by Mark O'Brien | Jan 23, 2017
When I was in my teens, Brent Musburger was on CBS covering the NFL. During one such telecast, my father told me Musburger was an idiot. I took Dad at his word and remained skeptical. In the 1980s, I was watching a college football game with my sons, both of whom are...
by Mark O'Brien | Jan 22, 2016
The truth is that the strong don’t always survive. Usually the weak survive and the cowardly and the mediocre. They gather their forces to destroy the strong because the strong are at the core of their fear. (Pete Hamill, Forever) The same day I published this...
by Mark O'Brien | Jan 13, 2016
This was quite the morning. First, I read this, from my horoscope: How exactly do you hold onto your ideals in a world where it seems like the whole game is rigged for greed, competition, and conformity? Then I read this — “John Edwards (yes, that one) looks to...
by Mark O'Brien | Dec 21, 2015
“What do you get for the man who has everything?” That question is so frequently asked it’s become a cliché. But if you happen to have that perennially smug gas-guzzling gasbag, flimflam artist, and serial hypocrite, Al Gore, on your Christmas list,...
by Mark O'Brien | Dec 11, 2015
If you read this article from Fast Company — “What Does Authenticity Really Mean?” — you’ll get a smorgasbord of options: According to one person cited in the article, “If you want to be a leader, you have to be yourself—skillfully.” So,...
by Mark O'Brien | Dec 3, 2015
The story you’re about to read is true. The names have been changed to protect the guilty. In my entire working life, only one attempt has been made to stiff me for an invoice. It was the mid-1990s. Having been cut loose from The Travelers Managed Care and...