Archive for the 'Beyond Our Life In Business' Category

Avoiding Personal Cliches

Saturday, August 7th, 2010

It occurred to me that, at a certain point in one’s life, you go from crafting your own originality in your earlier younger years to being concerned about being trapped by that originality years later. It’s as if the early originality becomes your personal prison if you can’t break free of it later. The French cuffs and [...]

James Lipton’s Actor Studio Interviews: If only I could be there!

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Tell the truth! How many of you have not secretly wanted to be on The Actor’s Studio, answering those famous questions James Lipton presents, with fanfare, a certain level of humility, and an appropriate attribution to the source? • What is your favorite word? • What is your least favorite word? • What turns you on? • What [...]

A Recollection of my Nonna by Jordan Pino

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

A Few Introductory Comments Jordan, just out of the 9th grade, is in a summer composition program at Lake Highland.  He was asked, as his opening assignment, to write an essay on a topic which affected him personally. He wrote it, and after it was finished, he asked me if I would read it. I [...]

Individual Commitments

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

I’ve never been able to abide individuals who, when you are talking to them one-on-one, appear so unbelievably committed. Indeed, they are actually passionate about what they are saying and, on a one-on-one basis, they exude the highest level of credibility and reliability. And then, you leave the meeting, encounter, Starbuck’s coffee, or otherwise, with the [...]

Petticoat Junction Revisited

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Take a look at the little clip that I attached from an old episode of Petticoat Junction a friend of mine sent me a short while ago. I hadn’t thought of Petticoat Juncton for decades, to put it mildly. However, I remember it so very well today. I remember convincing Mom and Dad from time [...]

Eyes on Debt

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Interestingly enough, the bleak situation in Greece has diverted attention somewhat from the recession and focused it instead on the overall role of debt at the governmental level. The European Union (EU), sharing a common currency (Euro), in conjunction with other international funding sources like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will be required to pony up a [...]

A Balmy Night in Nashville

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

When I sit out here tonight, I’m reminded of the hitchhiking trip Dave Strobel and I took from Notre Dame to New Orleans for our spring break 1970. It was a long time ago, of course. And yet, as I sit on the dock and feel the air tonight, I feel the exact same sensation. [...]

The Eyes of God

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

Was it a Woody Allen movie in some prior incarnation?  It must have been decades ago, but it is imprinted to this day.  I don’t remember the name of it, or the actors (although Martin Landau comes to mind…).  But I was never the same from that point on. The eyes of God see all because the [...]

Definitiion of God

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Definition of God as the set of all sets; namely infinity.

Greatest Pain

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

You know, the greatest pain for me…was the loss of associates…many of whom had been with me for a decade or more.  We had the opportunity, at a prior time, to shut down the entire Orlando seminar operation and to operate the very profitable WizeTrade division we had built exclusively out of Dallas. We could have maintained [...]