Journey to the Past
Over dinner the other night, my pals and I had one of those “back-in-the-day” conversations. Back in the day, we said, people couldn’t stream music on their phones or computers. We had to buy vinyl records (big as a dinner plate) and play them on bulky record players. If you scratched the record (easy to…
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When I was in high school, no one visited the guidance counselor. I mean NO ONE. He was a creepy hippy-turned-teacher who sat alone in his third-floor office, waiting for someone to show up and ask for help. We students thought asking for help was an act of surrender. A sign of weakness. An admission…
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Before he became a famous and wealthy editor of Ladies’ Home Journal, Edward Bok was just another depression-era kid trying to scrape together some money for his ill mother. He was standing outside of a bakery, watching as the baker put cakes and cookies in the window display. The baker asked young Edward, “Don’t they look…
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In 1987, world chess champion Garry Kasparov declared, “No computer can ever beat me.” That was the year I graduated from college, ready to make my mark. I was cocky as Kasparov. Supremely confident in my abilities. A problem solver. A go-getter. Ten years later, an IBM super-computer called “Deep Blue” whipped Kasparov in a…
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This is a story about how hardcore, ultra-conservatives found common ground with a bunch of hippies. I know that seems unlikely these days, but it happened not that long ago. And this happening is loaded with business lessons. Our story begins soon after the turn of the millennium, in 2002, when the Internet was just…
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Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone during his keynote address at the Macworld conference in San Francisco, January 2007. Standing on stage, in his bluejeans and that black, mock turtleneck, Jobs whipped the crowd into a frenzy by confirming the Apple phone was here. And then it was time to reveal it. Three minutes into the…
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I don’t usually write to you on Sundays. But I’m making an exception today because it’s my birthday, and I’d like to tell you a story… …about my dad. His name was Wally Ruwitch. When he was 50 years old he was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. I was 24 then, working as a…
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I was thinking this morning about Huck Finn and his friend Jim, the runaway slave. Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on this day in 1885. I first read it ialmost 100 years later when I was a junior in high school. And for two years after college, I was an English teacher who taught…
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Back in the early fifties, when he was trying to build a park like no other, Walt Disney needed to raise some dough. Disneyland was going to cost him $17 million to build. That’s equal to around $165 million today. Walt and his company had done pretty well. But not THAT well so… …he launched…
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For the last few months, my wife and I have skipped trips to the store and ordered groceries for home delivery. You know… the pandemic and all. Here in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, we have several options. We prefer one called Shipt. Why? Because the shoppers communicate well with us and consistently delight us. We…
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