The other day, I went into a bank and there was a counter at the entrance where there was a greeter who asked me why I was there. I explained what I wanted to do and he said, “I can help you with that.” And I thought, great. He said, “Do you have a cellphone?” […]
bank, customer service, process, story
In a commencement speech given by the wonderful author David Foster Wallace, he begins by telling a story about two young fish who are swimming along, when an older fish passes them and says, “Morning, how’s the water?” As they swim by, one of the younger fish turns to the other and says, “What the […]
david foster wallace, fish, fish story, parable
The other day, I was checking out at a supermarket and the cashier was talking to somebody next to them who was stocking a shelf. That might explain why when I handed them a $20 bill, they weren’t really paying attention, and shoved a credit card machine towards me, until they realized I wasn’t holding […]
cash, grocery store, money, multitasking
A quotation I read recently was from John Barrymore, the actor, and it was “happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” It captures so many awesome things about the surprise of happiness coming into our lives, but also through something that we did, by leaving that door open. It […]
happiness, john barrymore, open door
In the excellent movie Jerry Maguire, Jerry, who is played by Tom Cruise, is a sports agent who’s leaving the big firm he’s part of to go out on his own. Dorothy Boyd, played by Renee Zellweger, is an assistant at the firm who decides to leave and join him to build this new venture. […]
dorothy boyd, jerry maguire, quote, renee zellweger, sad stories, tom cruise
I was walking down the street the other day, and somebody asked me what time it was. I instinctively looked at my watch to tell them and after we passed each other, I realized two things. One is, I can’t remember the last time somebody asked me what time it was when I was just […]
telling time, time, watch
A recent Wall Street Journal article rated the best and worst airports in the US for business travel. The top-rated one was San Francisco, and one of the reasons they gave in the article was that it is relatively quieter than other airports because the number of announcements that are allowed on the overhead speaker […]
airport, noise, quiet, travel, wall street journal
A friend of mine had a job interview scheduled for the other day. When the company called her and asked if they could reschedule it for a few days later, she immediately assumed the worst, that they had found another candidate they liked better, or they had changed their mind or something was happening in […]
fear, fear or unknown, unknown
I don’t have a long commute to work every morning, it’s just about 12 minutes, but recently, I tried doing that commute in my car without the radio on, without listening to the radio or podcasts, and I have found three big benefits to this silent commute. Number one is just allowing my mind to […]
commute, morning commute, silent commute
There’s an old joke about a guy who goes to his doctor and says, “It hurts when I go like this.” The doctor says, “Stop doing that!” It reminds me that there are so many things in life that we do that cause irritation or upset to ourselves, or that we allow, it could be […]
commitment, doctor, joke, stop doing that