Talent isn’t the barrier

Cameroon reached the World Cup quarterfinals in 1990. Nobody saw it coming. Then Senegal in 2002. Ghana in 2010. Morocco in 2022, one match from the final. Something changed. It wasn’t money. The American youth soccer system runs on it. A single travel season...

The last optional thing

We used to think of sustainability the way we thought of corporate philanthropy. Nice to have. Good for optics. Something the marketing team could put on the website next to the community garden photo. We were wrong. The companies leading right now aren’t the...

The grind is the gift

We romanticize the result and forget the road that got us there. Parents know this. Ask one who is a few years past the hard years. Past the arguments and the ultimatums and the late nights, wondering if they were doing it right. There’s a sparkle in the eye...

Earn the mic

I’ve been watching a lot of television lately. It’s the World Cup. While entertaining for the sport, it is also a study in what happens when the microphone finds the wrong person. Someone gets booked. They sit across from the host. They have a title. They...

Raise it. Don’t lower it

The freelancer drops her price.The agency offers a discount.The consultant throws in extra hours for free. All because someone said no. But no doesn’t always mean the price was wrong. Sometimes it means the buyer was wrong. Not every customer is your customer....