My good friend Dean and I made our way from Bangkok, Thailand to Chiang Mai, the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. We had just completed visits to Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore, Seoul and a few other towns and cities in Southeast Asia. Visits to each of these places had a profound effect on my view of life.
Read MoreAt 38 years of age, Sheik Mohammed was the Chief Operating Officer of a family-owned company with 100,000 employees and more than $30 billion in assets. Yet, with his immeasurable wealth, significant business influence and political favour, his approach to life and leadership caught me by surprise.
Read MoreMost of us have heard the phrase, “The pen is mightier than the sword”. These words were never spoken more effectively than by 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for promoting education for girls. In her first public speech since the attack, speaking to world leaders, she demanded that all countries provide free but compulsory schooling for every child.
Read MoreSeveral years ago during a friendly game of billiards my friend Craig exclaimed, “You can’t make everything in life black or white; it just doesn’t work that way!”
For years I had tried to make life fit into the “black or white” box. I thought doing so would help me sort life out more easily and better deal with matters. But all it did was create frustration. As years passed I grew to understand that, with the exception of morality, nothing else about life was black or white. Many a time, issues, events, decisions, judgements and directions were placed before me, but the answers to so many questions were not that simple.
The sun was about to set, allowing darkness to take control. One member of our hunting group had fallen out of formation. If we didn’t locate him soon, then finding him in the darkened forest would be difficult. We were not equipped to embark on a nighttime search and rescue, and to do so would risk the lives of the remaining four members.
Read MoreAs a 10-year-old, I was awestruck by the new “skyscraper” that had been built in our small town of Corner Brook. Not having travelled outside of Newfoundland, I had nothing to compare it against. I was convinced it must have been one of the tallest buildings ever built. So, it was with great excitement that my friends and I decided to go across town and secretly climb its 12 stories to catch a glimpse of the world below. But as I reached the top and looked out the stairway window, something very strange happened.
Read MoreI have become intrigued with the constant use of the expression “best practice.” For me, the term conjures up the sense that “Since everyone else is doing it, so should we!” But such an approach to life and business is simply a copycat strategy, void of integrative thinking, creativity and innovation. How many management fads can you list that became the considered norm for conducting business because everyone else was doing it? How many of these “best practice” management fads have disappeared only to be replaced by something new that guarantees success?
Read MoreI was startled by the noise. "What was that? It's the alarm clock. It's time to get up. It's 5:30 am." Hearing those words from my wife, Linda, made me groan. With darkness covering the house, I slowly and reluctantly began my journey. The warmth of the bed's comforter was replaced by the morning's cold air. The ritual of cleansing and dressing occurred without any thought. I kept my eyes closed for most of it. I watched the news while chewing cold cereal. Not even a hot coffee, though welcomed, was able to provide the stimulus to ignite the senses.
Read MoreHave you ever been the victim of identity theft? I don’t know of anyone who has though many times I have read or listened to those who have been affected by it. I understand it is not a pleasant situation to be in. T
Read MoreMy friend Jim was suddenly admitted to the hospital last week to have an emergency operation on his lung to determine if a discovered tumour was malignant.
I met Jim in college. We shared residency together with three other guys in our first year and then became dual roommates for the rest of our school years. He was a groomsman in my wedding and I in his. We attended the same church, went camping, socialized at each other’s homes, ate, drank and laughed together.
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