Category: Growth

Why Building Your Reputation Is a Waste of Time

Greene says guard your reputation with your life. The Greeks say build character worth remembering. One requires constant maintenance. The other requires consistent choices. The difference explains why some reputations survive scrutiny and others collapse the moment the spotlight shifts.

You Don't Need More Willpower. You Need a Better Sequence.

The people with the most discipline often needed the least of it. They sequenced their changes so well that each one created gravitational pull toward the next.

Why Staying Silent Is the Most Expensive Thing You'll Ever Do

Every swallowed truth is a down payment on becoming someone you don't recognize. The Greeks had a word for what's missing: parrhesia.

The Most Powerful Thing You Can Say Is Nothing

For the first time in this series, Greene and the ancient philosophers agree. Say less. Mean more. But they agree for different reasons, and the difference reveals everything about power versus virtue.

Hats, Haircuts, and Tattoos: Why You're Making Every Decision at the Wrong Speed

Most people spend 45 minutes choosing a Netflix show and 20 minutes choosing a mortgage. The problem isn't indecision. It's miscalibration. Phronesis (practical wisdom) demands matching speed to stakes.

The Difference Between Grit and Stubbornness (One Builds Character, One Destroys It)

Angela Duckworth made grit famous. She didn't explain when it becomes stubbornness. The Stoics knew: prohairesis (moral choice) distinguishes persistence that builds character from ego that refuses to accept reality.

Concealing Your Intentions Isn't Clever. It's Exhausting.

Greene's Law 3 conflates wisdom with manipulation. Strategic silence is phronesis. Active deception is a cognitive tax that compounds into exhaustion and isolation.

You're Not Too Intense. Everyone Else Is Too Comfortable.

What society labels 'crazy' or 'too intense' is actually the natural fulfillment of human purpose. The real madness is accepting a diminished life. Normal isn't sanity. It's collective surrender.

Next Week Is As Far As Most Leaders Can See. That's the Problem.

The inability to see beyond immediate tasks isn't a skill gap. It's a character limitation. Strategic vision is a cultivated virtue, not an innate talent. Small picture thinking is underdeveloped character.

Your Wins Aren't About You. That's Why They Matter.

Achievement for its own sake is accumulation, not excellence. The Greeks understood that individual flourishing and communal contribution aren't separate goals. Your wins matter precisely because they're not about you.

Your Best Days Aren't Behind You. Unless You Keep Looking Back.

The glory days trap isn't about memory. It's about identity. Living in the past is a form of self-protection that guarantees self-limitation.

Your Friends Aren't Your Weakness. Your Inability to Trust Them Is.

Greene's second law of power tells you to distrust friends and hire enemies. The tactical truth is real: friends can betray you. But the solution isn't strategic isolation. It's wisdom about who to let close.

Your Integrity Isn't Holding You Back. Your Fear Is Hiding Behind It.

There's a story people tell themselves about why they haven't succeeded. It sounds like integrity. It's actually fear dressed in virtue's clothing.

Most People Need a Crisis to Try Their Hardest. That's a Character Flaw.

Crisis unlocks extraordinary performance. But needing crisis to access your best means your best isn't really yours. It belongs to whatever circumstances happen to arrive.

Should You Hide Your Excellence to Protect Your Boss's Ego?

Greene's first law of power tells you to never outshine the master. The tactical truth is real: insecure leaders punish excellence. But the solution isn't dimming your light. It's knowing when to deploy it. The Greeks called it kairos.

Why Authenticity Has Nothing to Do With Being Yourself

Authenticity has become a personal branding buzzword. The Greeks knew better. True authenticity isn't about expressing your real self. It's about refusing to fragment into different versions for different audiences. Wholeness, not performance.

What Do You Actually Want? (Most People Never Answer This)

You're not anxious. You're unclear. The mind that hasn't decided what it wants will constantly point out what's missing. Clarity isn't a luxury. It's the foundation.

Stop Asking 'What Should I Do?' Start Asking 'Who Should I Become?'

Everyone optimizes their actions. Almost no one optimizes who they're becoming. The obsession with tactics keeps people trapped while the strategic question goes unanswered.

Your Goals Aren't Too Big. Your Sacrifices Are Too Small.

You don't have an ambition problem. You have a payment problem. Everyone wants the dream. Almost no one wants to pay what it actually costs.

AI Is Making Life Easier. That Might Be the Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Us.

Three miles from anything, my calf seized. No Uber. No shortcut. Just pain and the choice to keep moving. AI is removing that choice from everything. And that might be destroying us.

Comfort Killed More Dreams Than Failure Ever Did

Everyone fears failure. Almost nobody fears comfort. The ancients understood why that's backwards. Comfort doesn't protect dreams. It suffocates them slowly while you're too numb to notice.

"Discipline Is for Losers"? The Obsession You're Jealous Of Started There

The person calling discipline 'for losers' is watching masters and missing the decades of discipline underneath. What looks like obsession is hexis. The discipline came first.

Your Confidence Is Fake. Here's How to Build the Real Thing.

The modern confidence industry sells shortcuts that produce fragile leaders. Real confidence follows the ancient sequence: courage first, then competence, then confidence.

Stop Fixing Your Team's Problems. You're Making Them Helpless.

The best thing you can do for your team is stop rescuing them. Every problem you solve for them is capability they never develop. Coaching builds warriors. Rescuing creates dependents.

Why Do Most New Year's Resolutions Die Before February?

I watched a man fail his resolution in an ice cream shop parking lot. Not because he ate ice cream. Because he was already negotiating with Monday. The timing was wrong before he started.

What If Your 'Personal Best' Is Actually Your Personal Belief?

Everyone treats their personal best as an objective measurement. But what if it's actually a prophecy? What if the limit you keep hitting is the limit you keep expecting to hit?

