Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Living

Life Lessons

Are You Preparing For Your Own Demise?

That sounds worse than I really intend it to. What triggered that thought was an article from the Wall Street Journal, titled "Netflix Boss Plots Life After DVD." Quoting from the article:"...Netflix's chief executive officer, Reed Hastings, thinks his core...

Perspective on Bad Times

 When people ask me about my work history, I talk about my first job out of school, in 1983, working in a nuclear power plant.  I talk about the experience of working in a heavily unionized, male-dominated environment, and walking...

How Good Are You at Self-Advocacy?

It's been awhile since I posted here. I've been learning about advocacy and self-advocacy.  In preparing for a talk in Houston next week for the Juvenile Arthritis annual conference, I looked up the definition of "advocate." (The title of my...

Social Media is For Lawyers, Too

I was interviewed for an article in the Illinois Bar Journal, a magazine distributed by the Illinois State Bar Association. The topic? How attorneys can use social media to build their businesses. The writer did a great job at pulling...

Iran and Social Media

The power of technology to create a groundswell was shown in Iran this last week. People all over the world are seeing and hearing and reading what's going on with the protests over the recent elections and the response by...

Standing Up to the Bullies (With Kindness)

In the course of making a living, it's easy to compromise our values and principles. Think of the client you don't want to offend or the VP who treats you and rest of the staff as part of her fiefdom....

Divine Timing

Recently, I've been playing with the notion of "divine timing." It's the idea that everything happens at the exact right time, that nothing has to be forced or rushed. Divine timing doesn't necessarily mean slower,  unless that's where my energy...

Creaky Joints

One of the joys of this work is connecting with spirited individuals--people who are actively working on a cause that helps others and loving every minute of it. Next month, I'm giving a talk at the Juvenile Arthritis (JA) 2009...

Leaving a Steady Paycheck to Be An Entrepreneur

Someone recently posed these questions to me:"If you didn't have the means (financially) by which to pursue an entrepreneur's lifestyle and build your own business, would you still do it?""If you still worked for a corporation, would you still pursue...

The Stunning Result of 10+ Years of Work

My friend, Dave, sent me this video of land that was recently designated for public use in Traverse City, Michigan. It's a pristine piece of property on a peninsula jutting into the Grand Traverse Bay, that includes meadow and virgin...