Journey to the Past
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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I was 9 years old when Henry Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record. I watched him hit number 715 on TV with my brother and my dad. We celebrated the feat. I didn’t have a clue what he’d gone through. Even some of his teammates now say they didn’t know… …He received tons…
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Marketing master Gary Vaynerchuk shared a story on LinkedIn the other day that I have to share with you. He describes going to his first baseball game with his mom and uncle in 1985 when he was a kid. Superstar outfielder Rickey Henderson catches a fly ball to end an inning and (Gary V takes…
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When I was a younger business person, I never thought much about mindset. Meditation? Not for me. Visualization? No, thanks. Self-affirmation? Not a chance. I think it was Stuart Smalley’s fault. Remember him? He was a recurring character on Saturday Night Live in the 1990s. Al Franken played the part before he left SNL to…
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Back in the 1990s, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise were Hollywood’s IT couple. A fairy-tale marriage. Three movies together — including a really creepy one called “Eyes Wide Shut” and this: When their love was shining brightly, Nicole dished out a few dozen bucks to the International Star Registry. She chose a twinkly little star…
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Back in April, I made a Spotify playlist for my 23-year-old daughter, Maddie. She lived on High Street in Denver. I named the playlist “Shelter in Place on High Street – Volume 1.” In the letter I sent with the playlist, I wrote, “…sharing music is sharing love. It’s about connecting.” I imagined she and…
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