Philosophy

My great-aunt and uncle turned 80 a few years ago, and they decided they had had enough snow and cold, so they decided to emigrate. To Mexico. Just like that. Faith. I thought, “what awesome people! I want to study them.” So off I went to Mexico too, to learn how they do Being So Awesome. Here is what I learned. Fortune favors the bold. Trusting in your own competence is key. Know you can. Don't worry about the stuff. Keep moving. If you give all your stuff away, it will come back when you need it anyway. Embrace the adventure. If you want more of someone, have what they want. Remember birthdays. Be joyful. 1. Fortune favors the bold. My great-aunt had never been to Mexico when they up and moved, lock, stock, and barrel. My great-uncle did go on a bit of a reconnaissance mission, but they did not dither. They set a plan, they organized the steps to get there, and they followed through. And now they are in a much lovelier house in a much cheaper pl...

Subtitle: How CEOs can improve their emotional intelligence. See the numbered simple procedure at the end of the article.  We measure our own strength by comparing ourselves to the people we are standing beside. This is an essential lesson for business. Understanding it can help us live with less frustration outside of work, too. Coincidentally, Travis Bradbury just recently wrote a post about how the top guys end up having lower emotional intelligence. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-your-boss-lacks-emotional-intelligence-dr-travis-bradberry Well, this post explains a bit of why that might be, and how bosses (and everyone) can use this fact to become a better boss, or parent, or friend. Bosses may lack emotional intelligence partly because they have never put themselves in a different position . We judge our own strength by comparing ourselves to those around us. Therefore, the only way to truly know our own strength is to change our situation, and see how we ...

Many people wear and worship a cross to symbolize their devotion to God. I think that a circle is a far more powerful symbol. Indeed, the Celts seem to have come to the same conclusion, as Celtic crosses incorporate both a circle and a cross. A cross symbolizes conflict. It's a constant reminder of a past wrong done to one group of humans by another. It's a constant call to arms. Indeed, the cross symbolism in Christianity is strongly related to the swords of the Crusaders, who went out and spilled all sorts of blood in the name of religious right. But doesn't the Bible also say that Jesus said to turn the other cheek? If he was alive today, would he be delighted to see all the people killing each other in the name of religion? I think not. But a circle gives us no license for violence.  It reminds us that we are all one, a constant reminder that everything we do will come back to us. That's everything we do to another human being, every act...

Many of us are stuck in the daily grind. Living in our houses, paying for our mortgages, going to a workplace every day. We long for more holiday time. Bring the holiday to you! By welcoming a traveller, you can feel as if you have been to their land yourself. As they say, a change is as good as a rest, and conversation with a traveller can be a breath of fresh air. An organization called couchsurfing.com gives you access to all kinds of travellers coming to your town in the near future. I’m not always in the mood to receive someone, but when a Swedish girl posted a note about her sister arriving at the airport, I thought, why not? And what an excellent visit we had. Having been treated wonderfully quite often when I was a traveller myself I remember how great it is to have a kind person greet you at the airport, to give you a shower and a bed. The joy of creating joy is the first benefit. I realized, too, that the kid and I could take a Tuesday off and drive h...

Forgiveness is a complicated thing...................................................................... 1 But is that a healthy way of being?....................................................................... 1 we each choose for ourselves.............................................................................. 2 Tools and beliefs that might help.......................................................................... 3 I like this model:.................................................................................................... 3 Think of this: If you had no expectations, what would you need to forgive?......... 3 Religion................................................................................................................. 4 The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz............................................................ 4 Two of the agreements are about our own behaviour:.......................................... 4 Two of ...

This lesson brings some people a lot of business success, but it’s useful for small women, too, (and everyone else I suppose) to keep themselves safe while abroad in the world. Watch this video of some African tribesmen stealing food from lions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rTYCc2ZF2o Remarkable, isn’t it? We have a small cat who does that – despite her diminutive size, she can eject large, aggressive, loud, human-biting dogs out of the yard (I even heard one go ipe ipe ipe once as it went). You’ve all probably seen a video of a cat chasing a bear, too. Here’s one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdAKxxdRYTE The point is, we are as big as we think we are. We are as able as we need to be. This lesson works in business but it’s also essential to teach any people you know who are concerned about safety and security – for example travellers or young adults about to go out into the world. The lesson is this: If you act like prey, you are prey. If you ...

