneurial. Many want...

Many of the gifted professionals I work with have this little worried heckler in their heads who accuses them of being frauds. The little worried heckler cleverly uses the first-person and says things like: “If people really knew how I (worried, lost sleep, flew by the seat of my pants or wasn’t as sure as I looked), they’d know I was an unqualified fraud. When I hear that li...

Here I am with my first Coach in nineteen-fifty-something. I’m lucky enough to still have this guy in my life, and I still learn things from him. I’ve learned from his example as a solid business success, and as a man who is about to enter his sixty-second year married to his best friend, still having fun. And I’ve also learned from his style I remember one summer evening a ...

I’ve always been intrigued with the idea of getting a horse to like me. Or trust me. Or teach me. Or not bite me. We were horse camping a couple of weeks ago and I tried out some of my theories on this big, smart, opinionated mare. I noticed in my three days with her that we did best when I told her where I wanted to go, but then trusted her wisdom about our pace and possible next ste...