Napoleon Bonaparte knew every officer of his army by name. He like to wander through his camp, meet an officer, greet him by name, and talk about a battle or maneuver he knew this officer had been involved in. He never missed an opportunity to inquire about a soldier’s hometown, wife, and family; the men [...]
During the first half of my teaching career I was pretty adamant about not wanting to live in the community in which I was teaching. I wasn’t concerned about the choices I make in my personal life. It was just that after spending every day as Mr R, I wanted to go home and not [...]
I love when I hear from former students. Interestingly, they almost never contact me to talk about a show or concert we did, or a song we played. Typically they contact me to share how some life lesson I taught is now manifesting itself in their lives. They also want to give me credit for [...]
In the Marines, “riggers”….the people who pack parachutes for other Marines….have to make at least one jump a month. Who packed their parachute? They did. One of the parachutes that they packed for others to use is chosen at random, and the rigger has to “jump it.” This system helps make sure that no one [...]
We are all familiar with the phrase, “today is the first day of the rest of your life.” I am not convinced, however, that most of us understand the value of this phrase. Too often, we focus on our past. Specifically, we focus on the negative things which have occurred, carrying them on our back [...]
I am a big fan of the show Bar Rescue. Watch enough episodes and you figure out that it is simply a variation on a theme: Bar is failing….because the staff is failing….because leadership is failing. John Taffer comes in, with a couple of other experts, and teaches the leadership and the staff the things [...]
Few things are more frustrating than the kid who is in the program, but not into the program. I call them the non-contributors. They want all of the advantages of being in the group without putting in the work. And if you are unfortunate enough to have several non-contributors, well, your group is in trouble [...]