Essays
Mortality, mistakes, and what running companies teaches you about being a person.
The personal writing lives here. The business frameworks live at ProvenChaos.
Start here
I’m Dying (and so are you)
February 2018 · A routine physical at 43, and the arithmetic nobody wants to run.
The Grim Reaper Almost Got Me
March 2018 · Twenty-five years behind a desk, one overgrown tree, and a thirty-four dollar saw that fought back.
You Don’t Get to Choose Your Legacy
February 2019 · Mom called three times in one day. You only get to choose how you live; other people write the rest.
“The Ox” Rests
August 2020 · For Mom, who plowed forward through everything, and the stories I choose to tell.
On leading people
Rules Instead of Relationships
March 2019 · Poor leaders write ironclad rules based on one exception. Everybody else pays for it.
“I Can’t…”
February 2019 · The company that says “I can’t” gets displaced by the upstart that says “I will.”
My Favorite Day of the Week to Lead
October 2019 · It is Thursday. Here is what that buys you by Friday.
Creating Your Board of Directors
June 2018 · Nobody does life alone. Pick the people around you on purpose.
From the stage
Talks I have given, written up as the one idea you can use Monday. Newest first is not the order; the order is the order I would read them.
The Cross the Street Test: the JFC keynote, August 2026: the gurney, the two tests, and why they grade companies too.
The Entrepreneur’s Equation: Intention + Execution = Fulfillment.
Survive to Thrive to Accelerate: leading through chaos, from the Equitable talk, April 2020.
The Three Hats of Leadership: individual, technician, strategist, and the leadership gap.
Why Smart People Make Dumb Decisions: the clarity gap: context and talent.
The Execution System: trust, accountability, ownership, and a water bucket.
The Historian Test: the one question before any decision under pressure.
What Does Good Look Like?: the good-day test and four questions before you move.
Influencing Across Layers: earning a yes from people you cannot direct.
Leadership Quicksand: the six-step slide from unclear to underperforming.
On how you spend the day
“I’m too Busy…”
May 2019 · The saddest phrase I hear from CEOs, and the control it quietly gives up.
My Morning Routine
May 2018 · Daily intentions, and setting the day up to win before it starts.
I Never Lose My Keys
August 2019 · A hook by the door is a system. So is most of what you call discipline.
Stretching with Integrity
August 2019 · A coach’s throwaway line at the end of class. Am I parenting with integrity? Cooking? Writing?
Life Equations
June 2018 · An article found in a high school study hall, and the equations still running decades later.
My Single Biggest Business Mistake…
January 2012 · Getting so busy inside the business that I stopped working at it, and the one hour a week that fixes it.
Terms I coined
Language I made up because the thing needed a name, and it stuck. Each one has its own page explaining where it came from and how to use it.
- The Cross the Street Test. Ten years from now, does someone you led cross the street to avoid you, or to say hello? The only culture metric I have never seen lie.
- The Driveway Test. On a random Saturday with nobody watching, does the kid pick up the ball? The question that tells you whether someone actually loves the thing.
- You can’t outwork scale. Past a certain size, more hours on top of a broken system do not break the problem. They break you.
- The 50 percent rule. You own exactly half of any relationship, never more. Own your half so completely there is nothing to push against.
- Changers and destroyers. Two kinds of people in every organization, and the one-to-ten rule that is the math behind them.
Where the business writing lives
The frameworks, the operating systems, and the weekly letter are at ProvenChaos. This page stays personal on purpose.