So I’m scrolling down a story today, and what do I see? The sidebar. Yes, this is my own story. Don’t judge. Not intrusive, just enough to catch your eye, but not enough to distract from the story. Smooth, Medium peeps, very smooth. Keep on keepin’ on. I like where this train is going. Love, Mike
image credit: Marlith (Wikimedia Commons) We are, for the most part, trying to get better. There is a real and thriving improvement culture that is pervasive in nearly all industries in the global business world. Most large companies have a continuous improvement department or initiative in place. There are thousands of books and multimedia publications… Read More »In Our Rush to Be Great, Let’s not Forget to Be Good
credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lindenbaum/ Would You Pay for All of the Line Items? My wife owns a company, which at the moment has 2 employees — herself and me. She also writes about freelancing on the web. So, when we’re not talking about what’s for dinner, what chores need to be done, or where our child is (seriously, she was… Read More »What If You Invoiced Yourself for All of Your Time?
credit: Stougard Some Thoughts on Why the Small Things We Do are So Valuable Those in the English-speaking Buddhism community have a word that they use to talk about their spiritual habits: “practice”. So when you hear a dharma talk or read something by a Zen Buddhist (and probably a Buddhist in general, come to think… Read More »It’s Just Practice
credit: Cory M. Grenier A Short Essay on the Value of Your Time and Attention In order to make a living, I work a day job in a decidedly un-sexy industry that is not the tech industry. In fact, I work in an industry that could not be more of an opposite of the industries that… Read More »What Old-School Manufacturing Can Teach New-School Entrepreneurs
Between my freshman and sophomore year of college, my first long-term relationship ended. It was the first relationship I was in where the “l” word was exchanged. I wasn’t heart-broken by any means, and neither was she. We both made a half-hearted effort to keep up a long-distance relationship for two semesters, 60 miles apart.… Read More »We Forget to Breathe
image credit: Rob Farrow I’m tired of seeing the word “success” or “successful” in the titles of blog posts, Medium articles, newsletters, and podcasts. There, I said it. It’s not that I don’t think people should chase goals, hustle, take risks, and make sacrifices. We should do those things. They are a pathway to growth. Notice… Read More »Improvement, Not Success
And How to Make it the Best it Can Be We hear a lot these days about whether a person is an introvert or an extrovert. Books and articles abound about how to figure out which one you are, what the strengths are of each, and how to leverage them for success — mostly in the context of… Read More »The Most Important Relationship In Your Life
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mpclemens/ An Essay on Creativity and Craft About 14 years ago, as a fresh-faced undergraduate, I stumbled across the Tao Te Ching. It’s a classic of the Eastern philosophical canon, and if you haven’t read it, you should. And if my endorsement isn’t enough, consider this: most translations weigh in at fewer than 75 pages. It’s… Read More »Your Work is Never Done
James Ensor “Masks Confronting Death” — image credit And Other Subversive Advice for Doing Great Things Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it can also the best way to get good at something. When I was in art school — my first oil painting class — we had a project in which we were tasked to reproduce a masterwork. I… Read More »Kill the Buddha, Kill Your Teachers
