Surround Yourself With Success: The Marcus Aurelius Lesson I Missed for Years Meditations by Marcus Aurelius As is my habit, I start the New Year with my annual re-exploration of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. The great thing about revisiting great books regularly and learning new things from them is not that the book has changed and somehow shown you something new—it's that you've changed and can now take in something that was there the whole time, but you have evolved and can "see" it now....
1 day ago • 13 min read
The One Skill That Makes Everything Easier: Why Everyone Needs to Learn Marketing I have to be honest—I really don't know how I got and "kept" my wife Amy 25 years ago. I was so emotionally-retarded (and yes, I know that's not PC, but I'm still blue-collar at heart, LOL) and had poor communication and connection skills. I'm better now, but still have so much to learn. One thing that has helped me more than I could have ever imagined was when I started taking classes and reading books to help...
3 days ago • 14 min read
The Yin Before the Yang: Why Being Busy Keeps You Broke, Exhausted, and Behind I remember years ago reading a quote that changed how I approach everything: "If you have only 8 hours to cut a cord of wood, spend the first 7 sharpening the saw." A cord of wood That's where most people fuck up. They're so filled with excitement, enthusiasm, and energy to get shit done that they jump into it with both feet, going 100mph fast and getting nowhere. They confuse activity with progress. They mistake...
4 days ago • 13 min read
Discover Your Genius: What's Keeping You Unhappy, Unsuccessful, and Disillusioned Nosce Te Ipsum at the Temple of Apollo Like everyone, growing up, I didn't know myself. The Greek wisdom inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi—"Know Thyself"—completely escaped me. I moved through life unaware of my unique gifts, trying to become good at what others valued rather than discovering what came naturally to me. Discover Your Genius by Michael J. Gelb That changed when I discovered Michael J....
5 days ago • 12 min read
Try Softer: Why Trying Harder Is Sometimes a Recipe for Failure For almost twenty years, I was blessed to train under Grandmaster Bong Soo Han, a hapkido martial artist whose prowess was immortalized in the film Billy Jack. That movie featured what was, at the time, one of the most "realistic" fight scenes ever filmed—the protagonist taking on multiple assailants in a city park. The scene included GM Han's famous demonstration: "I'm going to take this right foot and wallop you on that side of...
6 days ago • 11 min read
The Single Difference Between a Badass and a Bully: Four Words That Change Everything It's that time of year again—when we make resolutions, promises, and plans to live a better life. And that's genuinely a good thing. Filling your life with hope and aspirations is essential for growth and fulfillment. But as so often happens, after a few days, weeks, or months, so many of us get derailed from those hopes and dreams. And like countless people I've heard from over the years, they'll have...
7 days ago • 12 min read
The Human Operating System: Why Everyone Should Train in Martial Arts A little while back, I explored the idea that following your passion can actually be a recipe for failure. The key lesson for me was this: Be rigid on the experience you seek—the goal—but flexible on the means of having that experience—the journey. Through that exploration, I discovered that there are twelve universal experiences all human beings desire, and we're typically driven by three to six of them at any given time....
8 days ago • 12 min read
The Silent Language: Why Your Body Is Screaming So Loud No One Can Hear Your Words Growing up as an introverted bookworm, I spent countless hours on the sidelines of social interactions, not by choice but by circumstance. While other kids were engaging in loud conversations and obvious social displays, I developed a different skill: Reading people through their bodies rather than their words. I learned to see what they weren't saying, to understand what they were really feeling, and to...
9 days ago • 10 min read
The 80% Delusion: Why Self-Deception is the Enemy of Excellence "80% of drivers think they are above-average safer and less-than-normal risky drivers, which is a mathematical impossibility." We live in a world of statistical impossibilities. 80% of drivers believe they're safer than average. 65% of people think they're smarter than average. The math ain't mathing. The math doesn't work, but our egos don't care about math. We lie to ourselves systematically, consistently, and with remarkable...
10 days ago • 10 min read