“Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.”— Mark Twain — Hello, and my very best to you and yours. Here are 3 things I've been thinking about over the last few days that I'm excited to share with you. *** on the importance of sinking into your workDaniel Day-Lewis isn’t just one of my favorite actors, but he’s also one of my favorite thinkers. His takes on doing work that matters are gold. This is especially true of the following passage: “As actors, we’re encouraged to see...
11 days ago • 5 min read
“Boredom is the conviction that you can't change... the shriek of unused capacities.”— Saul Bellow — Hello, and my very best to you and yours. Here are 3 things I've been thinking about over the last few days that I'm excited to share with you. *** on getting on the busMy wife was talking to her sister about the point in my previous newsletter regarding the recent blackout in Spain and how the people in my town responded. Upon hearing about it, my sister-in-law told a story about her son...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
“The decisions you make are a choice of values that reflect your life in every way.”— Alice Waters — Hello, and my very best to you and yours. I got word that in addition to being translated into Korean, my book — Shy by Design: 12 Timeless Principles to Quietly Stand Out — will soon be available in Arabic. Learning that the book will be available to more people lights me up. Hopefully, Spanish is up next as I'd love for my wife's family and my friends here to be able to read it. Thank you...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
“Don’t let the now destroy the forever.”— Adam Driver (Megalopolis) — Hello, and my very best to you and yours. It’s been a few weeks. On short notice, a client visited me for 15 days so we could work on his book together in person. Between that, helping another client in my area with a TED Talk, prepping for my own talk at a design leadership conference next week in Barcelona, and a much-needed trip to the US to see my family, I put my writing on the back burner for a month. It was good....
2 months ago • 5 min read
“Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own." — Michelle Obama — Hello, it’s Michael here and I hope all is well with you and yours. In early 2023, I spent all of ten minutes on X/Twitter/Whatever before the noise became deafening. But my time there wasn’t all bad. In fact, through the platform currently known as Musk, there was one massive ray of light — a fella named Will Myles who was sharing storytelling advice that I absolutely adored. Once we got on a...
4 months ago • 2 min read
“Vision is meaning. Meaning is historical." — Matthew McConaughey (True Detective) — Hello and my very best to you and yours. Here are three things that I've been thinking about that I'm excited to share with you. *** On the beauty of agingI’m kicking around an article entitled, ‘On the year I got old.’ At the horribly old age of 46, I feel it in my bones. I hurt my neck tying my shoes. Rather than blast music when driving, I often opt for silence. I get what feels like a 36-hour hangover...
4 months ago • 4 min read
“Silence is a very important word." — Volodymyr Zelenskyy — Hello and my very best to you and yours. Here are three things that I've been thinking about that I'm excited to share with you. *** on creating your own green lightsI have a crush on Jennifer Lawrence. And not a small one. On top of her acting chops, her honesty, humanity, and hilarity in interviews are priceless (I mean check out this reel). Actors may be experts in being someone else. But I’ll be dammed if in interviews Jennifer...
5 months ago • 5 min read
“Things that make you weird as a kid will make you great tomorrow." — James Victore — Hello and my very best to you and yours. Here are three things that I've been thinking about that I'm excited to share with you. *** on making a great first impressionGrowing up as a military brat, I was constantly told to display bullet-proof confidence when meeting new people. “Shoulders back!” “Project your voice!” “When you go to shake someone’s hand, aim to break it!” There was only one problem—as a shy...
5 months ago • 4 min read
“The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful.”— Milan Kundera — Hello, and I hope 2025 has kicked off well for you and yours. When it comes to reaching career goals, 2024 was a big year for me. Not only did I publish my first book which became a best-seller in multiple categories in Amazon while being featured in places like Publishers Weekly and Big Think, but two of my...
6 months ago • 8 min read
“I don't think about art when I'm working. I think about life." — Jean-Michel Basquiat — Hello and my very best to you and yours. For obvious reasons, today's message will be pretty lightweight. But I wanted to wish you a happy holiday and share a few things I've been thinking about as we wrap up this year and enter a new one (3-minute read). *** on chasing your curiosityThe year was 2001. The place was Las Vegas, Nevada. Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of a newly formed band called The...
6 months ago • 4 min read