The Elimination Discipline: Why Cutting the Good Unlocks the Great

Most people stay mediocre not because they lack talent, but because they refuse to give up anything. The hardest cut isn't the bad work. It's the good work that's in the way.

The Boring Truth About Excellence: Why Mastery Looks Ordinary Until It Doesn't

We expect excellence to look impressive. But the most exceptional people spend most of their time doing things that look completely ordinary. Here's the boring truth about how mastery is actually built.

Why the Best Never Feel Satisfied (And Shouldn't)

Everyone tells you to be grateful for what you have. To find contentment. To appreciate the journey. But the people who achieve lasting greatness share a trait most call unhealthy: they're never satisfied. And that's exactly why they succeed.

Stop Defending Yourself: Most Arguments Don't Deserve Your Energy

The instinct to defend yourself is older than language. But in the modern world, this instinct has become a trap that drains the energy you need for your actual work.

Why Your Parents Were Right: Nobody Ever Said Life Was Fair

Want in one hand and shit in the other. See which gets fuller faster. Working-class America didn't read the Stoics. They lived them.

Why Voluntary Struggle Prepares You for Involuntary Battles

The conditions you train in are the conditions you're prepared for. Every voluntary struggle is a deposit against the involuntary battles life doesn't schedule.

The Best Thing That Ever Happened to You Was Hitting Bottom

I thought I might need the ER after my first CrossFit workout. Turns out I'd just forgotten what building muscle felt like. That's how bad it had gotten. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Stop Being Afraid to Fail. Start Being Afraid to Coast.

The loud fear of failure drowns out the quiet fear of never knowing. But only one of those fears creates wounds that heal.

The Momentum Machine: How Relentless Reps Turn Impossible into Routine

The difference between extraordinary achievement and constant restarting isn't talent or luck. It's whether you've built a momentum machine that runs even when motivation dies.

Why Progress Feels Like Nothing Until It Feels Like Everything

Progress doesn't arrive gradually. It accumulates in silence, then announces itself all at once.

Most Success Is Just Avoiding Obvious Mistakes

Everyone's chasing brilliance while tripping over obvious errors. The uncomfortable truth about success isn't that you need to be smarter. You need to stop being dumb.

Build Habits for Your Worst Day, Not Your Best

You've been designing habits for the version of you that exists after good sleep, full of motivation, in ideal conditions. That version shows up maybe 20% of the time. Here's how to build for the other 80%.

The Luck Delusion: Why 'Lucky' People Just Execute Better

Everyone knows someone who seems impossibly lucky. Right place, right time, every time. What looks like fortune is actually something else entirely. And it's available to anyone willing to see it.

The Fastest Path to Opportunity Is Through the Work Nobody Wants

Everyone's competing for the spotlight. Meanwhile, opportunity waits in the tasks everyone avoids. The dirty work doorway isn't just a path to success. It's the only path that isn't crowded.

Good Intentions Are Why Most Dreams Die

Everyone celebrates good intentions. 'At least their heart was in the right place.' But intentions aren't neutral. They're a sophisticated form of self-deception that lets you feel virtuous about dreams you're not actually building.

The Most Dangerous Thing You Can Do Is Become Excellent

Your pursuit of excellence isn't neutral. It's an act of rebellion against every force that profits from your weakness, distraction, and mediocrity.

The Couples Who Fight Are the Couples Who Last

Happy couples don't fight. That's the story we tell ourselves. Then we watch peaceful marriages end without warning. The truth? Antifragile bonds are forged through navigated conflict, not polished harmony.

You're Working Hard. On the Wrong Things.

The myth of 'work on your weaknesses' has created generations of well-rounded mediocrity. What if the thing that comes easily to you is exactly where your leverage lives?

If Money Is Why They Stay, Money Is Why They'll Leave.

Pay them well and they'll stay. Pay them more and they'll work harder. It sounds logical until you watch your highest-paid people leave for less money. The myth of compensation-driven loyalty is destroying teams.

Character Isn't What You Post. It's What You Practice.

Social media has convinced us that visible virtue is real virtue. Aristotle knew better. Character is the pattern of what you do when no one's watching, not the highlight reel you curate for strangers.

If You Can't Defend It, You Don't Believe It. You're Just Repeating It.

Most people defend positions they never chose. Socrates understood that repeating something doesn't make it yours. The unexamined belief is just someone else's script running in your head.

When You're Dying, Who Will You Wish You'd Become?

Nobody eulogizes your revenue growth. The metrics that feel urgent today will be irrelevant the moment you're gone. The people you developed will carry your impact for decades.

You're Not Getting Ready. You're Hiding.

Preparation is the most sophisticated form of procrastination. It feels productive. It looks responsible. And it keeps you exactly where you are.

Your Backup Plan Is Why Your Main Plan Keeps Failing

You tell yourself the backup plan is smart, responsible, prudent. The Stoics knew better. Prohairesis, moral choice, is singular by nature. Every escape route you build is a promise to yourself that when things get hard enough, you'll quit.

Hard Work Stops Some People. Uncertainty Stops Everyone Else.

Andy Weir posted chapters of The Martian to his blog for 10 years. 3,000 readers. No validation. No proof it mattered. Then the breakthrough. The separator isn't talent or work ethic, it's tolerance for uncertainty.

Why Do Smart People Overcomplicate Everything?

The Greeks understood something we've forgotten, true wisdom reveals itself through simplicity, not complexity. Intelligence is finding the simple truth, not creating elaborate frameworks.

Stop Asking Why This Is Happening. Start Asking What It's Teaching.

The ancient Greeks understood something we've forgotten—every difficulty is training when you ask the right question. The shift from 'why me?' to 'what's this teaching?' changes everything.

Are You Building a Craft or Building an Audience? You Can't Do Both.

You can build a craft or you can build an audience. Both require time and energy. But they require opposite orientations. And trying to do both simultaneously guarantees you'll fail at the one that matters.

