Three years ago I enjoyed the experience of finally doing something about my deteriorating knee which has prevented some exercise (definitely not good for me!) and some fun (having my first ski free winter in sixteen years). Over twenty years ago Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People, a great book with a great title! Along those same lines, in this article Ill share my perspective on mistakes personal and professional and the choices we have with what we do with them. Yes and No Or, how to avoid mistakes... Read More

If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it around. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't say embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and you had better be on speaking terms with it. Oliver Wendell Holmes I love this quote! Wit and wisdom from Dr. Holmes most people think of him as an author and poet though he was a medical doctor and an early reformer of our medical system. My friend and ace... Read More

(with thanks and an acknowledgement for the title to Rabbi Harold Kushner who wrote the best selling book When Bad Things Happen to Good People one of the all time great books and still available in bookstores and online.) I had the pleasure of attending a Beverly Hills fundraiser for HealthyChild.org I had donated 400 copies of our photo essay One World, One Child so each participant would have an expression of our shared commitment to enhance the quality of childrens lives. My former wife and the books producer, Dianna Lynn and... Read More

To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves, that the line stretches all the way back, perhaps, to God; or to Gods. We remember them because it is an easy thing to forget: that we are the first to suffer, rebel, fight, love, and die. The grace with which we embrace life, in spite of the pain, the sorrows, is always a measure of what has gone before. Alice Walker Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Color Purple , civil rights activist and yes, openly anti-Semitic Ms. Walker reminds us here that... Read More

The following article by Rabbi Jack Reimer was originally published in the Houston Chronicle. I believe it is more than a good read and actually points the way toward a major leadership strategy andkey aspect of living an extraordinary life. To paraphrase my late friend John Denver, I was going to write it but Rabbi Reimer wrote it first ... and wrote it beautifully. On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came onstage to give a concertat Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. If you have ever been to a... Read More

I spent a total of 12 years of my adult life resident in Japan. It was a period of great learning, growth and accomplishment plus I made many life-long friends. One is David Reynolds, cultural anthropologist, author of Quiet Therapies: Japanese Pathways to Personal Growth and many other books. David is well-known for having introduced Naikan (pronounced Nye Con) and Morita therapies to the West. Naikan has been used in Japan for many years as a conflict-resolution tool in the workplace, for marriage counseling, to heal addictions and in... Read More

"The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after generation." Pearl S. Buck Last week I facilitated a seminar in Asana, Kazakhstan and thoroughly enjoyed everything about the experience except the combined travel time of over 55 hours round-trip! A specific value gained was meeting and working with the sponsoring organizations leadership team all under 28 years of age and all so very impressive. Of course I was reminded of building my... Read More

An interesting side note (to me) of writing about leadership and executive coaching in Denver is the dialouge generated with readers. Acknowledgements, questions, personal stories and yes, even complaints, arrive on my computer like messages from far distant but very connected lands An e mail exchange with reader Rolland Vasin led to his offering to write a guest posting. Its a bit more intellectually challenging than my regular Extraordinary People rants cuz Rolland is a lot smarter guy than your host. Its a slightly different and very... Read More

Years ago I had the pleasure of attending a Beverly Hills fundraiser for the Childrens Environmental Health Coalition (CHEC). CHEC is a national non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public, and especially parents and other child caregivers, about environmental toxins that negatively affect childrens health. CHEC was founded by Nancy and Jim Chuda, to honor the life of their daughter Colette. Colette died at age 10 from a form of cancer almost certainly connected to her Mothers exposure to pesticides while she was pregnant. ... Read More

Ive received a lot of positive feedback from leaders and executive coaching clients on the chapter in my book Living an Extraordinary Life about comfort zones. The chapter stands alone well so I thought you might find it valuable in your personal and professional journey. To myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on seashore, diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than the ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. - Sir Isaac Newton In the heating and... Read More