What’s Thistle and What’s Seed. On LinkedIn, I’m constantly propositioned to buy the seeds of leadership growth. Titles bombard me through sponsored posts, “Here's the 12 Seeds to Grow Successful Leaders.” For the first two-thirds of my life, this worked. I needed these seeds and planted them to grow a flourishing family, company and a leadership personality, one that caused me to be appreciated within a larger community. But I’m realizing that those seeds will not be the best to carry me...
8 days ago • 2 min read
Learning to Have New Ambitions. I wrote last week, “The Rare Gift of Attention”, and many of you responded positively. Thanks for that. But none of this attention-giving is natural for me. It’s actually often frustrating. My attention is towards ambition. It’s ambition that drives me into new and great projects. I’ve prided myself on pushing the boundaries of business and adventure. It’s surprising that after all these decades I can still look back over my shoulder and see clearly the mind of...
15 days ago • 2 min read
The Rare Gift of Attention I’ve spent most of my life paying attention to projects, with just enough attention to people to keep the company healthy. I told Geoff I’ve noticed something changing; I’m more interested in the person than in their projects. He didn’t let that pass. “You spent twenty-five years as a go-to guy for the staff and customers in your business. You were a problem solver. Why do you want to change your focus?” I’ve found that Geoff always pokes me to see myself in new...
22 days ago • 1 min read
Strategic Intent: 3 Words to Describe My True North I used to write words that formed our company direction; the “Strategic Intent”. There’s no business to lead now, but I’m thinking I need some words, some articulation for where I’m going. A sentence that holds me to my “true north”. In the 1980’s, we were on fire; we designed and built Canada’s first mountain bikes. But we had parts shortages, manufacturing problems and component failures. Our commitment was that the bikes needed to be...
29 days ago • 2 min read
I Choose You The other evening I was re-watching the 2014 film “The Judge”. It was unpleasantly real, even harsh. There’s a closing bit with father and son, estranged for years, out fishing on a still lake. That short scene slipped past my defenses, and made me contemplate the simple security of being loved. The father, the judge, turns to son, the lawyer, and says quietly, “You are.” Son looks over. “I am?” “Question you asked me… about the best lawyer and all? I choose you.”, the father...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hard Human Bones, or Drifting Jellyfish Getting old means I’m experiencing an increasing number of major life changes, including career transitions and retirement, my children that have become adults, the loss of loved ones, health challenges, and eventually the loss of my independence. How am I going to handle these changes? I was looking up at the dark night sky in Nandi Hills, Kenya, and I was surprised to see the same Milky Way Galaxy, when standing by Great Slave Lake in the NWT. Earth,...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Shedding My Shell It’s been over 5 years, but I’m still struggling with how to live without work being the structure that defines my week. For most of my life, each week had an objective: build, or grow a company. I didn’t have time to think about my “worth” very much. I had my position which provided me with definition, validated by a community around me, with money as my measure. It’s been a painful process shedding this set of values. These last months I’ve been moving away from paid...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Online and In-Person Relationships I'm struggling with how relationships function in a digital world. I think I could summarize my thoughts with this: Online, I can multiply them. In person, I deepen them. I was trying to avoid the downpour, rushing between awnings, trying to stay dry. I was meeting an old friend for coffee, for no reason. What I mean, is there was no purpose to our time; no network building, no strategy to advance. I saw him standing at the Breka counter, and firmly clamped...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
The Slow Creative Work AI Can’t Do “What a waste of time!” I mumbled to Google. When it comes to fashioning new ideas, my relationship with Google, or AI is tenuous. But this isn’t a post about AI or online searches. It’s about outsourcing my creative thinking, and how it bites me in the end. Impatiently I type a couple of questions into Chat GPT’s search bar: “Are you trying to make me feel smart right now? Why do I feel you’re trying to be my friend?” And I got a smarmy response: I’m not...
2 months ago • 2 min read