Once I was waiting for a bus in Queens. I had work to do, but no way to do it while waiting, and I didn’t know how long I’d have to wait. People typically feel frustrated or bored in situations like that. I did. But I noticed people on vacation sit around doing nothing too. So I thought to myself “what’s the difference between doing nothing while waiting for a[…] Keep reading →

Everybody agrees nobody is perfect. We all have our faults. Yet some emerge as leaders and outstanding successes. I’ve come to believe leaders lead and successes succeed not in spite of their faults or weaknesses, but because of them. The things themselves don’t matter as much as the emotions we attach to them. Attach shame to something inherent about you and people will see a part of you as shameful.[…] Keep reading →

During orientation I learned one of business school’s most valuable lessons. I learned the first step in resolving all ethics problems. Orientation included a case study on ethics. The case involved a guy who witnessed someone else breaking a rule at a company. If he told on the employee he would escalate the problem, possibly identifying himself as not a team player, no matter how justified his actions. Remaining silent would[…] Keep reading →

A friend asked “Why unreservedly open your heart to anyone or anything when there is such strong potential for disappointment, failure, heartache or apocalyptic disaster”. I wrote back the following: I experimented along those lines a few years ago and ended up improving my life and nearly every relationship. I’ll share my experience in case you can use it. I won’t feel bad if you ignore it. Regarding building relationships,[…] Keep reading →

Since Vaclav Havel died the day Kim Jong Il’s death was announced, and that the two of them sat on different sides of totalitarian rule, many articles mention them together. Havel played a significant role in dismantling one regime. Kim maintained his. My series on North Korean strategy concluded with limited methods to change North Korea. My limited number of ideas in North Korea makes me wonder if I might[…] Keep reading →

North Korea’s uniquely extreme isolation and disparity of power and wealth means you have to think of it differently than most other countries. Today I’ll present a toy idea not for serious consideration as is, but to provoke thought and promote new, potentially effective ideas or improve other plans. I call it a toy idea so no one accidentally takes it seriously on its own, but plays with it to[…] Keep reading →

Today’s pictures were from the Grand People’s Study House, a giant library overlooking the Taedong River, with the Juche Tower on the other side. Sorry for how long some captions are. I formatted them to be more readable but WordPress seems to ignore the formatting. I hope you can read them okay anyway. Nearly all big public buildings we visited had big statues of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jung Il,[…] Keep reading →