Delayed Gratification Isn't Self-Control. It's the Foundation of All Virtue.

Everyone got the marshmallow test wrong. They turned it into a success predictor. The Stoics understood the real truth 2,000 years ago: delayed gratification isn't about outcomes, it's about character.

Stop Babying Your Team. Start Building Them.

The ancient concept of paideia required both challenge and care. High expectations without support breaks people. High support without expectations keeps them small. Real leadership integrates both.

You're Better Off Missing Moon Shots Than Hitting Layups

You think success is about the win. It's actually about what the attempt makes you become. The goals you miss build more character than the ones you hit.

You Don't Get Fewer Problems. You Get Better Ones.

Your problems aren't proof you're failing. They're proof of where you've climbed. Each level of success doesn't reduce difficulty, it upgrades it.

Your Life Right Now Is Just Your Last 90 Days Playing Out

Your fitness, your bank account, your relationships, your opportunities right now aren't revealing your identity. They're showing you what you've been doing for the past 30-90 days. That's not philosophy. That's physics.

Forgiveness Isn't About Them. It's the Most Selfish Thing You Can Do.

Every minute you spend resenting someone is energy you're not using to build your life. The Stoics knew what we forgot: forgiveness releases you from the prison, not them from consequences.

Stop Chasing Happiness. It's Making You Miserable.

The more directly you pursue happiness, the more it evades you. Kant knew what we forgot: happiness only arrives as a byproduct of living virtuously, not as a target to optimize for.

Stop Chasing Job Security. Build Skills They Can't Take Away.

Job security is dead. The people who recover fastest from layoffs aren't the ones with the best titles, they're the ones who built skills that travel. Here's what autarkeia teaches us about real security.

Getting Consumed by Your Work Isn't the Problem. What It's Making You Into Is.

Work-life balance won't save you from being consumed. Everything significant consumes you. The question isn't whether work will consume you, but what you're becoming through that consumption. Choose the fire that forges you.

Good Vibes Only Will Keep You Weak Forever

Good vibes only doesn't protect you from negativity. It protects you from growth. Every time you positive-think your way past difficult emotions, you're training yourself to be weaker.

Your Self-Care Routine Is Making You Weaker

Modern self-care culture produces people who need more support to handle less challenge. Rest is only restorative when preceded by genuine exertion. Without the depletion, there's nothing to restore.

You're Not Less Talented. You're Less Focused.

What looks like exceptional talent is usually exceptional attention. The people crushing it aren't more gifted, they've just built the character discipline to ignore everything except what matters most.

Your Inner Critic Is Murdering Your Best Ideas in the Crib

Your inner critic isn't the enemy. But letting it judge while you create guarantees mediocrity. Excellence requires opposite mindsets—and knowing when to deploy each.

Excellence Is Rented, Not Owned: The Rent Is Due Every Day

Grandma's cast iron pan lasted 60 years with daily care. My 'lifetime warranty' pan died in 18 months with neglect. Excellence isn't owned—it's rented. And the rent is due every single day.

Stop Waiting for Flow - Start Training It Like Every Other Skill

You can spend another year waiting for flow to happen, or you can spend the next 12 weeks training it like the ancient Greeks did, systematically, progressively, relentlessly.

Why Does Tolerating One Person's Mediocrity Destroy Your Entire Team?

Mediocrity spreads like wildfire once you signal it's acceptable. Leaders who tolerate good enough from one person send a message to everyone that standards are negotiable. Excellence demands eliminating compromises at the source before they become cultural norms.

Your People Are Telling You What They Need. You're Just Not Listening.

Your people are already telling you what they need. They're showing you where the problems are. But you're not hearing them because listening requires something you don't want to give: your certainty, your expertise, your agenda, your ego.

Stop Apologizing for Your Ambition. Character Is Caught, Not Taught.

Your kids don't learn character from perfect attendance. They learn it from watching you demonstrate what's worth pursuing. Stop apologizing for your ambition. Start showing them what commitment looks like.

Your Focus App Isn't Working: Stop Tracking Distractions, Start Training Focus

Your focus app was never designed to make you focused. It was designed to make you dependent. Real focus comes from training attention like a muscle, not from tracking every distraction and optimizing dashboards.

Stop Following Your Passion. Start Building Excellence.

Passion is self-focused and fleeting. Excellence through service is other-focused and enduring. The Greeks never told anyone to follow their passion. They built character through craft. Here's why that matters for your work.

Akrasia: Why You Sabotage What You Know Is Right

You know exactly what you should do. You've known for months. So why aren't you doing it? The ancient Greeks had a word for this: akrasia, acting against your better judgment. And they understood it's the ultimate killer of excellence.

Why Trying Harder Makes You Worse (And How to Let Excellence Flow)

You built the conditions. You trained your attention. Now stop trying so hard. The excellence you're forcing toward shows up when you allow it to emerge.

Manage Attention, Not Hours: How to Do Work That Matters

You don't need more hours, you need cleaner attention. When you defend attention, deep work shows up and the needle finally moves.

Why Real Learning Only Happens Under Pressure

Real competence emerges when comfort dies and stakes are real. The professionals who thrive in crisis weren't trained in safe environments, they were forged under pressure.

Stop Chasing Flow. Build It.

Flow doesn't show up when you beg it. It shows up when you remove what blocks it. The people who hit flow states most aren't gifted, they're disciplined about building the right conditions.

Why Leaders Who Don't Need Applause Get All the Respect

The leaders who command the most respect don't need your applause to do the work. And that's exactly why you can't stop watching them.

Strategic Imperfection: Why Good Enough Beats Perfect Every Time

Perfectionism isn't high standards. It's fear management. Strategic imperfection creates more progress than perfect ever could.

The Discipline Gateway: Why Real Freedom Costs More, Not Less

The brutal truth about freedom: it's not the absence of constraints, it's the wisdom to choose the right ones.

