This past week, I had a strong reminder of how important love is as we journey through life. My oldest daughter had just come home from the hospital after giving birth to a son just 30 hours prior. My wife and I had cooked dinner and brought it over to share with them. Everyone was…
Recently, the Dalai Lama joined Willow Bay for a HuffPost Live conversation about happiness, mindfulness and success. To be truly happy, he said, there are two things you need: “One, warm heartedness. That brings inner strength, more self confidence. That reduces fear, that reduces suspicion…Then in order to pay more attention to these things, you…
I came across this list of rules when a friend of mine posted it on Facebook. I like this list because there are only five rules, they’re simple and they’re dead on. I have no idea who the original author is, but I want to share this list with you. Free your heart from hatred.…
Some people choose to float through life–sitting back and watching the world go by while passing on opportunities and challenges that require any risk or effort. I had one such person share with me her strategy for dealing difficult challenges and tasks. She said, “If you wait long enough, someone will come along and do…
In a recent post on The HBR BLOG NETWORK / THE DAILY STAT, Andrew O’Connell referenced a study that looked at the benefits of interacting with cashiers. The post read, “If you buy your coffee quickly at Starbucks without saying much of anything, you’ll probably arrive at the office sooner, but if you stop to…
I recently took a cab from the Conference Center on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin to the Austin airport. The cab driver turned out to be from Morocco and was very pleasant and chatty. When we arrived at the airport he asked me if I wanted a blank receipt for the…
A recent article in USA Today by Charisse Jones referenced a new index that ranked Southwest Airlines as the easiest travel company to do business with. “The perception that Southwest offers fair prices that don’t dramatically spike because of a host of extra fees being tacked on is key to customers feeling the airline is…
Clay Thompson, a columnist for The Arizona Republic was recently on leave from his job because of a health problem. When he returned, he mentioned in his column how well he had been cared for by nurses and nurse assistants. According to Mr. Thompson, “They were unfailingly cheerful and helpful and no matter how much…
A recent issue of USA Today, contained an article about Jay Stein, the CEO of retail chain Stein Mart. According to the article, Mr. Stein is extremely well liked by customers and employees. The reasons are that he’s nice, he listens, he cares and he says “thank you” a lot. A comment posted on Glassdoor.com,…
I have been reading a lot of articles about Steve Ballmer, the outgoing CEO of Microsoft. None of these articles have cast Mr. Ballmer in a positive light. Rather they paint him as being a bully who managed Microsoft with fear. According to an article in USA Today, Mr. Ballmer was known for throwing chairs…