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Words that stay with us and shape our lives

I was in a meeting with a person who shared something they heard that has had a significant impact on their life. My own thinking went into overdrive on the people and messages that have impacted me (and still do). These messages have been received in various ways: one-on-one with a person, hearing a statement in a meeting or at a presentation, reading a book, watching a video, and so forth. Here is a partial list of messages that have impacted me. I hope you will enjoy this and will add your own to the list. * “Most of what we worry about never happens—and what does happen is ...

What’s the matter with Minnesota?

Minnesota? Somalis? Nine billion dollars in alleged welfare fraud? To understand what’s going on from a distance, it helps to understand basic culture. Minnesota was settled largely by people of Scandinavian and German ancestry. In survey after survey, Minnesota has ranked No. 1 or No. 2 among states, often just behind neighboring and much smaller North Dakota, in social connectedness, civic participation, workforce participation and voter turnout. It has traditionally led the nation in levels of trust and conscientiousness. This has been coupled with political behavior that ...

Is a red line still a red line?

One of the most embarrassing moments of the extremely embarrassing Barack Obama presidency came in the context of the Syrian civil war. In August 2012, Obama vowed that “a red line for us,” which would thereby necessitate some sort of American intervention, “is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.” The 44th president continued: “That would change my calculus.” Except it didn’t. A year later, former Iran- and Russia-backed Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad crossed Obama’s “red line,” launching a lethal sarin gas on his ...

The goal posts keep shifting

Renee Good should be alive. The activist, killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, met her end in tragedy. What has happened since, predictably, saw people rush to their tribal corners. ICE “murdered” Good. Good was the villain. Your politics positioned your stance. What got left behind were the facts and a press corps that proved again it cannot be trusted. On the day of Good’s death, those who took ICE’s side claimed Good hit the ICE agent with her car. Others denied it. Some insisted ICE agents were sending mixed signals, some telling her to drive off and ...

Working on the business or in the business?

A book I have found helpful is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber. It was first published in 1995. When small business owners or individuals considering starting a business ask me what book I would recommend, this is my go-to suggested read. It is where I learned the concept of working on the business rather than only in the business. I became aware of The E-Myth Revisited as part of a roundtable of small business owners. An attendee suggested that we all read a book. As I waited for one of my own books to be suggested, The E-Myth Revisited was recommended. I bought ...

Hard promises

Overhauling Venezuela promises to be a chore. The Trump administration has had bad timing. Perhaps the President should be guided by Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, written in 1516. He observed that “the king, being distracted with the charge of two Kingdoms, could not properly attend to either.” Given the affair in Minneapolis, this seems to be what Donald Trump is facing. Having an explosive situation incited by the killing of Renee Nicole Good and the subsequent distortion of that action by the White House, it seems the President is “distracted” to say the very least. Even his ...