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...

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....

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...