Abbey Road was the first album I listened to until the little orange plastic record player I played it on either destroyed the grooves or the record destroyed the needle. It was the 70s. I didn’t know music. My taste has since matured, but I never stopped loving the Beatles. The 2019 remix of Here Comes The Sun differs only slightly from the original but it brought tears to my[…] Keep reading →

Almost two months ago, I wrote in Mementos of my high school girlfriend how I wasn’t sure I wanted to review the mementos. Maybe memories I treasured would turn out ordinary happenings of any young man in his late teens. I haven’t read my letters to her, but I read hers to me and was pleased to find something I’d forgotten — how close we were. More than close. Uninhibited.[…] Keep reading →

While not my usual topic, I’ve been thinking about movie endings I’ve loved. I don’t mean plot twists, necessarily, but what we see as the movie goes to credits. Last moments are hard to remember sometimes. Beginnings are easier. The Death Star didn’t explode as closing moment, nor did “Say hello to my little friend” or “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown” appear as the credits did. Some, like Planet of[…] Keep reading →

I wanted to share the story behind Initiative‘s cover. Layout The designer first sent a few cover designs. They were contemporary and appropriate for 2019, but they didn’t feel right. I couldn’t point to anything wrong with them, but they didn’t resonate. When we spoke to review his first designs, I told him that they felt “now,” but I considered my book timeless. It’s not about making apps, blockchain, or[…] Keep reading →

The organizers invited me to speak at TEDx with less than two weeks to prepare so for those two weeks I worked as much as I could. (Here’s the video if you missed it before.) Preparation I hired a coach, John Bates of Executive Speaking Success, to help prepare and I’m glad I did. He had experience giving TEDx talks, with the TED/TEDx community, and with coaching people on it.[…] Keep reading →

Sharp-eyed readers of my blog and social media will have noticed the new portraits I’ve switched to. Also my portrait in my new book Initiative. A friend introduced me to Azael Montejo Jr — aka Ozzie — founder and CEO of Online Personal Training. Mostly we spoke about our lives and passions. At one point, he started describing a vision he saw from how I spoke about my work. The[…] Keep reading →

Various stages of satisfaction come with finishing a book — signing with a publisher, finishing a first draft, reaching copy editing (meaning no more substantive edits), seeing it type set, getting your first reviews from prominent writers, seeing the cover, and so on. Seeing it for sale at a retailer is one of the biggest. Since my last blog post, Initiative has appeared on Barnes and Noble and Amazon for[…] Keep reading →