USA Today recently commented on the last episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show.  The article Oprah as saying, “I’ve spoken to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common: a need for validation.”  Validation reinforces a positive sense of worth in people and makes them feel really good about…

I just returned from a trip to Bogota, Columbia where I gave a presentation on my new leadership model to a Latin America business forum.  I stayed at a wonderful hotel that was part of a Columbian hotel chain and I was the only person staying there who wasn’t fluent in Spanish.  When I arrived…

So says Mary Bernard, deputy director of the National Institute on Aging in an article the recently appeared in USA Today.  She went on to say, “With all the gains we’ve made over the years allowing people to live longer, it would be nice if more people took advantage of exercise to improve the quality of…

All of us like to be on the receiving end of kind acts, but we tend to forget that other people like to be on the receiving end as well.  Our acts of kindness can impact other people in a number of ways – sometimes they brighten their day, sometimes they make their day and…

A friend of mine started a new job about a month ago.  The first week he was on the job, he received half a dozen emails from his new coworkers telling him things like, “So glad you’re a member of our team,” “I really enjoy working with you,” and “Happy to have you on board.”…

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal cited research that showed our social networks—family members, friends and acquaintances we regularly interact with—strongly influence how we feel.  For example, when one person is happy, the members of their social network are 25% more likely to be happy.  Furthermore, this influence can even spread though online…

The Wall Street Journal recently carried an essay written by Scott Adams, the creator of “Dilbert.”  The essay contained some sound bits of wisdom on how to become successful based on his personal experienced.  One of his points was to “Attract Luck.”  Mr. Adams went on to say, “You can’t manage luck directly, but you…

Serendipity is the accidental discovery of something wonderful while you’re searching for something else.  I remember once searching through a set of files looking for a particular letter and found a check for $1,200 that I had long forgotten about—I was ecstatic.  Recently, a group of researchers that included author Clive Custler, were searching for…

I was at a party recently when someone said to me, “People don’t change much as they age unless they continue to grow as they get older.”  In other words, when we stop growing, we become boring.  This thought intrigued me, so I did some checking and found out the notion has a great deal…