Why Leaders Who Don't Endorse Others Stay Relationally Poor

Your willingness to risk your reputation for someone else's growth reveals everything about your actual confidence in your leadership.

The Internal Locus Revolution: Why Everything Is On You (And That's Your Advantage)

Most people spend their lives as victims of circumstances they created. Here's why accepting that you're both the source and solution to your problems is the ultimate advantage.

Why Greatness Demands Imbalance

True greatness cannot be evenly distributed across all areas of life simultaneously. Excellence requires strategic imbalance, knowing when and where to concentrate your full intensity, and having the wisdom to let other areas temporarily receive less attention.

The Character Foundation: Why Most Leadership Development Gets It Backwards

The $366 billion leadership development industry teaches techniques before character, skills before being. Here's why 70% of programs fail and how character-based leadership endures.

Stop Serving From Weakness: Why Most Servant Leaders Fail

Most 'servant leaders' are just weak managers who've convinced themselves that avoiding difficult decisions is virtuous. Real servant leadership requires character strength.

The Madness of Excellence: Why Every Exceptional Person Gets Called Crazy

The madness of excellence has two faces: seeing what others can't and doing what others won't. Both will get you called crazy. Both are required for greatness.

The Vibe Code Fallacy: Why Playing It Safe Is the Riskiest Strategy

When smart engineers choose the safety of understanding over the risk of adaptation, they're not avoiding debt, they're accumulating it. The compound cost of caution might be the riskiest strategy of all.

The Reflection Stage: Where Wisdom Begins and Excuses Die

Prosoche, the Stoic practice of disciplined reflection—transforms raw experience into actionable wisdom. Part 7 of The Greatness Flywheel series shows how systematic reflection accelerates excellence by preventing repeated mistakes and compounding learning.

The Output Stage: Where Excellence Meets Impact (Arete)

Output (Arete) is where internal mastery becomes external transformation. Discover how to bridge personal excellence to world-changing impact through systematic application of ancient wisdom.

The Craft Stage: When Skill Becomes Second Nature (Techne)

You don't have a knowledge problem. You have a craft problem. Most people understand excellence intellectually but lack the embodied competence to execute it consistently. Techne bridges the gap between knowing and doing.

The False Path Trap: Why Clear Roads to Lesser Goals Kill Excellence

I chose government safety over startup fire, and it didn't just stall my career, it eroded my soul. The trap of 'practical' choices that kill excellence.

When Craft Becomes Cowardice: The Ancient Test for True Excellence

Jason Fried's knife-maker defense sounds reasonable, stay in your lane, perfect your craft, ignore the pressure to build battleships. But what if your 'disciplined focus' is just fear dressed as virtue? Aristotle had a test for this.

The Processing Engine: Why Smart People Can't Convert Knowledge Into Action

You consume endless information but produce mediocre results. The problem isn't what you know, it's how you process what you know. Smart people excel at input but fail at transformation. Time to build your Processing Engine.

The Information Architecture: Curating Input for Greatness

Most people consume information like they eat at a buffet, grabbing everything that looks appealing without considering nutrition or purpose. Then they wonder why their thinking is sluggish and their decisions are poor. Greatness requires intentional information architecture.

The Curiosity Lie: Why Your Questions Keep You Comfortable

Real curiosity isn't about asking smart questions, it's about pursuing the brutal ones you've been avoiding because they might change everything.

The Greatness Flywheel: Why Excellence is a Cycle, Not a Destination

Excellence isn't a destination you arrive at once and maintain through willpower. Excellence is a flywheel. The six-stage cycle that transforms ancient Greek wisdom into systematic excellence methodology.

The Unlimited Courage Question: The Single Test That Cuts Through All Self-Deception

Most people disguise cowardice as prudence. Here's the single question that cuts through all self-deception and reveals what you're really running from.

The Discipline Myth: Why Willpower Always Fails

Most people think discipline means forcing yourself to do things you don't want to do. This fundamental myth keeps people trapped in cycles of failure and self-recrimination.

The Position vs. Trend Mindset: Why Your Trajectory Matters More Than Your Current Location

The fundamental difference between position thinking (comparing to others) and trend thinking (tracking your own trajectory). Why your direction matters more than your location.

The Brutal Honesty Test: Do You Really Want What You Say You Want?

Most people torture themselves pursuing goals they don't actually want. The framework for distinguishing authentic desire from sophisticated self-torture.

The Philosopher King: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Leadership Integration

Plato's most radical leadership idea wasn't about power or position, it was about character. The philosopher king represents the ultimate integration of wisdom, excellence, courage, and transformation. Here's how to stop managing systems and start transforming people.

The Magic Pill Trap: Why True Endurance, in Running, Leadership, and Life, Can't Be Hacked

Trail running exposes the magic pill trap poisoning all growth: Want endurance? Embrace sustained discomfort, no hacks allowed.

Metanoia: The Transformation Mindset for Leaders

The Greeks understood that lasting change requires complete transformation of mind, heart, and character. Most organizational change fails because leaders try to change everything except themselves. Here's the ancient solution.

Sophia vs. Phronesis: When Wisdom Meets the Real World

Why brilliant strategies fail and how ancient Greek wisdom provides the solution through integrating theoretical and practical wisdom.

The Completion Paradox: Why Finishing Matters More Than Starting

You don't have a motivation problem. You have a completion problem. Every unfinished project is evidence that you can't trust yourself to follow through. Here's how to build the character that finishes what it starts.

The Self-Knowledge Trap: Stop Using 'I'm Just Not That Kind of Person' as an Excuse

We turn personality tests and strengths into excuses for staying small. 'I'm just not that kind of person' sounds authentic but kills growth. Here's how to stop bullshitting yourself.

