Our Pets and Our Books


Well-Being and Happiness

WELL-BEING AND HAPPINESS—AN ATTEMPT AT DEFINITIONS

These days, there seems to be a growing consensus that the old measurements that nations have used to evaluate economic success—most notably, the Gross Domestic Product—are blunt swords which tell us little about quality of life.  Around the world, many countries are looking for new metrics.  In October, I joined 1400 people from 60 countries at the OECD’s annual Measuring Well-...


Facebook Envy

 

My brother had a milestone birthday in December. I struggled with what to get him because, truly, what do you get for someone who already has it all or can get it all? I decided to throw him a surprise “pre-milestone” party and, as a gift, a “memory book.” I asked his closest friends to send me pictures and stories of their favorite memories with my brother. I compiled them into this scrapbook to give him at the party.

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Do Men Really Have Feelings?... And If So, Who Cares?!

In January, a man who was doing contract work for our firm had a family crisis. For two days he was unavailable while he was tending to his sick child. I never asked what was wrong with his child nor did I ask any of the details — the child’s age, gender or the nature of the illness. I didn’t care to know. I’m not big on sharing my feelings in business.

Call me insensitive, but I’m a woman who came of age during a time when women...


Cop-per Bullets

 

When cop-per bullets desecrate young, black flesh The oppressed, then address, whose son will be next? Bullets to the blue sky; there’s a mob filled with threats, For the sobbing, young mother in her cop-robbed nest

Police keep their dogs on a leash, but who’s the real beast? When children get murdered for being Black in the streets “Suspicious” characters get courted, then asked...


Are Your Neurons Making You a Bigot?

Are Your Neurons Making You a Bigot?   

Maybe… but not so fast

Everyone’s a little bit racist. No less than the head of the FBI said so recently, quoting a song from the Broadway musical, “Avenue Q.”

We all have two forms of prejudice to deal with: implicit and explicit, conscious and unconscious. When the racist says people of color are inferior and dangerous, that’s explicit bias...


On Ambition

When I was a child ambition meant climbing steps as quickly as possible without nicking my shins on the way up. My mother was often sick so I ran her errands. I shopped at the grocery store and did her banking.  I was six years old.  When I entered the bank, the tellers fussed over me, smiling and giggling, because I was so small that I could hardly reach the window to make a deposit. Still, I reached higher and that meant standing on my...


A Digital Strategist’s Take on Ambition

Drive, determination and gumption are three of the basic ingredients necessary for success. Ambition inhabits all three of those qualities. We live in a time of ubiquitous connectivity, with the availability of communications networks of all sorts (social, business, special interest). Ambition can be realized, applying digital strategy.

Two examples come to mind: looking for a job and looking for a communications tool.

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