by Mark O'Brien | Jul 30, 2015
One of my older sister’s favorite expressions is this: “No guts, no air medals.” While it does seem harder and harder to find people with guts these days — people with the courage to stand up, stand out, and tell difficult truths — there are still...
by Mark O'Brien | Jul 23, 2015
On Tuesday night, I was the featured speaker at the annual meeting of Literacy Volunteers Valley Shore (LVVS, about which I wrote here). This may suggest two things about LVVS: Their character judgment is deeply suspect and their speaker pool is perilously shallow if...
by Mark O'Brien | Jul 21, 2015
I came across a book review in The Financial Times over the past weekend in which the author, Julian Baggini, finding a common thread running through the three books he reviewed, wrote something arresting — something that directly contradicts the popular and...
by Mark O'Brien | Jul 20, 2015
On the day I searched Amazon for books on work/life balance, there were 1,702 results returned. I’ll bet if I’d conducted the same search the next day, there would have been more. That made me wonder: If all of the employees who read these books practice...
by Mark O'Brien | Jul 10, 2015
I’ve discovered yet another reminder that I’m going about everything all wrong. I’m the kind of guy who takes seriously the U.S. Army commercials about being the best you can be. I suffer with a chronically stiff neck from setting my sights too high....