The Integrity Loop: Why Breaking Promises to Yourself Destroys Confidence

Your word is your bond, including the word you give yourself. Every broken promise to yourself erodes your confidence. Every kept promise builds it. This isn't productivity, it's character work.

Stop Changing Your Tactics and Deal With Your Shit

You're not struggling with willpower. You're not lacking the right system. You're protecting the disease by treating the symptoms.

The Art of Running Away: When Flight is Wisdom and When It's Weakness

How to tell when leaving is strategic wisdom versus fear-based avoidance. The uncomfortable truth about when running away is the courageous choice.

The Resistance Diagnostic: Is This Teaching Me or Am I Just Running Away?

How to tell when resistance is teaching you versus when you're using your intelligence to avoid what needs to be done. The uncomfortable truth about sophisticated avoidance.

The Optimization Trap: Authentic Self-Knowledge vs. Sophisticated Avoidance

How intelligent people use optimization as sophisticated avoidance, creating elaborate systems to avoid simple transformations. Includes the 5-question diagnostic framework.

The Excellence Audit: Measuring What Matters

Most people track what's easy to measure rather than what actually drives excellence. Learn how to audit your metrics and ensure you're measuring character development, not just performance theater.

The Natural Rhythms vs. Discipline False Choice: Integration Not Avoidance

Most productivity advice forces you to fight your authentic rhythms, creating internal conflict and unsustainable systems. Here's the Natural Rhythms Integration Model that honors both authenticity and growth.

The Comfort Zone Sophistication: When Optimization Becomes Elaborate Avoidance

Intelligence can become a barrier to growth when it creates sophisticated comfort zones. Here's how to recognize when your optimization becomes elaborate avoidance, and what to do about it.

The Leadership Legacy: Creating Leaders Who Create Leaders

The ultimate test of leadership isn't what you accomplish, it's what continues after you're gone. Here's how exceptional leaders create legacies by developing other leaders who develop leaders.

The Independence Paradox: Why Freedom Requires More Structure, Not Less

True independence isn't the absence of structure—it's the mastery of structure. Here's why the most free people are often the most disciplined, and how to build systems that create authentic freedom.

Andreia: The Courage to Lead Through Uncertainty

The Greeks understood that courage isn't the absence of fear, it's the commitment to excellence despite uncertainty. This ancient virtue transforms how you lead through risk, change, and the unknown.

The Stretch Paradox: Why Safety Enables Greater Challenge

The greatest challenges require the greatest safety. Great leaders understand this paradox: the more psychological safety you create, the more difficult challenges your team will tackle. Here's the framework that makes it work.

The Duty Doctrine: When Circumstances Change But Mission Remains

Your circumstances will change. Your duty will not. Discover how ancient Stoic wisdom provides unwavering guidance for modern leaders when everything else shifts.

The Skinner's Law Productivity Revolution: Hacking Motivation Through Pain and Pleasure

Discover how B.F. Skinner's revolutionary insights into pain and pleasure can engineer unstoppable motivation. Learn the five-method framework that turns behavioral psychology into practical productivity mastery.

The Problem Solver's Paradox: How Winners Create Value Through Solutions

The most indispensable people aren't those who avoid problems, they're those who actively seek them out and solve them effectively. Here's the framework for building that rare and valuable skill.

The Validation Trap: Why Seeking Approval Kills Excellence

The most liberating realization: those people you're trying to win over aren't worth winning over. Energy spent seeking approval is energy not spent building excellence. Time to break free from the validation trap.

The Information Trap: Why Knowledge Without Action Is Just Entertainment

You don't need another course. You need to start doing. The journey itself holds every lesson you need to learn. The internet gave us infinite information and infinite excuses.

The Fear-Excellence Connection: Why Fear Is Excellence's Companion, Not Its Enemy

The self-help industry got fear completely wrong. Every person operating at excellence has learned to dance with fear, not defeat it. Fear isn't your enemy, it's your compass pointing toward what matters most.

The Disney Churro Effect: Why Context Kills Quality Judgment

Your 5-star vacation restaurant would get 2 stars at home. Context isn't an excuse for mediocrity, it's a test of your standards. The Disney Churro Effect is killing your judgment, and you don't even know it's happening.

The Information Trap: Why Knowledge Without Action Is Just Entertainment

Most of your learning is actually entertainment in disguise. Here's why information without action is intellectual hoarding, and how to transform from consumer to creator through practical implementation.

The Execution Advantage: Why Imperfect Action Beats Perfect Planning

Perfect plans are usually perfectly wrong. Here's why imperfect action creates better results than perfect planning, and how to build the execution advantage through courage and rapid iteration.

Creating Environments for Excellence: The Ultimate Leadership Leverage

Most leaders try to control people. Great leaders design environments. Here's why environmental design is the ultimate leadership leverage and how to create conditions where excellence becomes inevitable.

The Freedom Paradox: Why Real Independence Is Terrifying

The social media mythology of entrepreneurship sells a comfortable lie: that anyone can bet on themselves and become a millionaire working a few hours per week. The reality is far more terrifying, and far more rewarding for those with the courage to accept it.

The Mind Forge: Why Your Mental State Determines Your Reality

Your mind is either your forge or your prison. The Stoics knew what modern neuroscience confirms: mental state determines reality. Here's how to forge mental excellence through the Four Furnaces framework.

The Adaptation Advantage: Why Flexibility Beats Expertise

In the AI age, your expertise might be your biggest liability. Here's why flexibility beats depth, and how to build your adaptation advantage before it's too late.

Phronesis: The Lost Art of Practical Wisdom

The ancient Greeks had a word for the leadership skill we desperately need today: phronesis. It's not about having all the answers, it's about acting wisely when you don't.

The Authority of Example: Leading Without Position

The most influential people don't have the biggest titles. They have something more powerful, the authority of example. Here's how to lead through character, not position.

