How resilient are you?  How well do you respond to the setbacks in life? I was listening to Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook talk about coming back from a tragic loss she experienced.  Her husband died of a heart attack while working out on a vacation.  She has young children and it has been a challenge to come back from the loss.  She has decided to turn the tragedy into something that helps others. Here is […]

You’ve probably never heard of Esther Wojcicki. She is a high school teacher in Palo Alto, CA who has a reputation for making a huge difference to students throughout her career.  She is known as “Woj”. But, she and her husband Stan also raised three very accomplished daughters: Susan (CEO of YouTube), Janet, a Fulbright-winning anthropologist, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and researcher, and Anne(co-founder of 23andMe). YouTube is owned by Google. 23andMe is a ground-breaking genetics company making great headway into […]

It’s a privilege to share these notes every day. Why do I write them? My goal is to capture the “corporate knowledge” and deliver it to all of you. When anyone in our organization is confronted with a situation where there is uncertainty about what to do, I want all these notes to form the voice in your head that guides you to the best decision. There are some of you who have read these […]

“Building a great team is not just about feeding the positive.  We must also weed the negative.  Identify it.  Confront it.  Transform it.  Remove it.” – Jon Gordon One of the cultural tenets we work under is “purge negativity”. Gordon’s imperative of weeding the negative resonates. We’ve all heard it: “one rotten apple spoils the barrel”. I like the order Gordon provides. Identify it:  Negativity doesn’t hide.  It intends to be noticed.  It is aggressive […]

Ashe was a Hall of Fame tennis player.  He was an African American playing in a traditionally “white” game in the 1960s and 1970s.  Because he was a pioneer in the sport, he knew that he must always remain on his best behavior.  His decorum had to be perfect.  He could not draw unwanted attention. On the court, though, it was different.  Ashe could go wide open.  Leap – Run – Power – he had […]

“If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.” I dug this out of a list of “farmer wisdom,” it caused me to chuckle and then it caused me to pause. What kind of holes do you find you are in? I could make a long list that would get personal.  Most of the holes we are in don’t have much to do with work. We weigh more than […]

One more quick thing about Tiger Woods. In the pages and pages written about him this week, the biggest moral cited was this: “Don’t quit.” Quitting defines a lot of who you are. Did you quit? When did you quit? Did you quit to soon? Did you quit too late? Did you not quit something you should have? Did quitting become a habit? Did quitting cause regret and make you bitter? What would have happened […]

Did you hear that Tiger Woods won a golf tournament yesterday?  Good!  Just checking that all your gadgets work. I think Tiger winning ranks as one of the unlikeliest occurrences in sport. Think of it: He’s old.  Most guys his age are beginning to wind down their pro golf career.  Their strength is waning as well as their nerves.  It’s rare a man his age is competing at such a level. His body is fragile. […]

“You fuel your heart with six things: what you watch, what you read, what you listen to, who you surround yourself with, how you talk to yourself, and what you visualize.” –  Joshua Medcalf, author Chop Wood, Carry Water! I had the privilege to speak to the honor students at Bartow High School as they were recognized on Tuesday night. These kids are the best and brightest in our community.  They are doing good things […]

“Changing before you need to instead of waiting until you’re forced to is almost always the best move.  Both have mental / emotional challenges but waiting until you’re forced is usually too late to recover what could have been.” Brian Kight Have you found this to be true? I have. Change that is forced upon you is usually hard medicine. Sometimes it comes as a shock.  You wake up one morning and things are different. […]