What comes to your mind when you hear the word surrender? A white flag? An army laying down their arms? A criminal coming out with his hands up as the police close-in? Giving up? The word evokes many negative images. We associate surrender with an end: the end of a chase, a battle, an argument, […]

Memory is such a strange thing. Clear in so many ways and foggy in others. Forgetting is often a gift as it assists us in moving on. Yet, sometimes it makes us lose sight of the lessons, moments, and delights that presented themselves to our previous selves. Even worse, memory frequently twists itself in and […]

Remember when you were young and you fell and cut your knee? As the cut healed, a scab formed and your immediate instinct was to begin to pick the scab off. Your mom would notice you compulsively messing with the scab and tell you to “stop picking at it or it won’t heal.” Still, that […]

Boarding a plane yesterday, passengers encountered a particularly assertive flight attendant. She was really pushing passengers to get in their seats. Sitting at the very back of the plane, I was able to watch her continually ask passengers to clear the aisle and sit down. Many were getting a bit impatient with her as she […]

A number of years ago, we were presented with the opportunity to buy a company that had tremendous potential for our business. As is the case with many opportunistic deals, timing was critical: it had to be a fast evaluation and negotiation. I was very excited about the possibilities this acquisition presented and jumped-in. Lost in […]

Sitting in a hotel lounge this week-end, I overhead a conversation in which a grandparent was describing her grandson and his wife moving to Nashville. She talked about the young couple, their relocations, his expanding career, and ended that part of the conversation by saying “he’s never satisfied.” Her words echoed in my head for […]

No, I’m not talking about football. Do you remember a time when you woke up knowing that later in the day you would be competing in a major event? Or maybe it was a performance or interview? Can you remember those feelings? The nervous energy. The butterflies. The edge. The pressure of an audience, a rival, […]

On Fridays, the Wall Street Journal prints a special section called “Mansion” that focuses on high-end real estate from around the country. I look forward to it every week because it always has interesting photos and articles on trends, renovations, and a variety of other residential real estate-centric curiosities. An article from this week’s edition […]