04 Dec How a 10-Year-Old Taught Me the Ultimate Lesson in Leadership

It’s sometime after midnight, and I can’t sleep. J starts seventh grade in the morning, and the nervous energy coursing through my body forbids my eyes from closing. His burden has become mine. Earlier that night over cheese pizza and watered down red drink J acted cooler than usual—as if tomorrow were just another day, as if it didn’t matter at all. But I knew better. So I laid it on extra thick, joking with him until he reached across the table and shoved my arm. Jerking back, I spilled my drink and we both exploded with laughter. Life it seems is less about what happens and more about how you deal with those happenings.

19 Sep The Calamity of Shipping Good Work

“Well, are you excited?” she asked, expecting, of course, an affirmative answer. “I’m not sure ‘excited’ is the right word,” I shot back with the kind of nervous candor reserved for these types of conversations. “It’s in the right family of words, but I don’t actually think it’s the correct word for this particular situation. ‘Skittish’ might be closer. ‘Edgy’ is probably more appropriate. 'Terrified' isn’t too far off.”