A Friday note from someone who’s been where you are. Every Friday morning since August 2021 — a story from the shop floor, and a point you can actually use.
“We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes.” — Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist As I put together our son’s rehearsal dinner invitation, I thought, “Wow. Things have changed.” Not the invitation itself. The way I made it. In under…
“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home.” — Carl Sagan, astronomer and author, Pale Blue Dot (1994) I watched a YouTube video about stars a few weeks ago. Now my feed is full of astronomy videos. Know that routine? Ha! It’s taken me down some rabbit holes. And in my head, it always…
“You can’t do business from an empty wagon.” — an old peddler’s saying, carried into the business world by a 1949 Dun & Bradstreet poster The other night my family came for dinner. I decided to do burgers. Our GroupMe blew up with who could come and who could not. I flew to the store…
“No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that’s both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.” — Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit (2003) “Where’s that at?” she said. “Behind the at,” he said. She looked at me. “What?” she asked. I explained….
Catch the Dots “The world cannot be understood without numbers, and it cannot be understood with numbers alone.” — Hans Rosling, Factfulness My husband looked pretty funny. He had his phone above his head, staring up at it and walking in messy looking circles. He was trying to find the right spot for Starlink. He…
Dolly Created Dolly “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” — Dolly Parton Through some tears and lots of reflection on Dolly Parton’s well-lived life of eighty years that ended Tuesday, it’s been a lot tougher than I imagined to write this week. Her life started in a one room cabin in…
Sorting Is Work. Discovering Is Shopping. “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” — Hans Hofmann, Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948) My husband and I got to babysit our four-month-old grandson, Henry, this week. I got down on his mat with him — the…
Somebody just asked your store for a donation. Do you decide on the spot, or do you already have a system? Three ways to build one before the next request walks in.
Not Everything Needs the Same Amount of You “The only thing worse than training an employee and having them leave, is to not train them, and have them stay.” — Zig Ziglar A teacher told me recently that the head of their school sends emails to parents and staff that are obviously written by AI….
Playing With Someone Better Than You “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” — Billie Jean King I played a lot of tennis growing up. Not so much now — but as I started working with the newest AI model from my fave, Anthropic, it reminded me of playing tennis with my sister, Holly….