The Professional and the Amateur: Why Not Turning Pro Is Holding You Back The amateur fights the opponent. The professional fights himself. That’s the difference between everything. I was eating lunch the other day, recovering from my noon class beat-down, scrolling through YouTube Shorts. And I came across a new YouTube channel that I now love. They compile clips of professional fighters showing respect, honor and professionalism. Professional fighters. Boxing. MMA. Clips from before the...
1 day ago • 8 min read
Why You’re Stuck: The Simple Practice That Separates People Who Improve From People Who Just Try It’s not insanity to try the same thing twice. It’s insanity to try it without knowing why it worked or didn’t. You’ve heard the quote. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It gets thrown around constantly. In business. In self-help. In coaching. And while there’s truth in it, most people get it wrong. The problem isn’t that people are doing the...
2 days ago • 9 min read
The Curse of Knowledge Is Ruining Your Leadership (And You Don’t Even Know It) The biggest communication problem isn’t what you’re saying. It’s what you’re assuming everyone already knows. Let me tell you about a simple experiment that will change how you communicate forever. Take a well-known song. Something everyone knows. “Happy Birthday.” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” “Jingle Bells.” Now tap the rhythm on a table. Just the rhythm. No humming. No singing. Just tapping. Then ask the person...
3 days ago • 9 min read
The Ivory Tower Is Killing You: Why Avoiding Disagreement Is the Most Expensive Habit You Have If you’ve never had your ideas seriously challenged, you don’t have strong ideas. You have untested assumptions. I was having a conversation with a potential client the other day. They’re very successful professionally. Built a thriving private practice. Working with their ideal clients. Making good money. But they’ve hit a ceiling. And they can’t figure out why. During our discussion, I shared some...
4 days ago • 9 min read
The Superpower Test: How to Know What Makes You Unstoppable Published on March 18, 2026 Your Superpowers Are Hiding Where You Least Expect Growing up, I never knew what it felt like to live where everyone looked the same, thought the same, and lived the same way. I was grew up in Honolulu, the “melting pot of the Pacific, where every face, name, and story came from somewhere different. Then […] The post The Superpower Test: How to Know What Makes You Unstoppable appeared first on Charles...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Stop Waiting for Permission to Move: Why the Biggest Thing Holding You Back Is Your Own Dependency If you can’t figure out how to make progress alone, you’ll never make progress at all. I see it every day. People giving me the “reasons” why they can’t move forward. “I’m waiting for my business partner to finish his part.” “I can’t start until my boss gives me the go-ahead.” “I need my coworker to do their job before I can do mine.” “I’m waiting for the right time.” And while I’m not saying...
5 days ago • 9 min read
What It Really Takes to Get Good: A Conversation Between a 21-Year-Old, a 35-Year-Old, and a 60-Year-Old The tools have changed. The opportunities have multiplied. But the price of getting good hasn’t changed one bit. The other day, I got into an interesting discussion at Alana’s with some of the regulars. Guys I see every day but don’t usually chat with because we’re all too busy working on our work. One of them is a 21-year-old young man about to graduate with a Computer Science degree. The...
6 days ago • 9 min read
What Most People Get Wrong About Remote Work (And Why Your Job Is Your Best Investment) The office isn’t a prison. It’s a training ground. And the people running from it are running from the very thing that would make them better. I’m going to say something unpopular. Remote work, for most people, is not the liberation they think it is. Now before you close this article and write me off as some out-of-touch Gen Xer, and have been "going to work" for over 40 years—I was born on 9/11/65, yeah...
7 days ago • 8 min read
There Is No Happily Ever After: How Disney Ruined Your Expectations (And Why You Need to Get Over It) The original fairy tales weren’t bedtime stories. They were survival manuals. And we desperately need them back. Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom I’m going to ruin your childhood today. Not to be cruel. But because the fairy tales you grew up with already ruined your adulthood. And nobody told you. Back before I met Amy, I was taking classes at the local community college. One of the more...
8 days ago • 8 min read