There’s been a thread going around some of my favorite sites about whether physical strength is the most important thing.  I like the answer given here by Jim Tynan — he hits on a number of points I thoroughly agree with.  But I think there’s another key component to the equation. My buddy Dan came up […]

I’m happy the medals got there while he could still appreciate them. Thanks for your service, Capt. Harrison.

Jim Collins of Good To Great fame jumps into the dump-on-Scott bandwagon with a really poor reading of history. In his new book, Collins comes up with a new thesis as to why some companies do better than others:  because they’re like Roald Amundsen and they deliver consistent positive results at a given level, year […]

In this article, innovation author Robert F. Brands uses the story of the race to the South Pole to draw lessons about best practices and innovation. I’m in complete agreement with the ideas he’s trying to reinforce, that the best innovation combines the use of best practices and new ideas.  Good messages, though, are no […]

I have to admit I felt a bit funny traveling to my hometown for the funeral of a friend I knew for over thirty years, Mark “Biff” Fitting.  After all, it’s not like we were an everyday part of each other’s lives.  I worked for him for a couple summers in the early ’80s, and […]

He’s a recruiter wanting to place me in an exciting new job.  But that’s neither here nor there. He’s a Canadian.  Named Vlad.  It’s at once exhilirating and contradictory. I may change my name to Vlad.

I loved this article.  Turns out little boys need to hammer on each other and their parents. Fortunately, The Reverend Doctor Vinoski Sweetness, Bug and I are way ahead of the game here.  “Meting out some punishment” and “savage beating” are regular phrases for us.  My boys think little of unleashing a storm of pummeling […]

There are no thanks enough for the brave ones we honor today, those who “gave the last full measure of devotion.” When I read Flags Of Our Fathers years ago, I took it as my tribute to them all to memorize the names of the men in the famous Joe Rosenthal photo of the flag-raising on […]

The vast majority of us could never have made it as Navy SEALs.  But we could still learn a lot from how they’re “made.”  This article tells something about that. I loved this passage: What kind of man makes it through Hell Week? That’s hard to say. But I do know—generally—who won’t make it. There […]

The US Navy will christen the guided missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy today.  Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy commanded a four-man squad in Afghanistan on a mission to find a Taliban commander.  As told by fellow SEAL Marcus Luttrell in Lone Survivor:  The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team […]