Personal traits
I had lunch with someone last week who truly personified a quality that I admire – humbleness. I was surprised by this, not only because most people simply aren’t very humble, but also because despite being young (I’m not exactly sure his age, but it was likely 24 or 25) he had actually accomplished quite a bit – founding a finance firm, raising some capital and finagling his way into a handful of really interesting late stage deals (of course his perspective was that he really hadn’t done anything yet . . . but that was just him being humble). …
April 3, 2007· 1 min read
Modern day Pavlov
I made a simple change in my life a few weeks ago that ended up being much more dramatic than expected. For reasons extraordinarily practical – I wanted to keep my phone on at night when I was traveling without being woken up 30 times overnight with the ‘chrip’ of a new email – I turned off the email notification on my Dash. (I know – I could have created a new profile and programmed it to allow the phone to ring but I was in a hurry so I just modified my main profile.) A few days passed before I realized that I wasn’t constantly interrupting what I was doing at any given moment to check new emails as they came in – no longer a slave to the friendly ping of my phone happily announcing each new message as it arrived (like Pavlov’s dogs, I had lost my power to resist). …
February 28, 2007· 1 min read
The kindness of strangers
The world is full of people who have gone out of their way to be helpful to me over the years. I’ve been reminded of how powerful kindness can be in the past few weeks as a relative stranger – a ‘friend of a friend’ who I’ve actually never met in person, just over e-mail and phone – has gone out of their way to help me out and as a result is making something extremely important to me much easier. …
November 22, 2006· 1 min read
Letting go
Everyone deserves to have one truly outstanding dog sometime in their lives. For us this dog was Beau – our 100lb yellow lab. Beau was a truly sweet dog. It’s hard to describe what this really means to those who never met him, but Beau was gentle despite his size and sweet in a way that sets him apart from all of the other dogs we’ve known. His favorite pastime was to present people with a series of toys (typically stuffed bones and animals) when they walked into the house while vigorously wagging the entire back half of his body – just before making several laps between their legs. Much to our amusement and unlike most labs, Beau didn’t enjoythings like swimming (which he never learned to do), hanging out outside (when we would leave the door to the back open, he would sit just inside the house – choosing to be inside rather than out) or fetching a ball (he preferred to watch as you retrieved the ball yourself, jumping up and down upon your return in an attempt to egg you on to once again throw the ball so he could watch you retrieve it). His great pleasures were the hikes we all took together and sleeping(preferably on a sofa or futon). He was a good companion to our other dog, Rosie, and the two would sleep together on the same doggie bed – spooning each other through the night. He had this funny habit of cocking his head to the side when you would talk to him – turning almost completely sideways the more you raised the pitch of your voice. My wife used to joke that if he could talk, he would have a Barry White voice – very deep, but kind and soft. We would often talk in this voice for him around the house (as in “I could not possibly eat another piece of hamburger . . . well, on second thought maybe I could”). She gave him an appropriate Barry White-esque theme song in St. Germain’s Sure Thing– and would joke about the things he would do in his music video to that song. Beau had endless patience wit children. First with our next door neighbor’s daughter (who would sometimes fall asleep when we were watching her using Beau’s stomach as a pillow) and then with our daughter, who would use Beau as a jungle gym – climbing over him, pulling his ears and tail, pretending to ride him like a horse, or kissing him on the head. Beau loved the attention and would lie with his tail wagging, tongue out, smiling doggie-style. Beau died yesterday at the age of 14. He was a good boy . . . …
August 23, 2006· 3 min read
Are you a Yankee or a Rebel
NPR has the answer.
June 20, 2006· 1 min read
now that’s helpful
Someone started ordering chai for our cafeteria and of course I had to check it out. Having never made chai from a package you can imagine that I had some concerns about whether it would come out right – what would I do if it was too hot? what if it wasn’t creamy enough? Not to worry – thankfully the package contained exremely helpful instructions (click on the image below for a better view). …
May 4, 2006· 1 min read
Baby loves disco!
Let’s face it – disco is a universally loved form of music (well . . . almost). This is certainly true of the under-6 demographic. I witnessed this phenomenon first hand last weekend as several hundred kids and their parents descended on the Boulder Theatre to rock out to the sweet beats and floating falsetto of the Bee Gees, Diana Ross and other 70’s greats. I can promise you that you have not experienced disco until you’ve seen a mass of kids rocking out, complete with bubble machine, lights and disco ball. …
March 15, 2006· 1 min read
Birthday wishes
Birthday wishes to Ben Casnocha who turns 18 today. Ben sent an e-mail out last week asking a bunch of folks for their advice about life at that age. I’m afraid my response was a little late to make it into his post with some of the material he received. Here was my 2c (extra points for the haiku): always have more fun by enjoying what you do it’s all the journey …
March 2, 2006· 1 min read
Going Bald
One of my most memorable experiences from when I was an investment banker in New York (and one of the things that really turned me off from banking, now that I think about it) happened one year at our team holiday party. One of the associates I worked with was going bald . . . all except for one spot on the very front of his head, which he refused to cut off despite it looking ridiculous – a wispy clump of hair in the middle of his otherwise bald forehead. We made endless fun of this hair over the years and that night, after much drinking, the group took up a pool to try to get him to shave it off for good. As I recall the pool got up to some absurd number – $15,000 – $20,000. Amazingly he didn’t shave it off (although it did, of course, eventually fall out). Looking back, this was a silly display of ego from the heads of the group to throw around that kind of money (clearly to impress the rest of us, who were in no position to offer more than a few bucks up).I was reminded of this story when I received a note from my friend Usher saying that he was going to shave his head in support of a charity that funds childhood cancer research. I wish I could have gone back in time and taken the money on the table at the banking party to give to Usher. Not able to do that, I thought I’d blog about it in hopes that some of you might consider supporting him in his cause along with me.
March 2, 2006· 2 min read
Slowing down
Check out the 10 mph project. I bumped into them when they passed through my neighborhood (attracted by its funky architecture and bright colors). They spent a couple of months traveling across the country on Segways and filming their experiences. Browsing their site is a kick. You can also check out a clip from their video by clicking on the big ‘trailer’ link at the top of the page. It’s a great reminder that slowing down often gives you a completely new perspective.
February 7, 2006· 1 min read