This is an allegorical tale, of course. Something that really happened to me (and others), but which illustrates something we’re all doing—and seeing it this way can help you have much better relationships. Like all the best tales, this may ramble a bit. Feel free to refresh your beverage before you settle in to enjoy. I’ll wait. … ... :) Let’s start this tale in Singapore. No, wait. Montréal. Friendly and youthful, a Swiss university pal and I met a couple of Singaporean businessmen on a Montréal bus tour, when we were visiting that fair city for our first times. We shared dim sum after the tour, and they taught us the Mandarin words for some of the dishes I’ve known since childhood in Calgary (all, however, were new to my Swiss room-mate) and gave us their cards and invited us to visit. Laure and I both thought, hm! Unlikely we’ll be in Singapore any time soon! But we politely said thank you and tucked the cards away. Lo and behold, mere months l...

Here's a funny phenomenon I rediscovered this evening at the Cirque de Soleil. People know the phrase "go hard or go home" for sports and business, but somehow they totally fail on it when it comes to other things. Like, for example, being part of the show that is everyday life. You know, whether you dress in sweatpants and keep your head down, or wear face paint and a corset and keep your head up and your smile bright, you ARE part of the show. You, me, everybody around us, we all create the Show of Life. In downtown Bankers Hall in Calgary, people know they're part of the show. They obsess about their hair, their nails, their clothes, their shoes... (when I worked on the almost-top floor of a very tall tower, do you know how I could tell where people were going to get off? By the shininess of their shoes. The shiniest shoes always went to the top floors. A little weird, but there you have it, over six months of observations, this held true...

This is the story of a multi-billion-dollar business opportunity that someone saw, pursued admirably, and... then wasted by hasty inattention to quality . Poof. The multi-billion-dollar opportunity was never regained by anyone in that entire part of the world for hundreds of years after. It's a fascinating tale. As Angela Nuovo, the scholar who located the lost Koran in a Venetian monastery*, in 1987, said, The story of this Arabic Koran is the thoroughly Venetian story of a sector, the printing business, that was productive, ingenious, intensely dynamic, inasmuch as it was driven by unbridled competition... Imagine the huge business potential represented by such a numerous and profoundly religious readership. And that explains how, with its geographical position and its history, Venice was the only place where such an enterprise could have been undertaken."  *The monks did not know what they had. The book had been virtually untouched in the arc...

I figured out recently why many people are so exhausted. Here's a lesson from teachers and writers to engage your mind better every week and beat back exhaustion. 1. How it works 2. Prescription 3. photo caption below You know what I love about writers & teachers? It's their bright, curious gaze. Having just spent some time with a bunch of them, I started to wonder why this group of people was so much more fired up than other groups. And I think I know now what it is that the business world is missing, especially business people who have gotten sad or lost their way. Try this little exercise for a few days, and re-invent how your life feels. In business, we tend to focus so much on people. People, people, people. What are they thinking? What are their quirks and hangups, so we know how to deal with them? What are we going to do about these negotiations to bend them to our will? Blah. No wonder business is so exhausting. Teaching and writ...

M.C. Escher. Genius. Inspiration. He turned all kinds of objects into shapes that we hadn't seen them in before, and he really did it brilliantly. The elegance of the way he fits things together is mesmerizing. Linear traditional thought would have us believe that our schedules exist in blocks of time, like those black and white square and rectangular fields in "Day and Night" -- Escher's print above. (In case the name M. C. Escher doesn't ring a bell with you, I've linked some articles about him, at the end of this article.) We were taught block scheduling at school, and many people manage to make a blocky schedule work very effectively for their time management in, say, a job, or juggling multiple meetings. Here's a great example of a typical day planner, thinking in blocks of time, from  https://rachelrosaliedesign.ecwid.com Block scheduling works great, to a point. But what about when it gets three times busier? How do you m...

An Irish friend of mine, Eamon Mag Uidir, is headed out to march for the pro-choice camp in Ireland, and I wanted to add a few words of support. To me, this issue is not about who is right and who is wrong. It's about looking at the current reality and seeing if we can change it. Let's say that you are one of the people out there marching and shouting that abortion is murder. Fair enough. I don't disagree with that. It's choosing one life or another. Men do the same thing in wars all the time, choose who will live and who will die. They're doing it today. Isn't abortion often women making the same strategic decision? However, what we call it is irrelevant . Let's get beyond the name calling and see if we can make a change. Why is it that a woman would choose to have an abortion? If you are a thinking person, you'll realize that it's not because she is a bad person. It's not because she wants to kill another person. ...