When traffic stops moving

You’re late for the board meeting. The highway becomes a parking lot. Your phone buzzes with texts asking where you are. Here’s what separates good leaders from great ones: how they handle the uncontrollable. Traffic jams don’t care about your...

Sense of humor

Some people laugh at spilled coffee. Others let it ruin their morning. The coffee doesn’t care which you choose. But everyone around you does....

Gaman changes everything

Gaman isn’t just patience. It’s the Japanese art of enduring hardship without complaint while maintaining dignity and purpose. Japanese children learn gaman early. When faced with difficulty, they’re taught to bear it silently, find inner strength,...

Victim: Yes or No?

Bad things happen. Markets crash. Partners leave. Deals fall through. But here’s what separates leaders from everyone else: they refuse the victim narrative. Victims ask “Why me?” Leaders ask “What now?” Your circumstances don’t...

But it didn’t happen

Those discussions of contention arise when you discover something didn’t happen as it should have. As you thought it should have. It didn’t happen. That will not change. Why lament what may have been? That energy is futile and disruptive. We gather in...