Character consists of what you do on the third or fourth tries. James A. Michener.

Persistence is doing something again and again and again until it works.

Tenacity is using new data to make new decisions to find new ways to achieve a goal when the old ways didn’t work.

Stay Safe. Stay strong. Stay connected.  

I look forward to seeing you here again soon.

Belief is a truth held in the mind. Faith is a fire in the heart. Joseph Newton.

In our super-competitive environment, fiercely driven by the need for success (however you measure it) and personal equanimity, the pressure is enormous.  Staying with the status quo isn’t an option. You’re either moving forward or falling backward.

Keeping faith in yourself is a must.

Sometimes, if you want to lead the orchestra, you may even have to turn your back to the audience.

Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay connected.  

I hope to see you back here again soon.

Be yourself. Everybody else is taken. Oscar Wilde.

If you are still competing with the crowd, operating in much the same manner, doing the same old things in the same old way, it is next to impossible to move ahead of the pack.

In this age of globalization, surplus supply and endless selection, the competition isn’t between you and your competitors.

It’s between you and your imagination.

To be oneself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else takes courage but standing out from the crowd can lead to amazing outcomes.

So here’s the question: How are YOU being different?

Hmmm…..

Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay connected.  

I hope to see you back here again soon.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. Winston Churchill.

Like a pair of giant needles, technology and globalization have knitted us together. Whether we live in Toronto, Toledo or Timbuktu, our world has become a global village, increasingly interdependent, interconnected, demanding we broaden our world view, like it or not.

Broadly speaking, a world view is a set of expectations and biases we have formed that shape how we see and feel about people in other nations, even in our own neighbourhoods – each of them with their own world view.

Accommodation isn’t always easy but as distances continue to shrink, it is good to remember that, regardless of where we stand on the globe, most people are just trying to get through the day, striving to live out their personal destinies and be the the best they can be.

We are not the same, of course. Our cultures, religions and societal differences can make strangers of us all – but only if we let them.

The songs we sing, the stories we tell, sounds and words that to others may sound foreign, even threatening.

Still, particularly at this time, as the world continues to get smaller, meaner and less inclusive, more than ever, we need to look into our hearts and make a greater effort to narrow the gap.

And to be reminded that a stranger is only a person whose song or story we have never heard, if only we are brave enough to listen.

Hmmm…

Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay connected.  

I hope to see you back here again soon.

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that somethings makes sense regardless of how it turns out. Vaclav Havel.

Life is a never ending series of choices, some easier, others not so much. We make them everyday. They affect every aspect of our lives. One of the most critical choices, I believe, is choosing whether to be an optimist or a pessimist.

Particularly at this moment in history. With our hearts and minds fixated on the events in Ukraine Vaclav Havel’s words read truer than ever.

These are perilous times. The challenges to the liberal, democratic order are many. Clearly there are a good many pressing issues that need addressing.

It is hard to stand strong, but it’s what we must do.

Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay determined..

I hope to see you back here soon.