Memorial Day – What It Truly Means
As you raise your glass this weekend, please take a moment to reflect on what Monday truly means. There are currently several hundred thousand hundred troops stationed directly in harms way doing very dangerous often thankless work. We owe them and their predecessors a vast debt of gratitude.
Leader versus Anti-Leader
We are certainly in trying times. It feels like a period where our country is crying out for leadership. And, sadly, leadership seems to have taken a vacation.
Reflecting On Memorial Day – 2016
It’s very easy to forget the significance of something the further you are removed from its reality. It used to be that war touched the majority of Americans directly, but now many of us only feel the consequences indirectly. Our nation has been at war for more than 10 years now and our troops (and those of our allies) continue to risk their life on a daily basis. Thankfully, we seem to be scaling back the required sacrifice, but the loss of even one soldier is a tragedy let alone the 4,977 that have given their life in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. This is a heavy emotional burden that will be felt by families for generations. We also shouldn’t also forget the life altering injuries that tens of thousand of our troops have suffered and the devastating psychological consequences of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Let Us Celebrate Our Freedom, Liberty, and Unity on Independence Day – 2015!
Every year I do some reserch to find inspiration on this special holiday for our country. I was fortunate to come across the speech, “The Spirit of Liberty,” by Learned Hand a renowned judicial scholar and judge of the first half of the 20th century.
Happy July 4th!
July 4 has always been one of my favorite times of the year. It is a day rife with history and rightfully full of revelry. As an American, I am proud of our nation’s unlikely beginning. It would have been hard to produce a better storyline than how this country came into being. The courage […]
Leadership Thought #435 – In Life And Business, There Are Winners and Losers
Winning does matter. Our country is built on the idea of individual freedom, personal initiative, competitive markets and free enterprise. In the Unites States we are constantly keeping score and rewarding those that achieve in all walks of life. You can chose to live a reactive and safe life rather than a proactive and riskier existence, but then you are dependent upon others who create the overall conditions of success from which you earn your living. This doesn’t mean that all successful people do it the right way or have admirable values. There will always be individuals who cheat the system or take advantage of the less fortunate. However, I would contend that this number is smaller than everyone thinks and our legal system (contrary to popular opinion) does a good job of ferreting them out. It certainly is not perfect, but our civic system and the “rule of law” does exist and often works. Regardless, we all learn from an early age that life isn’t fair and all we can control is our actions in response to anything that happens. There are very few true victims in life…
Leadership Thought #407 – Fear Sells, But The Costs Can be Significant
I don’t remember growing up in a fearful society, but I feel like I live in one now. All you have to do is turn on the TV, listen to the radio, read the newspaper and eventually someone will be trying to scare you about something. We all seem so emotionally fragile and quick to identify an enemy or cause for our concern. The news media has perfected this art so well that they have helped to perpetuate a more neurotic generation in a time when just about every violent crime statistic is down significantly or at minimum on par with what existed when we were children (and our population has grown significantly during this time). As the saying goes, if it bleeds than it leads.”
Leadership Thought #306 – Tired People Tell The Truth
Quite a few people bemoan the length of our presidential primaries and other election campaigns these days – I don’t. People can keep up an act or tell you what you want to hear for a short period of time, but when they get exhausted by the rigors of a long campaign and tired of answering the same old questions the same old way, the eventually will slip up and say what they truly feel or believe. In addition, when you are speaking to a niche audience with a particular ideology or playing to the base, it takes a strong personality to say what you believe they need to hear rather than what they want to hear. Whether you agree with him or not, Ron Paul (who has no chance of winning) has been fairly consistent on this front while the others seem to adjust their rhetoric to fit the moment and forget their own checkered past. The good news is that when people get tired and consistently challenged they usually end up telling the truth. Rick Santorum is a case in point this past week.
Daily Leadership Thought #178 – Get Informed
There is no shortage of people who are unhappy with our government or political process these days, but very few of us actually do anything about it. It is much easier to complain and assume that one particular party has all the answers or not. In addition, instead of actually doing some research and using fact based arguments, we prefer to have strong opinions based on the rhetoric and propaganda of ill informed media personalities.