What I owe my father

I didn’t understand my father until I started coaching people trying to become better leaders, and realized most of what I know about leading came from watching him. He never sat me down and explained accountability. He just lived it, every day, without...

Catching big fish

Every dedicated angler has a story about the big one. But for every trophy fish, there were dozens of small ones, and many more that got away. Keep fishing. One day, you’ll land something you never expected to bring in....

Four freedoms. One truth

On June 19, 1865, the declaration arrived. Freedom, finally, on paper. But paper and practice are two entirely different things. Dan Sullivan spent decades studying entrepreneurs and found something most founders never say out loud: being your own boss doesn’t...

What’s important

It is intriguing the things that people find important. Timeliness Being fashionably late Privacy above all Saying what you think, unfiltered Mornings free to think uninterrupted Loyalty to outcomes over people Well-dressed for the occasion Not caring about clothes...

The invisible standard

We talk about culture as if it lives in handbooks. It does not. Culture lives in what we do when no one is keeping score. Japan’s World Cup team left their locker room immaculate. The fans cleared their garbage into bags provided to their supporters. Not to win...

Same room. Different maps.

We sit in the same meeting. We hear the same words. We leave with different ideas and necessary actions in our heads. That’s not a failure of intelligence. It’s not even a failure of trust. It’s something quieter and more dangerous: the assumption...