Author Archives: site author

I mentioned in my post Small Package that I read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie many years ago. I found it invaluable. I would only change one thing and that’s the title. In my opinion it should be called Understanding People. After reading it I finally had someContinue reading “The Big Secret”

Dealing with the public by operating an insurance agency was an interesting experience. I got to know how people spent their money. In 1988 my office manager, I’ll call her Dee, had an epiphany. She said, “I just realized something. If you make a lot of money and you spend a lot of money you’reContinue reading “Being Rich”

I January of 1984 I read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I’d heard about it for years and found it to be a terrific book. There are many lessons I learned that I will write about in other posts. However, on page 55 I read something that changedContinue reading “Small Package”

I remember being taught to look both ways before crossing the street. It’s a life-saving skill I’ve taken for granted since I can remember. It’s hard to say how many times it’s kept me alive. Several years ago I saw a TED talk by David Steindl-Rast that has been almost as important by using theContinue reading “Stop, Look, Go”

Many years ago we were driving to northeast Louisiana from central Texas. We planned to stop in Longview Texas to see some friends on the way. The route took us on a bypass around Tyler Texas, but we decided to go downtown and get some barbeque for lunch. As we were leaving I asked anContinue reading “You Mean From Here?”

We’ve all heard the expression don’t judge a book by its cover. I always thought I knew what that meant. My dad said, “You never really know somebody until you marry them or go into business with them.” The expression was about other people, not me. Of course I know myself, how could I not?Continue reading “A Cover is not the Book”

Having a ranch when I was a kid, we often “worked cattle.” That means rounding them up and doing various things like vaccinations, parasite control and marketing calves. The cattle were almost always separated into groups such as bulls, calves, sick cows ect. To do this the cattle were run through a shoot, narrow pathway,Continue reading “The A Gate”

Since my last four posts have been about trust, it’s safe to assume that trust is important to me. In my first post I talked about being able to trust my parents. The second was about trusting friends who show up. The third was about the value of trust and how it helps make goodContinue reading “Trust the Moment”

I started coaching basketball with elementary age kids in a church league. Later I became the girls coach at a charter school working with middle school girls. I needed to step up my game so I went to the best resource I had, my old college roommate Bill. He had coached at the high schoolContinue reading “Trust Yourself”

A few years into my coaching career I started having my teams memorize the following poem. It’s amazing what teams have accomplished. It’s outstanding how much they have done. When the ultimate call is when one is for all, And the credit is reached for by none.                                                                                                  Sven Nader I knew to be aContinue reading “The Coin of the Realm”