Archive for November, 2008
« Previous EntriesThe Tango – A Metaphor for Life
Sunday, November 30th, 2008The holiday period always puts me in the mood for dancing. Ever since I saw the movie Shall We Dance starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopes and Susan Sarandon a number of years ago, I been interested in dancing. In fact, I enjoy it enough to serve as a dance host passenger cruise ships. One of [...]
Thanksgiving Reflections
Friday, November 28th, 2008The American Thanksgiving holiday had its origins in the experience of the Pilgrims and their struggles during their first winter on the North American continent. The story of the Plymouth colony, though often repeated, still provides us with much to think about today. First of all the incredible tenacity and courage of the Mayflower pioneers. [...]
Savants – Islands of Genius, Continents of Hope
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Recently, the 60 Minutes television program featured the story of Rex Lewis-Clack (right), a musical savant blind since birth. It detailed how he had progressed from musical mimicry to improvisation to composition of original music – all in spite of predictions to the contrary by his doctors. And now most astonishingly, through his musical gifts, [...]
Personal Transportation – Hard Choices, Great Opportunities
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008When I founded FlexCar (now ZipCar) a number of years ago, I did so because I wanted to help Americans reduce their reliance upon foreign oil, fight global warming and make our cities more livable. Today, the challenges of volatile energy prices and global warming continue to shape the debate about the future of personal [...]
Extreme Perseverance
Friday, November 21st, 2008Sometimes, in the annals of history, accounts of persevering under difficult circumstances are so extraordinary that they cause us to redefine the concept. One such case is the story of Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to the Antarctic in 1914 on a ship presciently named Endurance. It is one of the most inspiring examples of survival against [...]
Seeing Clearly from One Eye – Loss is More
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008There is a teasing irony: we spend our lives evading our own redemption. And this is naturally so because something in us knows that to be fully human we must experience pain and loss. Therefore, we are at ceaseless effort to elude this high cost, whatever the price, until at last it overtakes us. And [...]
Is Resilience the Result of Biology or Behavior?
Monday, November 17th, 2008resilience: 1 : the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress 2 : an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change – Merriam-Webster Dictionary Resilience is generally a quality we admire in others and hope we have when circumstances call [...]
Finding Sandy and Something More
Friday, November 14th, 2008“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck Since I sold Flexcar, I have more time to travel. I enjoy visiting interesting places and meeting the people I find there. But over the years, I’ve learned that when you start a journey, you [...]
The Unglamorous and Hopeful Foundation of High Performance
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008Recently, Geoff Colvin, a senior editor for Fortune magazine, published Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else. The book summarizes years of research that seeks to find the answers to several important questions about human performance. Why are some people – Tiger Woods, Warren Buffett, Yo-Yo Ma – so incredibly accomplished [...]
Flying Blind, Staying Cool
Sunday, November 9th, 2008Imagine you are flying an airplane at several thousand feet. Suddenly, you go blind – you can’t see the controls and you can’t see the ground below or the sky around you. Below is a countryside dotted with towns and villages, and people unaware of the dangerous situation directly above. Well that is just what [...]
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