During his career, 7-foot-1-inch basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain was jeered by fans and scorned by the media, despite achieving numerous NBA all-time records. He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game and the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, a feat he accomplished nine times! So, why was Chamberlain often loathed instead of loved? As he put it: “Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.” When it comes to the surety bond provision in MAP-21 (Moving Ahead
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After having worked 13 hours last Wednesday, I was too tired for a big birthday celebration, but my husband and my kids still made my evening feel special. Although I shared my nervousness about receiving yet another birthday gift “dud”, my husband dazzled me with tickets to the Alabama-Colorado State Game this past weekend and three new charms for my Pandora bracelet, including a Pittsburgh Steelers charm! I’ve been a Steelers’ fan since the age of six. When all of the other girls in my class were getting Princess-themed apparel for Christmas, my uncle
Read more →Last fall we signed my youngest daughter up for “Little Kickers” soccer. She was three. It turned out to be a lot more crying and hanging on my leg than actually playing soccer. But since Chloe’s big sister, 9-year-old Emily, is quite the soccer player (she has a strong right foot and she even scored a goal in her own team’s match this weekend!), little Chloe wanted back in on the action this fall too. Week one, Chloe never stepped on the field. But this past week, she played the entire time with no
Read more →It’s my birthday this week. And, that always makes me nervous. Not because I worry about getting older, but because I never know what my husband will come home with next. In the past, gift giving has not been his strong suit. For our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple, he got this panicked look at about 7pm on February 13th and bolted out of the house. The next day, I received a box of dark chocolate (I hate dark chocolate), a denim Tweety bird hat, and a plain grey sweatshirt. Talk about
Read more →You might recall that this year has been a year of weddings for the employees of Matchmaker Logistics. Early this year, Pam Pickral (nee Carrier) tied the knot, and a few weeks ago, Shelly Hamler (nee Stoddart) got married. I had the pleasure of attending both weddings, and I was honored to participate in such wonderful, meaningful occasions. I usually forget my camera, or bring my camera and then, get so caught up in the moment that I forget to take photos. But, at both Pam and Shelly’s weddings, I remembered to snap a
Read more →Boy, am I tired today– the kind of tired where you pour orange juice in your coffee instead of milk. And it’s only Monday. In my new role as the company VP, I’ve been working longer hours and traveling more. Add to that the nightly routine of cooking dinner, supervising homework, bathing kids, packing lunches, setting out clothes, picking up the house, reading bedtime stories and setting the coffee pot for the next morning, and I’m exhausted. By 9:30, I’m ready for bed. I mean that in the fuzzy-pajamas-and-night-cream sense, not the Biblical sense.
Read more →This year, I changed my leadership style. I’ve learned that my whole team is happier, more engaged, and more productive when I “manage” less and “empower” more. In traditional corporate environments, people usually think that the boss or manager has to bestow empowerment on the people who report to him. Consequently, the reporting staff members wait for the bestowing of empowerment, and the boss asks why his employees won’t act in empowered ways. A few months ago, I turned that model upside down and trusted my employees to lead meetings, make decisions and move
Read more →I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. While many of us enjoyed a day off yesterday, those who work in retail, particularly those who work at 24/7 mega stores like Wal-Mart, weren’t so lucky. If you’re not one of the 9 million people who have already seen the video, watch The People of Wal-Mart to see what I mean…. In last week’s email, I included a diagram that detailed the different approach men and women take when charged with the same shopping mission. It is true that many men find shopping boring
Read more →For a lot of people, Labor Day means two things: a day off and the end of summer. For sports fans, it means that baseball season is coming to a climax and football is about to start. Of course, Labor Day was originally intended as an annual tribute to the contributions American workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. The first Labor Day parade occurred September 5, 1882, in New York City. The workers’ unions chose the first Monday in September because it was halfway between Independence Day and
Read more →Last week, after waking up before dawn, making a special pancake breakfast, packing lunches, getting the kids off for their first day of school, getting ready for work and driving to the office, I breathed a quick sigh of relief: “Phew!” I thought as I checked my online bank account right before work, “Back-to-school spending is done and I’ll have some time to recover before the holidays roll around.” Then, I looked at the calendar and realized there are only fourteen more weeks until Thanksgiving! Like most women, my brain runs on about twelve
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