After I read the book “The Dream Manager”, besides considering how I might incorporate some of the concepts in my business with my employees, I also realized that I was at risk of not living or reaching some of my own dreams. My wife, Laura, also read the book and we both started dream journals and scribbled down about 60 dreams that we had, in many different categories including spiritual, adventure, financial, legacy, physical, hobby, etc. One of mine that I had talked about with a good buddy, who is also a pilot, for about 20 years, was flying our planes across the country. I’ve put it off for years because it was about a 2 week trip and would be too big a burden on my family to be gone that long. Well, one of my wife’s was to spend 2 weeks with her elderly grandmother, who at the time was 94 years old and living in Buffalo. My wife grew up in California and only ever spent about a week a summer in Buffalo with her grandmother growing up and really enjoyed her time but it would be over too soon.
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Are You “The Dream Manager”? PART II
Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013Are You “The Dream Manager”?
Thursday, May 16th, 2013
Way back in 2008, a recent grad from Vanguard University, Kelsey Richards, joined McDermott & Bull Executive Search as a Program Coordinator for the McDermott & Bull Executive Network. At the time she joined us, we had a discussion about her upbringing and she shared with me that her parents owned a chain of McDonald’s restaurants. They employed quite a few people in some very busy stores. Further, she shared that she grew up learning about business at home, at the dinner table, on weekends, and in car rides as her parents were entrepreneurs and were very focused on their business.
I asked her if she read any good business books lately and she mentioned “The Dream Manager” as one that her parents suggested she read and it was quite impactful. Always looking for a good book myself, and an easy read (it’s about a 2 hour read), I picked up a copy over Labor Day weekend that year and couldn’t put it down. In fact, I left our hotel in Lake Arrowhead before dawn and went to Starbucks to read, and didn’t come back until I finished. What a great book!
The Big Rocks
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
I was sitting in Temple last week for Yom Kippur services and the Rabbi had a great sermon which really put things in perspective for me. Now, I must admit that I don’t go to the adult service and spend all day on the High Holy Days in Temple. In fact, my wife and I keep pumping out kids as an excuse to be able to go to the Children’s service, which I refer to as either Diet Temple or Temple Lite. It makes it much easier for me. Now that my youngest is 5, it’s getting tougher to justify, but that’s a problem for another year.
Work Ethic and Balance…What’s the Right Mix?
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
In my prior posts, I wrote about some things that might be controversial. Well, this one has a lot of opinions and I honestly don’t know the “right” answer, but I’ll give my opinion and hope to hear from readers on theirs. Most senior executives out there don’t need to learn these things, as they likely became senior executives because they knew them. I still hope it’s worthwhile as a refresher, as things were pretty easy for our workforce, at all levels, over the past 15 years, with a few bumps along the way.
I recently took a trip to Israel and spent 4 days touring around Jerusalem with our guide, Joseph (Yosi) and my family. He spent some very long days with us, and didn’t cut any corners, even when there were days when we would have been ok with that. Over the course of four days, we were able to have many conversations about lifestyle in Israel, the economy, their industry, and their work ethic.