My great nephew: A Young, Grounded Millennial

I had lunch today with my great nephew. He is thirteen years old and lives in the San Diego area with his parents and an older sister. He is a soccer fanatic and pretty good player. And he’s Grounded. He is articulate, well read, inquisitive, and extremely courteous. He asks questions–really, really good questions. Questions that make me […]

Navy Seals discuss Good Leadership

I viewed an extremely powerful video from Facebook, check it out here. The video shows two Navy Seal veterans talking about the qualities that make one a good leader. You might think the difference between a good and a poor leader is mental toughness or lack of physical ability. Nope––not even close. In the video, they […]

What made you happy today?

I saw this sign today in a diner in central North Carolina: I understand the sentiment of the sign, but I immediately thought how small and limiting it would be if you in fact adopted that attitude. Assuming you sleep for eight hours, you have 57,600 seconds of time each day. And you are probably doing something […]

On Being Grounded

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “grounded”?  Perhaps you hear a parent saying to a teenager, “You are so grounded, young man!” Or maybe you think of a ship running aground, as in, “The captain of the Costa Concordia grounded the ship on the rocks off Tuscany.”  But grounded […]

Being Fearless

I read a great post from Mike Brown in his blog, Brainzooming, about “hustling” and how it ties directly back into individual leadership. A hustler is defined by Merriam Webster as “an enterprising person determined to succeed; a go getter.” Mike Brown asks the question, “are you a hustler?” My first reaction was negative. We tend to think of […]

Have a great attitude and you won’t get chopped

I love to cook and am addicted to the Food Network show “Chopped.”  Each episode, four contestants get a mystery basket of ingredients and have a short window of time to transform the often-mismatched contents of the basket into a delicacy.  After they make their dishes, they face three judges who sample and comment on their work. […]

Effective Communication Makes All the Difference

I was recently on a Southwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis, MN, to Atlanta, GA. We left the gate and taxied out, but wound up waiting on the tarmac for ten minutes or so. Then the plane’s engines revved up, and we all thought we would be taking off. But instead, we returned to the gate. Uh […]

Holly Holm: The Grounded Fighter

On Saturday, November 13, 2015, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey got her butt kicked by Holly Holm. Now, if you are not a follower of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), you may be unaware that Ronda Rousey is an international star—one who had been plowing through opponents in the Bantamweight division. Most of her recent fights had failed […]

‘The Martian’ Remains Grounded

I saw the feature film The Martian this evening. Besides being a great and entertaining movie, there was a strong, “Grounded” message that was contained within it. First, it is clear that Matt Damon’s character in the movie is dealing with an unexpected event, which is being left behind on Mars. He immediately starts thinking and working towards how […]