The FSD Paradox: Why We Resist the Future We Actually Want

I'm a motorsports enthusiast who loves manual transmissions. So why do I hate driving rental cars now? The rental car experience taught me something uncomfortable about human nature, and why we resist the very technologies that would improve our lives.

Andreia: Courage in the Age of Fear

The Greeks had a word for the kind of courage we desperately need today: andreia. It's not about being fearless, it's about being fear-full and acting anyway.

Between Trapezes: Navigating AI Uncertainty with Ancient Wisdom

In the moment between letting go of one trapeze and grasping the next, there's a space where everything depends on trust, timing, and practical wisdom. For leaders navigating AI transformation, this moment isn't a crisis, it's where excellence is forged.

Breaking Through: How Resistance Shapes Your Transformation

Every breakthrough begins with a breakdown. Resistance isn't blocking your transformation, it's forging it.

Learning Velocity: The Compound Advantage

The speed at which you can absorb, process, and apply new information becomes the ultimate edge in today's fast-paced world.

The Skill Issue: Why Engineers Who Dismiss AI Won't Make It

When you see others achieving 4-minute miles with new tools while you're stuck at 8 minutes making excuses, you don't have a tool problem, you have a skill issue.

The Long Way Back

The mountain had other plans. What started as a simple run became a journey back to who I've always been—buried under survival, responsibility, and the slow drift of adulthood.

Stop Chasing Balance. Start Chasing the Edge.

Everyone wants greatness until they realize what it demands. The edge isn't found in comfort, it's in the obsession, discipline, and relentless focus that transforms potential into reality.

The Return Is the Resistance

It's not about the run or the miles. It's about returning to the place where your resolve gets sharpened, your personal forge where growth happens through resistance.

The Fire That Forges Me

Pain is not punishment. It's preparation. Whether you're a fighter or a leader, how you respond to resistance defines your growth and impact on others.

Choose Your Circle Wisely: The Key to Unlocking Greatness and Momentum

The people around you influence your mindset, shape your habits, and often determine your trajectory. And the right ones don't just support you—they sharpen you, steady you, and accelerate you.

The Silent Burden: Fueling Leadership's Lonely Flame

In the quiet hours when decisions weigh heaviest, leadership can feel like a solitary journey. But it's in these moments that both leaders and their teams can transform pressure into power. Here's how to keep the flame alive.

The Faux-Aligned Manipulator: When Theater Replaces Execution

They're relentlessly positive. They say yes to everything. They talk about collaboration constantly. But underneath the performance, real execution never happens.

Guard the Circle: Why Leaders Must Invite Dissent to Stay Effective

In fast-moving tech cultures, dissent feels like friction. And friction feels like delay. But a team that agrees too easily is already halfway to failure.

Protect Your Spark: Beat the Idea Assassins

Your best ideas are vulnerable to creativity hit jobs. Learn to guard your spark, select the right team, and keep innovation flowing despite the critics.

The Discipline of Arete: Trust the Work, Not the Moment

Frustration comes when we judge ourselves by a single moment. But true growth—true excellence—comes from trusting the work, not the moment.

Climbing Through: Leadership Forged in the Struggle

Most teams are trained to dodge the mess—great leaders dive in. True leadership is built in the climb, not at the summit.

Leadership is Jazz: Set the Tempo, Let the Band Play

The best leaders don't micromanage every note—they create the groove and let their team play. Here's how to lead with rhythm, trust, and improvisation.

The Reset Walk: Train for Gratitude Before the Grind Breaks You

Most people wait for struggle to humble them. The best train for it. The Reset Walk is a simple practice to build resilience before stress takes over.

Speed Without Direction is Wasted Energy

Speed isn't the goal—winning is. Learn how the fastest teams avoid wasted motion by solving the right problem before they execute.

Playing the Hand You're Dealt: Decision-Making with Imperfect Info

Leadership is a high-stakes game where the cards are rarely all face-up. Learn how to read the room, filter the noise, and make winning decisions.

The Path to Excellence and Fulfillment: Areté and Eudaimonia in Modern Life

True success isn't about external achievements—it's about mastering yourself. Learn how to integrate Areté and Eudaimonia into your daily life for deep fulfillment.

Ripples of Ruin or Reward: Why Great Leaders Master the Long Game

Every decision creates ripple effects. Learn how to see beyond the immediate impact and think like a master strategist to build long-term success.

The Power of Conflict: Fuel for Greatness or Sign of Dysfunction?

Great teams don't avoid conflict—they process it efficiently. The key to success isn't eliminating conflict, but resolving it quickly and productively.

If AI Isn't Making You Uncomfortable, You're Not Using It Enough

The biggest AI problem right now? A lack of imagination. The chatbot era was training wheels—it's time to take them off. If AI isn't rewiring how you think, you're not using it enough.

7 Game-Changing Lessons Every Junior Developer Needs to Learn

Most developers spend years learning these lessons the hard way. You don't have to. Master these principles now and take control of your dev career.

You're More Ready Than You Think: How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome as a New Software Engineer

Struggling with imposter syndrome as a new software engineer? Learn why you're more ready than you think, and how to build confidence through action and learning.

Arete & Eudaimonia: The Cornerstone Philosophy of Excellence

The path to true excellence isn't found in quick fixes or surface, level achievements. It's discovered through the ancient wisdom of arete and eudaimonia, principles that have guided the greatest minds for over 2,000 years.

ChatGPT vs Human Tutors: The Future of Learning

Discover how ChatGPT is changing the landscape of education and tutoring, while understanding the unique value that human tutors bring to the learning experience.

Flipping the Switch: How to Turn On and Off Your Abilities

Discover the art of mental switching - how to activate and deactivate different aspects of your personality and skills to excel in various contexts.

Reasons vs. Excuses in Software Development: The Key to Personal Responsibility and Team Success

Dive into the world of personal responsibility and team success in software development by distinguishing between reasons and excuses. Explore the vital role of accountability, examine real-world examples, and uncover five effective strategies designed to help you and your team conquer excuses and take command of your professional journey.

