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.
- The only three outcomes of a commitment. Execute as expected, ask for more time in advance, or ask for more resources in advance. Everything else is narration.
- Control the inputs, not the outputs. Preparedness, attitude, and care are yours. The scoreboard never fully was.
- Boringly consistent. Be predictable enough that nobody spends energy guessing which version of you walked in.
- Positive Constructive Conflict. Have the disagreement in the room, not the parking lot, then leave united.
Some of what I teach I did not invent. The four pillars of trust (competency, consistency, integrity, compassion) are borrowed, and I teach them inside my talk on influence.
Where the business writing lives
The frameworks, the operating systems, and the weekly letter are at ProvenChaos. This page stays personal on purpose.