Genius is a coin flip

The manager who sits back and defends a lead is smart. The manager who attacks and doubles down is smart. Both, until the final whistle. Football doesn’t reward the better tactic. It rewards the tactic that survived contact with the decision the other team made....

Loving your captor

Stockholm syndrome isn’t just a hostage story. It’s a boardroom story. A leadership story. A culture story. The leader who built the company keeps the team loyal to an idea that stopped working three years ago. Not through force. Through familiarity....

Seven secondhand sins

You can find a great deal at the vintage market. That is not what this is about. There is a category of secondhand that looks like wisdom, feels like strategy, and passes for leadership. It is none of those things. It is borrowed. And borrowed, in business, is rarely...

Mile markers win

The marathon runner never stares at the finish line. Not because it does not exist. But because the brain does not run on hope. It runs on progress. Mile one. Then mile two. Each marker crossed is fuel. Evidence. Permission to keep going. The painter does not stare at...

Roots or ruin

I walked through a small hill town in Umbria recently. Narrow stone streets, a church that has stood since the 12th century, a butcher whose family has occupied the same shop for four generations. Nobody needed to explain the culture. It was present in every detail....