I couldn’t believe how well I was received in my new role.  With little or no experience and very little history with the brokers that were calling on me, they were already treating me as if I were a seasoned veteran and that we were old friends.  I even started to form deep relationships and interact with them the way I would good friends.  And then my boss told me something that rocked my world…

Most people who attend conferences consider them continuing education, growth, and leadership development opportunities. Most business owners consider them to be something different: paid vacation. I have even heard them referred to as “boondoggles.”

You want to know why? Because they are.

Business owners feel that way about them because it is typically the way they treat them. And because they do, they pretty much assume everyone else does the same. And they are typically right….

I am sure that you would rather hear more about the first definition and werewolves, but we are going to focus on the second one.  (But, If you like broad comedy and werewolves, stay tuned for Taika Waititi’s werewolf mockumentary, “We’re Wolves”.)

Almost every leader we encounter is looking for a silver bullet.  Heck, I think I am sometimes holding out the false hope that they exist for me or my clients.  We all hope that we could somehow…

Something about the King’s proper English that makes everything sound nicer or more official.  They even have a different word for “firing” someone.  While “redundancy” traditionally means reduction in force, it is typically used as a placeholder for every situation of someone being removed from their job.  I first became acquainted with this term while watching the original British version of The Office sitcom.

But “firing” is no laughing matter and is one of the necessary requirements of running a business.  And unfortunately, it is something that most of us don’t do very well.  In fact, what we typically see is…

In 1989, the best picture was Rain Man and the best album was George Michael’s Faith.  Gas was 97 cents a gallon, the price of a stamp was 25 cents, and Microsoft released a revolutionary suite of office products that contained a spreadsheet and a word processor.  And probably known to very few other people than her, Kathy went to work for the AutoZone store near the corner of Blanco and Basse….

Everywhere we turn, the stakes are getting higher.  It doesn’t seem like there are many people that are settled in their current state and not living with the expectation that some kind of significant change is just around the next corner.  And in the uncertainty of how things will be different on the other side of all that expectancy, there is understandably a lot of groaning…

Hans Zimmer is possibly the greatest composer of our day.  If I played you a mashup of his greatest compositions, many would be instantly recognizable.  He is responsible for the scores and soundtracks for Gladiator, Dunkirk, etc…..In his Masterclass, he talks about the craft of scoring a film.  He has such genius in this area that his teaching not only illuminates and simplifies, but demystifies the work as well.  And one of the crescendoing points of his teaching (in lesson 30 of his Masterclass) is that there is unique hidden genius in all of us, but that the real glory is when each of us sings in that unique voice…

I felt like I was the only kid with divorced parents.

• It seemed I was the only Baylor student who had a full-time job.

• When most of my DINK (dual income no kids) friends were taking extravagant vacations and moving into their first and then second homes, I was having my third child.

• Despite the fact that I managed billions for the banks I worked for, it seemed like the lenders who managed a fraction of what I did, had bigger titles, made more money, and got way more attention….

When I arrived on the campus of Baylor University it was as if I were walking onto the surface of a new planet.  I didn’t really have much experience with faith, that level of academia, or even the relationships or the kind of families I encountered.

I remember sitting in an IHOP near campus on the morning I was supposed to check into my dorm.  I was there way too early (as was our family practice), sitting alone at a table with all my life’s possessions crammed into my Mazda a few feet away.  I watched the restaurant fill up, booth by booth, with huge families….

Being part of a circle of 48 men that I deeply respected was a very humbling experience.  Spending 5 days with them as a part of a company of older men to deeply engage 72 younger men that were committing to a decade of excavating their lives and hearts for the sake of “becoming the kind of men that God can entrust his Kingdom” was other-worldly.  

A captain approached Jesus with a big problem.  His servant is paralyzed and suffering great pain.  Jesus says he will come and heal him, but the captain explains that he understands authority and that by merely commanding things, it is done.  So he suggests that Jesus merely say that he would be healed and he knows it will be so…

A little over 10 years ago, I turned off the news.  There was a national election going on and in typical fashion, one side saw the alternative candidate as being full of darkness with no possible goodness capable in them.  The other side was in exactly in the same boat.  The acrimony and shrill hatred…

A good friend of mine purchased a time machine.  It cost less than you might think and almost nothing to run.  Every experience with it takes him back into his life and story, reminds him of things he’s forgotten, and helps him excavate essential treasure needed for the next step of his journey…

We were looking for a writing utensil for a leadership event we were offering at a historic boutique hotel.  No matter how much we were willing to spend, we couldn’t really find a pen that we thought was consistent with the event, location, and thoughtfulness of the experience…

This story is about a young girl with a very fragile heart.  A girl who loved to sing and perform in front of others.  The one that took all those roles in her church and school.  Upfront and unashamed.  It was part of her glory and her greatest joy.

Until one day when everything changed.  A school assembly with pretty much everyone present, including the cute boy she was currently carrying a crush for.  That young beautiful heart…

A leader at one of our board tables was making an analogy.  The decision-making process for many entrepreneurs or leaders is akin to shaking the Magic 8 Ball for answers.  We all laughed…nervously.  That sounded ridiculous and felt all-too-familiar, all at the same time.

The entrepreneur archetype is typified by a high-risk quotient.  It is bold, audacious, and I would even say courageous to embark on an entrepreneurial journey.  It also comes with a lot of isolation, loneliness, and second-guessing of nearly…

One of my all time favorite movies is “Warrior”.  Pretty rough, but it gets me every time and I have seen it quite a few times.  Brandon finds himself in the cage against a bigger and seemingly better opponent.  He gets brief reprieves between rounds.  He is moments from either blacking out or needing to tap out.  His manager repeatedly says something that completely takes me by surprise…

After six years of a successful run at managing my first investment portfolio near the start of my banking career, it seemed to be over in an instant.  My bank had been acquired and while I managed just north of $1 billion in fixed income assets, it was folded simply into the much bigger portfolio of the acquiring bank.  My position was the first to be eliminated in the acquisition…