What Rubs Off on Us There is an old saying that if you sit in a fish market long enough, sooner or later you are going to smell like fish. Sit in a perfume shop, and chances are some of that sweet fragrance will follow you out the door. I have come to understand that
The Company We Keep Leaves a Scent Read More »
What the Buss Family Taught Me About Wealth Whenever I hear people talk about generational wealth, the conversation usually begins with making enough money to leave something behind. That sounds simple enough until I look at families that actually accomplished it. The late Jerry Buss bought the Los Angeles Lakers in 1979 as part of
The Hardest Part of Generational Wealth Is Keeping It Together Read More »
Matching Energy Is Not Always Strength I have noticed that some of us believe the only way to deal with a difficult person is to become difficult ourselves. Somebody raises their voice, so we raise ours. Somebody gets disrespectful, and we decide they need to see that we can be disrespectful too. Somebody brings hostility
When Somebody Else’s Bad Behavior Starts Controlling Mine Read More »
The Man Who Becomes Easy to Overlook I have learned that the easiest man to take for granted can sometimes become the hardest man to replace. It happens because consistency has a way of making something valuable begin to look ordinary. A good man calls when he says he will call, shows up when he
When a Good Man Makes Love Look Ordinary Read More »
What Boys Learn Before They Understand the Lesson When I look back at the way many boys were raised, I realize emotional training started long before we knew we were being trained. A little boy falls down, starts crying, and somebody tells him to get up because boys are supposed to be tough. He reaches
Becoming a Whole Man: Learning the Emotional Language I Was Never Taught Read More »
The Part of My Story You Never Heard Sometimes people decide I became the villain because they only saw the part where I walked away. They saw the distance, the silence, the boundaries, and the version of me that stopped showing up the way I used to. What they did not hear were the conversations
If I Became the Villain in Your Story, So Be It Read More »
The Question Behind Venting I heard somebody say that venting is evil, and I understood the concern even though I would not go that far. There are times when people unload everything they are carrying onto somebody else without first asking whether that person has the emotional room to receive it. We have probably all
Venting Is Not Evil, but We Should Be Careful Where We Put Our Pain Read More »
Beauty Does Affect How People Are Treated I have lived long enough to know that appearance can influence how people respond to one another. Attractive people often receive more attention, more compliments, more patience, and sometimes more opportunities simply because other people like what they see. Psychologists have studied versions of this for years, including
Pretty Privilege Is Real, but Beauty Does Not Explain Everything Read More »
What Would Make Her Smile Today? I heard somebody ask a simple question that made me think about how easily relationships can become complicated: what is one thing a man can do today to make his partner happier? We spend so much time talking about communication, attraction, commitment, intimacy, and the serious parts of relationships
Love Is Often Hidden in the Little Things Read More »
When the Internet Becomes the Dating Coach I have noticed that dating advice has become almost impossible to escape because everybody with a telephone can now become an expert. Men tell other men exactly how women supposedly think, and women tell other women exactly how men supposedly behave. Some of the advice comes from genuine
Dating Advice Has to Survive Real Life Read More »