I had several conversations this weekend that made me think how easy it can be to give up hope for the future, specifically by losing confidence in the decency of mankind. There is so much corruption in the world and so little evidence of integrity. Staying positive and maintaining faith in humanity can be a challenge. Every once in a …
Continue reading Point A to Point B, A Message for Humanity by Viktor Frankl
In 1901 Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt became the 26th President of the United States at the age of 42, following the assassination of William McKinley. Using tactics that followed his famous slogan, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," Roosevelt negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War, a feat that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. …
Continue reading Character and Success by Theodore Roosevelt
What would King Louis XIV have done to have the kind of access to the world that virtually everyone in the industrialized nations and many people in developing nations have at their fingertips? Engine driven travel, whether it be train, motorcar or airplane, shrunk the world in a period of several decades. Analog and digital …
I heard an interesting segment on NPR the other day entitled "The Mysterious Healing Power of Placebos." (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126802142). Jennifer Ludden interviews two guests: the first a neurosurgeon from Washington D.C. and the second, a doctor and the Director of Psychiatric Research at Brigham and Women's Hospital, who both note the power of the placebo effect. …
Shortcuts are never advisable but the most efficient path always is. No doubt we've all been humbled by a shortcut that turned into the long way around. Shortcuts, the attempt to skip over critical elements in a process to achieve the end more quickly, always results in a compromised foundation. The various stakeholders in the recent oil …
The year was 1989 and I had just finished another ceremonial soiree with 60 of my American, French and Soviet peers in Paris, France. I had been selected to represent the United States as a student delegate to tour France in celebration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution and we made our way by bus, by train and by air around the countryside …
"He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I …
Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral. -- Frank Lloyd Wright A master builder, a rebel and a nature worshipper, Frank Lloyd Wright's career spanned 70 years and resulted in the design of 1,141 buildings, including churches, schools, libraries, houses, bridges, museums and more. Though Wright is …
The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit. - Mark Twain The human spirit is animated by a powerful and inexhaustible force. To be meaningful, the force of life that courses through the veins of any …
What do you believe in? What do you believe about the world? What is important to you? What matters? If you are clear on what you believe in, the rest is just details. If you are clear on what you believe in, you will find others who inspire you to strengthen your resolve. If you are clear on what you believe in, you are much less likely to be distracted by extraneous compulsions.
Gregory Hake 