Category: General

A Model for Career Success

Over time, society has increasingly expected instant gratification and uses of an “easy” button to achieve a desired result.  Unfortunately, when it comes to the pursuit of career success, it’s not near that easy.  A lot of time and effort is usually involved.  I’m sure you have a story about a 25 year old that is already a multi-millionaire and that’s great.  Maybe it was pure luck but maybe there was more to it.

The purpose of this article is to give you a framework for visualizing the key ingredients to long-term, personal career success, however you define that term.

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Advice for New-Found Financial Freedom (College Grads)

So you’re a college graduate that just secured a full-time job and now more money is rolling in than you’ve ever been responsible for.  You’ve heard horror stories about how new-found financial freedom can suddenly turn into a nightmare with just a couple of wrong decisions.  This blog post doesn’t cover obvious problems like driving up credit card debt but instead describes some fundamental principles to guide you.

Warning:  I am not a certified financial advisor/planner.  I’m just a guy that has done well with my own personal investments and has had the benefit of passing advice to three daughters when they graduated from college and got their first jobs.

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Tips for Optimizing Your Grades in College

Sorry but no rocket science here.  Mostly common sense, but I can virtually guarantee that following these 7 basic steps will make a huge difference in your grades during college.  I can’t promise a 4.0 GPA but am willing to bet that systematically following these basic principles will add at least a single grade point to your freshman year average versus the typical student.  After a couple of years, most college students naturally figure these things out as they develop and refine their own personal system.  But during your freshman year everything is so new, exciting and DISTRACTING.

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10 Golden Rules for Entering College Freshmen

By the time a young adult graduates high school and is ready to head off to college, they shouldn’t need to be given a full set of rules to follow.  After all, moving out of the house means they have the freedom (and burden) if making their own decisions.  Nonetheless, after going through this a couple of times with my kids I decided to capture my personal list of “golden rules”.  They seem so basic and obvious.  But then again aren’t most of life’s rules basic and obvious?  If you are an entering college freshman, check out the list below and see if you can’t stick to it.  Then, if you can remember to do so, look at the list again at the end of your freshman year and see how many of these rules you think are truly Golden.  Continue reading “10 Golden Rules for Entering College Freshmen”

Teaching Your Kid to Ride a Bike – Could It Be This Simple?

How many ways can there possibly be to learn to ride a bike?  Most of us probably use the same method that our parents used with us when we were kids.  And it usually involves some combination of holding onto the seat and/or handle bars while we run along side our learning child.  Then, at some arbitrary point when we think they are ready, we let go.  For a while we run along side, just in case we need to grab quickly.  And then, magically, when we think the kid has it down we let them ride ahead until they either decide it’s time to stop and figure out how to hit the breaks, crash into the curb, or fall into the grass.

I’d like to share a much better method with you.

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