Here’s a great slogan I just made up: It’s not who you know – it’s who they know. My best friend and mentor for 50 years was Frank Tate. He got me out of jams and into graduate school. He gave me bucks when I was dead broke. He made me laugh when everyone told …
This may have been the worst morning of my lifetime. I show up at Sweetwater Pain and Spine (what a terrible name for a pain clinic). I’m to have a nerve study. What the hell is that? So I go into this tiny, white room with a doctor and an assistant. I’m asked to undress …
I made a huge blunder. My post on February 3 really sucked in so many ways. First, it was selfish. I’ve been stuck with this crappy, ego-driven, Frank Sinatra song, “My Way,” running through my head every night for weeks and weeks. I thought writing the blog might be my …
By my best calculation, I’ve hit about 37,000 drives in my golf lifetime. Yet, after all those attempts, I’ve only scored one hole-in-one. It was in the early 1970s at Blackhawk Country Club in Madison, Wisconsin. It was on the 18th hole, 141 yards. Good golfers (and I …
I was daydreaming yesterday. In my mind’s eye, I wound up in this dump of a bar. I was sitting next to a skinny guy with funny hair. He seemed a little down and out. I asked what was bugging him so bad that he found himself sitting at a bar at 10 in the …
I have this pal who has gained far too much weight over the last decade or so. He’s experiencing some serious health problems, and he’s concerned. I’ve been thinking about how I could help my friend out. So I said, “Stanley, here’s the deal. Let’s see who can …
Certain images do not leave me. I have a few of them locked in my mind forever. The most recent one inspired an earlier blog post about our four white Swiss shepherds guiding a newly born fawn to safety (to Sherry sitting on the front steps of our house). I received a lot of …
One thing confuses me like crazy. For many of my adult years, money was tight. I was barely getting by and struggling to meet my family’s needs while starting new business ventures. One time, I had a new regional sports magazine off the ground. Annual subscriptions were …
Over the last 15 years or so of running The Change Companies, I often went back to asking myself: what is “The One Big Thing” I need to focus on? Above all else, what should capture the majority of my time for this day or for this year? This strategy often worked. It became …
I don’t care what they say – how my kids and younger friends snort and giggle at me. I’m going to keep using cash to pay for almost everything. And when I receive big bills for insurance, medical care and such, I’ll mail my personal check and keep track of it in my little …
