If you’ve thought about business school or noticed unexpected changes in people you know who went there, this interview may interest you. I cover how I found and learned in business school different subjects than I expected — like leadership, general management, negotiation, and so-called “soft skills.” They began a process of increasing emotional awareness, self-awareness, and focus on emotions, motivations, and relationships. The result has been more reward overall,[…] Keep reading →

Continuing writing about my North Korea trip… If you read this blog regularly you know I don’t find value in people telling others what they should consider right or wrong, which ethics discussions usually do. I try to avoid using judgmental or evaluative language except when the criteria for evaluating are clear. Talk about visiting North Korea and you’ll find people want to talk about the rightness or wrongness of[…] Keep reading →

Continuing writing about my North Korea trip… The next most common question after how to get to North Korea and its legality is what it’s like. This blog will cover the experience in depth. For now some overall conditions of touring North Korea. Later posts will cover the sites and experiences. This post covers the basics of how the tour goes. Limited choice The North Korean government gives you a[…] Keep reading →

Continuing writing about my North Korea trip… Mention you went to North Korea and you’ll hear two questions more than any others: How do you get there and is it legal? With proper paperwork Americans can legally tour North Korea, according to the State Department, but it warns you you’re taking serious risks, you just have no legal recourse from the U.S. government because the two countries have no diplomatic[…] Keep reading →

The trip of a lifetime began with this message on my birthday from my friend Jordan Hey happy birthday man! All the best! What do you have planned for this year? p.s. I’m going to North Korea in August -get jealous! 🙂 North Korea?!? That came out of the blue. I had never considered going before. Could I travel there legally? Safely? I didn’t even know what questions to ask.[…] Keep reading →

Why do you travel? How does traveling improve your life? If you do, you probably have many reasons — experiencing new cultures, food, languages, natural beauty, etc. In this interview, I share some of my life lessons from international travel, probably with some new perspectives. I also talk about how I get the value of traveling without traveling, saving time, money, and other resources, finding greater richness in daily life[…] Keep reading →

Some advice applies to everyone. I bet the following will help you or will remind you of something that helped you once. Even after you’ve heard it, reminders help, especially when stressed or frustrated. For example, a client wrote me about the exercises he’s practicing. After describing his progress on the work, he described frustration in one area. I considered this frustration the main issue — his motivation. Then when[…] Keep reading →

You used to get frustrated by taxes, right? You probably don’t like getting older. We all prefer accepting things we can’t change to frustration, disappointment, etc. You’ve learned to improve your life through acceptance. Why stop there, implying the thing still bothers us? You can learn to celebrate anything you can accept, turning problems into sources of reward. On a related note, judging tends to repel others, just like people[…] Keep reading →

Do you want eating well and exercising to be easy, fun, and rewarding? In this interview, I talk about how I do it. Briefly, I associate things I want more of in life with happy, fun, or rewarding emotions and things I want less of with painful or unrewarding emotions. The result is I never do anything I don’t want to, I always do what I want to, and I[…] Keep reading →