Fear, Fawning, and Respect:How to Stop Playing Small and Start Living Like a Warrior The Bus Bar and the Black Belt Back in the late '80s, I found myself laying on my side, lying on a piece of cardboard inside a hot, dusty electrical room, staring at some "hot" 3000 amp bus bars. The electricians forgot to give us the 120V uninterruptible power circuit that we needed for our fire alarm panel. So there we were getting ready to tap into a live bus bar to get our 120V circuit. 3000A Copper...
1 day ago • 5 min read
Say It So They Move:The Hidden Power of Clear Communication The Jobsite Lesson I’ll Never Forget I was twenty-five years old, almost finished with my apprenticeship, when I got my first real assignment on a multi-million-dollar high-rise project. My foreman barked orders like a drill sergeant with a hangover, and most of us nodded, pretended to understand, and just did our best not to screw up. One morning, he rattled off what sounded like gibberish about the transformer room, some conduit...
3 days ago • 4 min read
The Hidden Path to Peace Why a Peaceful Life is Earned, Not Given I remember the first time I heard the phrase, “You look like a peaceful man.” It wasn’t on the mat. It wasn’t during a quiet walk in nature or in a heartfelt moment with my wife. It was on a job site. Dirty. Loud. Sparks flying. Tension so thick you could weld it. I was a 'seasoned' apprentice, getting ready to "journey-out", covered in sweat, stress, and soot, trying to get conduit into place while my foreman barked at...
4 days ago • 5 min read
The Iron Triangle of Life: Why Knowing What You Value Keeps You from Getting Screwed “You can have it fast, cheap, or good. Pick two.” He gets his cortado every morning—right at 6:40, like clockwork. Always focused, always in slacks and a tucked-in T-shirt, backpack on one shoulder, and earbuds in like he’s on a mission. We nod to each other most mornings—him heading to his tech job in Silicon Beach, me, retired, doing my work on the laptop in my usual seat. One day, he pauses at my table,...
5 days ago • 6 min read
The Danger of Thinking You Know You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know ...and that should scare you into becoming someone worth knowing. When I was twenty years old, I thought I knew everything. Not in a cocky, arrogant kind of way—at least not intentionally. I was just a kid from Honolulu. My world was the island. Hawaii, beautiful but isolated My reality was shaped by beaches, concrete, aunties, and “uncles” who weren’t really your uncles. Everyone looked like me. Everyone talked like me....
6 days ago • 6 min read
What Do You Do When You’re Afraid? Fear Is the Test. And the Answer. I still remember the first time I walked onto a jobsite as a green apprentice. It was in Long Beach, I was working on a production facility for the C-17 Globemaster setting up the huge jigs for the cargo plan and setting and pulling the control circuits for some of the gear. It was awesomely overwhelming! And here I was steel-toed boots too clean, hardhat too white, and hands that hadn’t yet known the weight of real work. My...
7 days ago • 6 min read
Mind Your Own Business Why the Secret to a Better Life Isn’t in Fixing the World—It’s in Fixing Yourself It was supposed to be a celebration. September 11, 2001—my first birthday with Amy. We were still in that sweet, early rhythm of new love. The day started off beautifully. I woke up beside her and got ready for work, thinking how grateful I was to have found this beautiful woman. Then I headed off on my bike for work. The bike I rode back in 2001, a Honda Hawk NT650 There was no traffic...
8 days ago • 6 min read
Job, Vocation, or Passion?The Hidden Cost of Not Knowing the Difference I was sitting in a Starbucks in Marina del Rey the other day. Chatting with a couple about my early retirement, travel, and BJJ. They were in their early 60s, still working, asking curious questions about how I managed to retire at 56 after 35 years in construction. I shared how I worked as a union electrician. I wasn’t flashy. I didn’t chase titles. I didn’t climb the corporate ladder. But I made good money, lived below...
9 days ago • 6 min read
Why Are You Doing What You're Doing? The Life-Changing Power of Intention Part 1: Start with Why I was sitting at the back of a coffee shop the other day, sipping my drip Guatemalan light roast, watching the late-morning crowd filter in—laptops opening, notifications pinging, people scrolling and sipping, posting and pretending to work. And in the corner sat this guy—early 30s, decent clothes, solid build, nice gear. But his eyes? Vacant. He had 3 screens open at once, a laptop, tablet and...
10 days ago • 6 min read