Magnifying Life I keep a magnifying glass on top of my home inbox. I used to use it to look at the fine print on bills and contracts I needed to review or look closely at. For one reason or another, I don’t seem to need it any more. Not that long ago I went to my Ophthalmologist (an old college friend who always gets me in and out quickly while we catch up on…
The Last of the Naga Naga Sadhu Prasad lives in Lohajung in Uttarakhand Province in the shadow of Nanda Devi. He was once a Royal soldier in Delhi but he now lives in a small, but relatively dry cave and for the past 30 years has focused his mind on his reflections as a Naga Sadhu for his small community, providing spiritual counseling and guidance for those who seek it. His life is all about…
Uluru Rises In the land of the Anagus where Uluru rises, the wise man is king. And among the Anagus, wisdom can only come with age. The problem was that to the best of anyone’s knowledge, both Reggie and Rolli were borne on the same day. Reggie was born in the area of Uluru. When asked his age he produces from his pocket a small piece of yellowing paper which says, “Birthdate: August 17, 1945”.…
Alone in the Vastness On a trip to Latin America, I bought a painting by a well known Argentine artist named Rikelme. We were hosting a client reception in Punta del Este on the gold coast of Uruguay, where the rich and famous play in January. Rikelme seems to specialize in painting landscapes that emphasizing trees. I’m a big tree fan when it comes to art. One of my other favorite artists is David Smith…
Roller Coaster Design and Maintenance Jim’s wife came at him with an unusual question. Had Jim ever told the night doorman of their apartment building that he was a designer of roller coasters? Sometimes comments take on a life of their own and once they go through the mill they morph in all kinds of interesting ways. When Jim was in between marriages he had dated a woman who was teaching him Spanish. He immediately…
On Innovation When I was in high school I can remember going to visit my aunt and uncle who had previously owned a grocery store. They had an old adding machine that fascinated me. I would play with it for long hours. When I got to college, as a freshman engineer I took a computer programming course and learned how to write do-loop operands using IBM punch cards that we would submit to a computer…
Car Conundrum All the current literature tells us that the century of American heavy metal has come to an end. With 47% fewer 16-year-olds getting their driver’s licenses over the past three decades and autonomous vehicles coming on strong, the right of passage is quickly shifting off of getting a car and its respective independence. I’m not sure what marks the passage now, but whatever it is, I hope my kids handle it better with…
The Boy on the Bookshelf There was a time when my life was all about collecting tombstones. My Wall Street friends know what I mean, but for the rest of you that think I have some morbid adolescent taste for collecting grave markers, tombstones are those little Lucite mementos that are given out by investment bankers to memorialize a deal. When you realize that investment bankers don’t create anything tangible, you can better understand their…
The Beast Within James is not the man you think he is when you first see or meet him. Some people show you who they are with their cultivated look. I think Donald J. Trump announces to the world who he is with one glance. Warren Buffet looks exactly like what you would expect The Sage from Omaha to look like. Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos may be otherwise ordinary in their appearance, but I…
What Do We Believe In? I used to work with a guy named Josh. I had an unusual history with Josh because I was never quite sure who worked for whom. Don’t get me wrong, Josh was never insubordinate, it was just that he had his own agenda and I was never quite sure whether he was following his agenda or the team’s agenda as set by me. I have always preferred to have independent–minded…