NASA Challenger disaster. BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Volkswagen emissions scandal. What went wrong? Investigations produced multi-layered findings. Yet beneath the complexity lay a common element. Fear. People were afraid to speak the truth. And so, they...
In 1997 businessman Ted Turner stunned the audience at a United Nations gala dinner where he was receiving the Global Leadership Award. Without prior notice, he announced that he was donating $1 billion to the UN to help defray the effects of American arrears. It...
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. Your playing small does not serve the world." I was not long out of university when I first came upon these words by Marianne Williamson. Soon after, they...
It’s hard to believe it has been two years since I stepped onto the ‘roof top of Africa’ – Mt Kilimanjaro - after a grueling 9-hour ascent with my husband and our four children. (Here’s the blog I wrote about 'summit day' soon after.) While our view ascending...
Last week I took my daughter, Maddy to Myanmar. My mother-in-law, Diana, was born in Burma (Myanmar’s name until 1989) so I’ve long been curious about the country that had fallen from one of Asia’s more prosperous countries to one of its poorest. As we walked around...
"I don’t do resolutions,” Jane told me last week. “What’s the point? I never keep them.” You probably know a few people like Jane yourself. Perhaps you’re one of them! In your heart, you know you want to make changes in your life, but year after year you keep being...
If you're reading this, chances are you're someone who wants to do well in your work and be paid well for it. But you also want more than that. You want to feel that it serves some purpose greater than a paycheck or a position. Albert Einstein said, “Ever more today...
Over the last three weeks, I’ve been in Europe enjoying the highlights of Italy, France and hiking up and down the Alps on a 'Tour de Mt Blanc'. I’m not sure if it was brave or foolhardy, but last week we hired a van in Rome to drive up to Tuscany. Thank God for GPS!...
"First say to yourself what would you BE, and then do what you have to DO." - Epiticus It's great to focus on what you want to accomplish in the year ahead. Habits you want to start. Or quit. Goals you want to achieve. Changes you want to make. Money you want to earn....
As we near the end of the year it’s easy to get so caught up in all that still needs to get done that we fail to look back on the year just gone – to acknowledge how far we’ve come and who we’ve become in the process. I am sure you’ve done plenty this year. And I’m...
I’m sure, like me, you’ve made your share of mistakes over the years. Times you’ve made a bad decision or taken too long to make any at all! The word mistake comes from the Latin to “miss-step.” Mistakes are, literally, nothing more or less than a step (or two) in the...
Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with former Australian Prime Minister John Howard. We were both keynote speakers at the same conference and ended up having time together between speeches and afterward at a reception. Like every political leader,...
Get a new job. Not worry about money. Eat mayo. Travel to a foreign country. Ask for help. Try out for the Princeton crew team. Bike over a volcano. Ask for Date #2. Go into a shelter. Quit my job. Tell my secrets. Love myself. These are some of the things people have...
Terrorist attacks. Police shootings. Brexit. Political coups. Refugee crisis. Zika virus. President Trump. Let’s face it, we live in fearful times. There’s no shortage of headlines alerting us potential threats to our safety and future. Which is why, when headlines...
Ever been in a conversation where you felt like the person you were talking to wasn’t listening to a word you said because they were too busy trying to convince you of their opinion? Yep, me too. It’s a common phenomenon. So much so that there’s likely been times...
Last year I was invited to interview Sir Richard Branson on his private Caribbean island. A career highlight for sure! Fortunately for me, "Just call me Richard" is incredibly down to earth person who quickly puts people at ease around him. Phew. During our interview...
"It's by embracing change and risking mistakes that you get ahead." ~ Bill Marriott One of the things I most love about my work is the people I get to meet. So it was a huge honor to be invited into Marriott headquarters to interview J.W. "Bill" Marriott, who has...
Communication technology. It's the best of tools when used well. It's the worst of tools when it's not. Last week I received a 'not-very-nice' email from a man who didn’t like my reference to Donald Trump in my recent blog. He wrote, and I quote, “You should be...
A few months back a friend shared how she was on the fence about hiring a man for a role as a financial advisor because he was 60 and seemed ‘a bit old’ despite being imminently qualified. I encouraged her not to let his age deter her from taking him on if he was the...
“Every risk is worth taking as long as it’s for a good cause and contributes to a good life.” - Sir Richard Branson Maverick. Risk taker. Rebel. Trailblazing tycoon. Billionaire buccaneer. Adventurer. Disruptor. Sir Richard Branson has been called all these and many...
