Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Commentaries”
INVOCATIONS AND ADVICE Now that you’re getting your degrees it’s a good time to set goals and devise a plan. You need a roadmap, but be prepared for unintended detours, confusing signs and closed roads. Don’t be afraid of change or unwilling to change. Enjoy the journey, wherever it takes you, because that’s your life. — Michael Josephson Put your future …
I’ve given my share of commencement addresses, and I confess it’s a head-swelling experience to tell a captive crowd how you think they ought to live their lives while wearing an academic robe and a very silly hat. After all, didn’t they come primarily to hear what you have to say? Actually, they didn’t. In fact, graduation speakers are impediments …
This is graduation season. Many high-school and middle-school students will be moving on to the next stage of their lives. Some will be sad to say goodbye to their school, classmates and, maybe, even a teacher or two. Others can’t wait to leave it all behind.
Some years ago, a senior executive at a Fortune 100 company objected when I asserted that corporations have an ethical, as well as a legal obligation to keep promises and honor their contracts. He said that the decision to live up to or ignore contractual commitments is a business decision, not an ethical one. The other party has legal remedies, …
Not because you are one… but because I am.
Don’t settle for less. Love without trust is not really love.
When George Washington was 16, he discovered a booklet of 110 maxims describing how a well-mannered person should behave. He was so convinced that these maxims would help him become a better person that he set out to incorporate them into his daily living. Among Washington’s many virtues, his commitment to civility marked him as a gentleman and helped him become …
Character is doing the right thing even when no one is looking.
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I once heard the chairman and CEO of a huge public company tell a roomful of ambitious, hardworking, dedicated executives that if he had to do it all over again, he would have spent more time with his family. That’s not news, but to Type-A personalities, it’s easier said than done. David L. Weatherford’s poem “Slow Dance” sends the message …
To realize the value of ONE YEAR ask a student who has failed his final exam. To realize the value of ONE MONTH ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. To realize the value of ONE WEEK ask an editor of a weekly newspaper. To realize the value of ONE DAY ask a daily wage laborer who …
“Every now and then its a good thing to stop looking for happiness and just be happy.” – Michael Josephson
“We must be willing to fail and to appreciate the truth that often ‘life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.’” – M. Scott Peck
“If you want to know a person’s real values…look how they spend their time and their money.” – Michael Josephson
Prioritize Your Life – What You Can Learn From a Jar Full of Rocks It seems that no one has enough time to do all the things they want to do. After all, there’s only so many hours in a day. It’s true we can’t expand our day but we can make better use of it by being more intentional …
Faith is not believing that everything will turn out the way we want it, but that there is a divine purpose in how things turn out.
Fame is vapor, popularity is an accident, riches take wing; only character endures.” – Horace Greeley
Invest time; don’t spend it. Save time; don’t waste it. Enjoy the time you have; Don’t regret the time that’s gone.
I don’t have to be lonely just because I am alone. I am in the company of thousands of good memories of people I’ve known and know, places I’ve been, things I’ve done, and the feelings of joy, gratitude and pride that are still a part of me.
INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY AND THE PURSUIT OF WISDOM. “Don’t believe everything you think.” This is a reminder of the need to be as rigorously honest, informed and objective about our own ideas as we are when we evaluate those of others. Wisdom requires courage and humility to receive and consider new facts, opinions and perspectives, even when they challenge long …
Success comes in cans. Failures come in can’ts. Never say, “I can’.” Say, “I can’t…yet.”
If ignorance is bliss, Why aren’t more people happy?
A few years ago I came across a video by a very dynamic speaker, a former middle school teacher named Taylor Mali. He is now what’s called a performance poet — someone who delivers poetry as singers deliver songs. The poem that caught my attention was “What Do I Make?” an articulate and aggressive response to a critic who was putting down teachers. …
Some people want it to happen. Others hope it will happen. Be the one that makes it happen.
Never, ever give less than you best. Treat everything you do as an audition for the new thing you want to do.
COMMENTARY: Do I Have to Tell Everything? Should a job applicant properly withhold information about a criminal record or termination from a previous job? Should a woman starting a new relationship say nothing about a previous marriage or abortion? These are problems of candor: When does an ethical person have a duty to reveal negative information about his or her …
“Know when to tune out, if you listen to too much advice you may wind up making other people’s mistakes.” – Ann Landers
“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” — The Talmud
Long ago, I entered law school wanting to do good. I left more concerned with doing well. In an atmosphere dominated by raging competitive instincts, persuasive rationalizations, and real economic pressures, cynicism drowned out idealism. My notion of the legal system as a grand forum for the pursuit of truth and justice was reduced to the idea that, in the …
“Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein
