Actions flourish on marble pillars. — The vision struck me like a thunderbolt from Zeus. I imagined a great white marble pillar in ancient Greece upon which a green vine climbed and wrapped around with wild abandon. Those same vines on a dead tree or a pillar without vines wouldn’t hold half the beauty alone as…

#4. They at most, like — at least, love. — I sat on the toilet, emotionally drained, in an old military barracks one day. I glanced at the wall on my right at the scribbled instructions for whoever sat where I was sitting: “Flush twice, it’s a long way to the chow hall” I chuckled as I felt a little…

Motivating with more than just money — I remember once in the Marines I was speaking to a man named Joe Dowdy, a “full-bird” Colonel, who was about to lead over 7,000 men and women into battle. …

“He’s not college educated.” — “Well, what about Mike and Sara? They’re not idiots!” I said back. One of my friends had just been spouting off about how all liberals were complete idiots. Thanks, internet. It’s stunning how easy it is to despise groups of people we don’t know, but when we meet the people…

Grab that high-hanging fruit, brainer! — Every year we have “cool” new phrases that sweep our culture such as gaslighting, quiet quitting, and quiet firing. So how can you get in early on these words before they become super annoying? How can you be the one setting word trends instead of the annoying one following them? …

5. “I hate Tiff and can’t work with her.” — “I may be a complete idiot but…” That’s how my coworker prefaced every creative idea he had. It was like a chef saying “Now this meal may have some rotten ingredients in it and I probably shouldn’t even be a chef, but who knows, it may be pretty good!” This…

1. They use targeted discomfort. — I knew I’d look like an idiot but I’d become fine with that by then. I’d simply made the wrong decision and the best thing to do about it was to own up to it completely. “Guys, I messed up. My bad.” I said to my team. “That’s OK, we…

Sometimes a ‘date night’ with your writing produces golden eggs. — Finally! A satire article that didn’t crash and burn before takeoff. Occasional commercial unviability in my writing is what enables me to write commercially viable content. In other words, I need to keep writing fun or all of it starts to suck. A few years ago I came up with…

3. “Because I said so, that’s why.” — “You’ll learn not to question me!” he barked triumphantly through the phone. I’d just been completely wrong about something at work. It happens. But my old boss used others’ mistakes like politicians do, as weapons to beat them while they’re down. I couldn’t take the arrogance-cloaked insecure victory dance anymore. …