As some of you know, I’m training for the Long Beach Half Marathon. Part of that training includes cross-training on the bike and the rower, and on the bike I’ve spent a few work out sessions with Ashley Paulson, an iFit trainer, indoor cycling instructor, and marathon runner. Somewhere between the intervals and the climbs, […]
Tag: Framework: Action Produces Data
Your 2027 Twenty-Mile March
In 1911, two teams raced to the South Pole. Roald Amundsen’s team held a steady pace every day. In good weather they stopped at their mileage goal, even when they could have pushed farther. In bad weather they still made their miles. Robert Falcon Scott’s team pushed hard on good days and waited out the […]
What 17 Brokerages Taught Us About Growing When Everything Falls Apart
Between 2008 and 2012, the real estate industry went through the worst stretch most of us will ever see. Values collapsed. Hundreds of thousands of agents left the business. Brokerages that looked unbeatable in 2006 were gone by 2010. And yet some firms grew. My friend and longtime business colleague Steve Murray and his team […]
Everything Is Borrowed. Only Time Is Yours.
Inspired by Seneca’s first letter to his friend Lucilius, written almost two thousand years ago. Seneca was one of the richest men in Rome. Villas. Vineyards. A fortune most senators could only dream about. He tutored the young Nero and then served as one of the emperor’s closest advisors. Power, access, reputation. He had all […]
Humility in the Dark, Conviction in the Light
Two Olympic golds. One silver. One standard. Freestyle skier Eileen Gu captured elite performance psychology in eleven words: “I train like I’ve never won, and I compete like I’ve never lost.” It sounds great on a motivational poster. But look closely at what it actually asks of you on an ordinary Tuesday morning. Gu’s equation […]
Why the Best Leaders Let People Flounder
Inspired by bestselling author and journalist Charles Duhigg’s research on how the best students and teachers excel. With the new school year starting, parents and kids are adjusting to new routines and fresh classrooms. But the research on how people actually master new skills is not just for students. As some of you know, besides […]
Four Blueprints for Turning Vision into Reality
Listening to my bachelor’s degree students pitch their business dreams this past week brought a jolt of energy into the room. Their drive is infectious. They see clear problems to solve, markets to capture, and lives they want to build. Sitting there listening, I kept coming back to a single question: What actually turns a […]
Being Larger Than the Situation
Here is a simple test for your mindset today: Do your circumstances dictate your mood? Or do you choose your mindset, and treat the situation as simply something to respond to? One sign of mental toughness is being larger than the situation. The less your mood depends on your circumstances, the more mentally tough you […]
The Shiny Penny vs. The Consistent Producer: A Lesson from Pope Leo
I was listening to Pope Leo’s homily recently, and my mind eventually went to how I could apply this to you, to recruiting, and to retention. Say what? Stick with me for a second. Reflecting on beauty, Pope Leo pointed out something we all quietly know but rarely act on: we equate value with a […]
Busy Is Not the Same as Productive
Inspired by Jessi Hempel’s piece “The Case for Doing Fewer Things at Once” and her Hello Monday conversation with Cal Newport. Jessi Hempel wrote something recently that I have not been able to shake. She first put out a series on time in August 2024 because she was tired of getting to the end of […]