Author Archives: site author

Coaching basketball is complex. There are many skills to master, ball handling, passing, rebounding, defense and playing as a team to name a few. A team can be great at all these things, but they amount to nothing if you don’t score. Your team has to make shots. That’s why the first thing we didContinue reading “Shoot First”

For over twenty-five years my college friends and I had a reunion called EC weekend in my home town of El Campo. We always spent the night at the ranch house. We always played poker and always sat at the same seats while playing. We were big on tradition.  I love traditions. They’re great. TheyContinue reading “Tradition”

I dealt with a lot of underwriters when I was an insurance agent. An underwriter makes the final decision on whether a company will write an insurance policy on a certain risk. They often disagreed with agents and were big on reciting underwriting rules. I often thought that rules in the hands of an underwriterContinue reading “Lamp Posts”

Steve Jobs gave a commencement address in which he said, “Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking”. That’s one of the most important statements I’ve heard in my life. I do my best to remember that any information I receive outside of my own personal experience isContinue reading “Dogma”

In my last post I discussed what I know and don’t know. Magic Words Deepest knowing is my personal experience in the present moment. To know more things deeply I experiment. True research is about trying things to see what happens, not reading other people’s ideas. Here’s an example.  I love cheese and chocolate. YearsContinue reading “Research”

Of course everyone in my generation knows the magic words taught to us by our parents, please and thank you. We used those at my insurance agency, but the phrase I don’t know, was even more important. Clients called to ask if a certain hazard was covered by their policy. If we weren’t sure, ourContinue reading “Magic Words”

Several decades ago I was in a Toastmasters club to improve my public speaking. I heard lots of good speeches, but one stands out. I have leaned on it several times over the years. It was given by my friend Peggy and was about personal responsibility and handling blame regarding a situation in which sheContinue reading “Who Did What?”

Learning to say no has become an important skill for me. I struggled with it for many years. I hated being put on the spot by others and often said yes regarding their requests, when I really wanted to say no. I finally came up with a response to those who made it hard toContinue reading “No”

We got a new dog in February after the passing of Skippy, who was so incredibly obedient from the very first day he rescued us. I had to learn how to train a dog again. One of the most important commands is stay. Trixie wants to please and learned it quickly. I use a similarContinue reading “Stay”

Teaching small children how to play basketball is an interesting experience. They like to run with the ball, so one of the first things is explaining that they have to dribble if they move their feet. However, that creates another problem, being stationary when they stop bouncing the ball. They take that seriously, so it’sContinue reading “Pivot”