Monthly Archives: November 2011

The heart of freedom

on November 30, 2011 in Awareness, Blog, Freedom, Leadership

Viktor Frankl, whom the Nazis captured and imprisoned as a slave laborer in concentration camps including Auschwitz and Dachau, perhaps best clarifies and shows that you can feel free independently of physical constraints and that feeling free gives you all the value of being free. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They[…] Keep reading →

North Korean strategy: reducing the risk to North Korean decision makers

on November 30, 2011 in Freedom, Leadership, NorthKorea

I have to be careful in this post. Parts of it will sound distasteful so some. But the basic idea is the same as witness protection programs for criminals. As a society we have decided that at times we will protect criminals for their cooperation to achieve more important outcomes. North Korea’s decision-makers are not criminals (everything they do is probably legal). I’m just using the analogy to explain. I[…] Keep reading →

North Korean strategy: China

on November 29, 2011 in Freedom, Leadership, NorthKorea

One place I could see changing things in North Korea is its relationship with China. I’m sure the lack of knowledge I show in this post will make me look ignorant, but I’ll share anyway. Most of what I know about relations between China and North Korea come from three sites The Council on Foreign Relations’ report The China-North Korea Relationship The Council on Foreign Relations’ report The Six-Party Talks[…] Keep reading →

You can get reward from every part of your life

on November 29, 2011 in Blog

You can get reward from every part of your life. You may not realize you can if you call emotions positive or negative because if you think some emotions are bad, you’ll try to avoid them instead of learning from them and using them to improve your life. By considering emotions’ characteristics instead of calling them good or bad, the Model gives you a greater wealth of types of reward[…] Keep reading →

North Korean strategy: starting points for successful change

on November 28, 2011 in Freedom, Leadership, NorthKorea

I’ve described a system where when all actors act in their interests, everybody loses, except perhaps a few dozen decision-makers in North Korea. I’ve described what I think won’t substantively change the situation in North Korea. Yesterday I wrote about what wouldn’t change things. One of the greatest lessons I learned in business school applies here, as well as to all so-called moral problems: If the system leads to only[…] Keep reading →

Audio interview: why leadership? what’s so great about leading?

on November 28, 2011 in Audio, Blog, Education, Leadership

In today’s interview, my business partner, Christina Black, asked me about differences in leadership between in a business environment and outside of business, in particular how my seminar relates to them. Note that the ability to lead differs from leading. I list a few reasons having the awareness and skills to lead others and yourself benefit anyone. You don’t have to lead or take a leadership position to get those[…] Keep reading →

Make painful emotions useful

on November 27, 2011 in Blog, Fitness

I’m not a fan of putting positive spins on things. You can’t call something positive without calling something else negative. Calling some emotions negative makes some people want to shun them and act like they don’t have them. How many times have you seen someone obviously angry or enraged, saying through gritted teeth and clenched jaws, “I’m not angry,” in blatant denial of their emotions? They confuse how an emotion[…] Keep reading →

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