The box we build

We love the Forrest Gump line. Life is like a box of chocolates. We quote it when things go sideways. When the deal falls through. When the hire doesn’t work out. When the meeting turns into something we didn’t see coming. But here’s what we...

What the phone reveals

We tell ourselves we are measured, rational, composed. Then we pick up our phones. On a train recently, watching a stranger scroll, something became clear. Within minutes, her face moved through joy, concern, hurt, and quiet approval. She didn’t notice. No one...

Misreading the room

We label people quickly. Difficult. Resistant. Aggressive. Withdrawn. We treat the behavior as the verdict. But behavior is rarely the root. It is the signal. What we are almost always watching is fear. Unaddressed, unnamed, unresolved fear. People do not get out of...

What my handwriting tells me

I used to have decent handwriting. Somewhere between boarding school cursive and my first startup, I lost it. Honestly, I didn’t notice until someone handed me a pen at a signing, and I was mildly embarrassed by what appeared on the page. That sent me down a...

Sit with it

We are always thinking. We are rarely with our thinking. There is a difference. When the calendar clears, and the urgent noise fades, something unusual happens. The mind does not go quiet. It goes curiously. Strange thoughts surface. An old memory lands next to a new...