In the book “Pitch Anything,” author Oren Klaff talks about the “crocodile brain.” That’s his label for the unevolved way in which people react to sales pitches. It’s a defensive posture. Typically, people will: Ignore you if possible. Focus on the big picture. Which should be presented with well differentiated, “high contrast” options. Respond emotionally. …
I lost 14 pounds in October—more than 7 percent of my beginning body weight. I did through intermittent fasting. The term intermittent fasting is a catch-all, referring to all sorts of plans and schedules to stop eating for varying lengths of time. Mine looked like this: On Day 1 (it was a Sunday) I resolved …
It is 6:30 am and I am going back to bed. First I need to bang out this blog post. I’ve been awake since 4:30, after six hours of pretty sound sleep. I woke up from a dream—I don’t usually remember my dreams. But in this one, I dreamed that I was an NBA basketball …
I was in a training session, on break, standing around with my classmates. I pulled out my Day-Timer to jot down some notes. “Hey!” said someone. “I remember those.” He was referring to the Day-Timer, my pocket calendar. I use the 3-by-6 inch size, encased in a leather wallet with a pen loop. Each month …
I was mentoring an aspiring real estate investor—door-knocking in a decent west Denver neighborhood. We were prospecting for leads—home sellers, future buyers, whatever. We knocked one door and an angry young dude stepped out. “Good morning,” I said. “I’m Tom and this is Rich.” My mentee nodded. “We’re always on the hunt for potential home …
There is a passive aggressive sort of insult going around. It happens when two people are in a disagreement of some sort. When the details get complicated, one says this to the other: “You okay?” The implication is that the other’s argument is irrational. And that they’ve lost control emotionally, which led them to logically …
I got together with an old grade school classmate, about 10 years after we’d graduated. We were both amateur musicians, and we would meet up regularly to play some tunes. We’d attended a Catholic school. So we were reminiscing, with no great reverence, about church hymns we sang in school. We both confessed to having …
Nothing focuses the mind like the prospect of being hanged. So said Mark Twain. I haven’t faced that prospect myself. I have experienced the very real possibility of getting beat up. In fact it happened a few times, in grade school. And I can tell you that after the first time, the prospect of it …
On occasions in the past, I concocted a very ambitious plan. I would investigate whether human caused climate change is a real thing. Because, first of all…think about it. We are inundated with evidence of brutal, destructive conditions. Floods, blizzards, hurricanes, heat waves. A month doesn’t go by without news of some disastrous, deadly weather …
It is easy to accuse yourself, or someone else, of procrastination. Sometimes I feel like the world champion procrastinator, with projects and priorities that have been put off for months or years. I mean not to pile another flaw—i.e., denial—on top of that one. Maybe I procrastinate. Simple as that. Guilty as charged. But a …