Boost Your Productivity with Three Daily Habits

Discover three game-changing daily habits that can significantly boost your productivity and help you achieve more in both your professional and personal life.

Three Aspects of Product Management You Need to Master

Product managers need to be proficient in three key areas: technical skills, data analysis, and empathy for customers. Neglecting any one of these areas can lead to difficulties in successfully managing a product. However, a well-rounded product manager who excels in all three areas can drive success by delivering innovative products that meet customer needs, are technically sound, and supported by data-driven decision-making.

Balance is a Great Way to Be Mediocre

Explore why the pursuit of perfect balance might be holding you back, and learn how embracing strategic imbalance can lead to extraordinary results.

Greatness Only Competes with Itself

Learn why the path to greatness lies in competing with yourself rather than others, and how this mindset can transform your personal and professional growth.

Finding Time for Innovation

Discover practical approaches to balance daily responsibilities with innovation initiatives, ensuring your organization stays competitive and forward-thinking.

Price's Law: Understanding the Power Law Distribution of Knowledge

Discover how Price's Law explains the distribution of knowledge and productivity in organizations, and learn how to leverage this understanding for better team management.

Fulfill Your Destiny by Performing Under Pressure

Discover how to harness pressure as a catalyst for growth and achievement, turning challenging situations into opportunities for success.

Syncing Work and Personal Calendars

Discover practical solutions for maintaining a balanced schedule by effectively syncing your work and personal calendars.

How a Sense of Humor Helps Us Deal with Criticism

Learn why maintaining a sense of humor is crucial for processing criticism constructively and using it as a tool for personal growth.

Ten Biographies Worth Reading

Explore a curated selection of biographies that provide powerful lessons in leadership, resilience, and success through the lives of remarkable individuals.

Push Mind Past Body Reality

Discover how to train your mind to overcome physical barriers and unlock your true potential through mental conditioning.

Product Organizations and the Most Important Work

Discover how high-performing product organizations balance team autonomy with organizational alignment to consistently deliver the most impactful work.

Pushing Too Hard Too Early

Understand the risks of pushing too hard too early, and discover how to pace yourself for long-term success.

What Are You Willing to Sacrifice to Get an Edge?

Discover how strategic sacrifices can give you the edge you need to excel in your personal and professional life.

Mind Stops Before the Body Does

Discover why your mind often gives up before your body does, and how to overcome these mental barriers to achieve more.

Who You Surround Yourself With Matters

Discover the profound impact of your social connections on your personal and professional development.

Environment Aids in Skill Acquisition

Discover the importance of creating the right environment for effective learning and skill development.

Embracing the Suck

Discover how accepting and working through challenging situations can lead to significant personal and professional growth.

10 Questions To Ask Ourselves Every Week to Continue Improving

Are you looking to make self-improvements in your life? These 10 questions can help guide your reflection and introspection to better understand your values, strengths, weaknesses, and goals. From identifying what led to your biggest achievements to examining your responses to challenges, these questions can help you better understand yourself and your path towards personal growth. Take a moment to ask yourself these questions and discover what you can learn about yourself and your journey to self-improvement.

7 Tips For Getting Value Out of Networking Events

If you are an introvert like me the last thing you want to do is spend time "networking". Even if you are an extrovert your time is valuable and just mingling isn't going to cut the mustard if you want to get any kind of meaningful results. So what is the best strategy when attending an event with intention of networking?

6 Tips for Scaling A Business

Building an idea is hard. Turning it into a business is even harder. Scaling that business is another level of hard. This is a list of tips to help you get there.

Seeking Courage

I struggle with what level of disclosure to give in public forums, because vulnerability is a hard. I don't care for writing and know a path to getting better at something is to do a lot of it. At least that is the excuse I hide behind when it comes to sharing more freely. A while back during a long period of seeking self awareness it became apparent that I didn't really believe in myself very much. Other people believe in me. I believe I am able to get results, but I haven't been able to really believe in me. I was smacked in the face on this topic looking in the mirror and seeing myself over 250 pounds and utterly out of shape and control.

3 Rules for Dealing with Trolls

Dealing with trolls is an art form. Being on the internet requires you master it.

5 Principles of Life Seen Through an El Pollo Loco Birthday Lunch

How redeeming my El Pollo Loco birthday reward points revealed powerful life principles through exceptional customer service.

The Difference Between Influence and Manipulation

The difference between influence and manipulation can be pretty subtle. However, the outcomes they produce can massive. How are they different to you?

Asking For Help

What about asking for help is so difficult? What expectations do we put on ourselves and others that could be avoided if only we asked for help more frequently?

How Do You Define Your Bootedness

Using metaphors to describe being booted with the Core Protocols.

How to Plan Software : Six Ways to Improve Your Scrum Planning Meeting

Six ways to improve your scrum planning meeting.

Customer Service While Traveling. Fly Classy! Thanks GoGo

What does exceptional service at 10,000ft look like?

Calculating Lead Times While Waiting at the Motor Vehicle Department

How to estimate everyday things.

Productivity Wednesday #7 : Use Email to Connect with Potential Followers

Looking to build your connectivity on Linked In? Increase your followers on Twitter or Friends on Facebook? Chances are you already communicate with a lot of people via e-mail, but you haven't taken the time to connect with them elsewhere.

Agile Open Southwest Recap

Open Spaces always tend to amaze me. They really are the right people in the right place at the right time. When we kicked off Agile Open Southwest, I was a little bit nervous about what might come out. As always, I was left absolutely amazed. It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Finding everyone was a different place on their journey yet still able to be find common ground and learn from one another.

Productivity Wednesday #6 : Share Digital Content on Social Media with Buffer

If you read a lot of digital content, you should share a lot. The problem is that you probably read in spurts. If you shared in spurts, you would probably annoy your friends. Buffer helps fix that problem.

Don't Make Your Retrospectives Confusing

If explaining an activity in a retrospective takes more than a minute or two it probably isn't very effective. Don't fall into the trap of making things too complex. Activities shouldn't be complicated they should be fluid. Giving participants too many options and being unclear with instructions makes it difficult to fluid with sharing thoughts.

Retrospectives. When Facilitating. Facilitate. Don't Participate.

As a ScrumMaster when you are "running" a retrospective it is easy to fall into the trap of actively participating in it. It is extremely difficult to do this well (if not impossible), because your role should be as a facilitator not a participant. The minute you start participating you are no longer neutral and severely impact your ability to effectively facilitate.

Estimates Are Evil!

A young man was bitten by a pitbull when he was 10. Ever since then every time he has noticed a pitbull it is barking, snarling and threatening to him. He is now 35. He believes that pitbull's are a vicious breed and that they should not be family pets.

Should Senior Developers Pair Program?

I am a proponent of pairing (not just for programming). Anytime I introduce it to a new team I get a number of objections. The most prominent is that pairing slows me down (because I am so awesome and everyone else sucks so bad).

Productivity Wednesday #5 : Boomerang for GMail

Sometimes when Getting Things Done, you need a little more power in your inbox than the default. Boomerang for GMail is the extra horsepower you need.

What Makes Gangplank Magical?

Gangplank is a community of creators that fuses family life, civic life, creating and earning a living into this unique blend where anything is possible. The support and tenderness offered is counter balanced by a gruff and forceful exterior making participation daunting to most.

Transform a Relationship, Be Fully Present

People need to be understood that they matter. We are wired to belong. It doesn't matter if it is your spouse, child, employee or coworker every relationship you wish to maintain requires your attention. Most people consider attention to be measured in time. Time is in short supply and high demand in our connected and fast paced world.

Observations, What Is In a Name?

Names are funny. Tone and inflection can make all the difference. Most people don't even bother correcting people when their name is said incorrectly. Close enough is good enough. However, sometimes people get their name so wrong they don't even go by their own name.

When It Comes to Community Building, It is the Small Things

Changing a community is slow work. Paying attention to the details and working with discipline over time with patience is required to get real results.

Hierarchy of Reading

Abraham Maslow made the concept of hierarchies of progression in systems popular via his work on a hierarchy of needs. Here is a theory about the hierarchy of different types of readers.

15 Things You Should Teach Your Kids To Prepare Them For the Future

Be the best parent you can. Prepare your children for the future.

Restore the Balance of Humanity. Create.

Consumption is rampant. What does is it mean to create?

Call to Volunteer at Arizona State Parks

I love Arizona. It's natural resources are one of it's greatest assets. I have been encouraging people to get out and ExploreAZ. If you didn't know our State Parks have become seriously under funded and need our help. So how can you help?

Target Sucks – Expect Less, Pay More… (and other lies)

Top 10 Ways To Become More Resilient

Resilience refers to the ability of a person to effectively cope with and recover from adversity or stress. This concept has been studied in psychology and neuroscience, and various strategies and techniques have been developed to build resilience, such as mindfulness, cognitive reframing, and social support. Building resilience can help individuals better handle life's greatest challenges and maintain their mental and emotional well-being. Here are ten ways to increase your resiliency.

Essence of Humanity is Helping Other People Feel Safe

In Andre Agassi's Open he shows the authentic and human side of himself. He talks about giving a friend named Frankie the money he needs to put his children through school. He reflects on it in the following way:

Reminding Yourself Where You Are Going

I generally keep voice memos or written journals around as outlets for my thoughts when I am not regularly able to connect with people to share what is on my mind. I try to purge them into a digital format fairly quickly to prevent clutter. I don't recall why I recorded this segment, but I ran across it today and it made me smile.

Explore AZ : August 19th – 21st : Payson, AZ

So back in 2009 I talked about starting ExploreAZ tweetups. I did get the RV out one time in 2010 shortly after that post to Catalina State Park outside of Tucson. After putting some money into the RV and getting it operational again considering starting this back up. So I have booked two trips.

Rituals Help Us Form Emotional Connections

Whatever our exact ritual, the social act of eating together is important; it reunites us with our tribe. Transforming us from solitary beings to members of a group.

The Effects of Shifting or Resetting on Society

If you are listening. A lot of people are talking about a "new norm", a "reset" or a "shift". Largely this discussion is around economics and growing concerns of debt. In reality it is about a lot more than that.

Sometimes Team Perspective Is Needed

The benefit about working on a high performing team is that everyone expects excellence. There is always a drive that it could be better. Nail a perfect 10 and then ask how it could be an 11.

Four Principles of Collaborative Consumption

The basis of the 'Sharing Economy' operates on principles. How are you seeing them applied in the world around you? What can you learn from them? How are you applying them?

Great Service Requires Constant Attention

I am a fan of great service. When I see it exemplified I try to share it. For example, QuikTrip does a great job #winning. Another company that has always impressed me is Discount Tire. They always greet me right away. They fix my tires for free when repairable. They give me a free air check when my tires are low. All of this even on tires not purchased from them. WOW! They never give me problems when I need tires rotated or tires replaced under warranty that I did purchase from them.

You Can't Handle the Truth

A woman and her son were entering the Subway as my daughter and I were getting out of the car. My daughter uttered, "Hoochie Mama" under her breath. I chastised her for being inappropriate. Her response to me was, "Well she is." Granted the woman was probably in her late forties, had on 5 inch heels, booty shorts and next to nothing for a top with her adolescent son in tote. Sadly, my daughter was right.

Opening Lines From Great Minds

It is no secret, I love books. One of my favorite things to read is autobiographies. I enjoy them because I love to hear the authors reflect back on how they got started. A glimpse of what made them who they became.