Archive

Know the Job Before You Take It

The press secretary’s job is a pressure cooker. If you take it on, you’d better know how to handle it.

While Others Compete, Own Your Corner

Competition can become a race to the bottom. The key is to find organizations whose products or services are hard to copy, difficult to replace, and more valuable the longer customers use them.

Quit Until It Fits

Never quit is bad advice. The skill is knowing what to quit and when, and giving yourself enough at-bats to find what fits.

You Can't Buy Skill

Every serious shooter tries to buy skill with gear. It never works. The answer is where you started: simple equipment and a willingness to practice forever.

The P385 Inherits SIG's Trust Debt

A new pistol doesn't reset a reputation. SIG's P385 may prove a very good pistol, but it enters a market that remembers the P320. What SIG needs now is customers who believe it will tell them early, protect them first, and fix it completely.

The Future Is More Immersive Than Anyone Thinks

AI won't just make films. It will make characters that never sleep, and endless franchises built around them. The Vision Pro was early, not wrong.

Random Reflections on What's on Your Plate and Why Founders Are Born

Notes on Cal Newport, pseudo-productivity, and Lucas Botkin walking away from T.REX ARMS.

Notes on Killing a Product That Isn't Losing Money

The products most worth closing often aren't losing money. They're taxing your people, focus, and core. A five-part framework for deciding what to stop.

Beautifully Intoxicating

For anyone who doesn't like cities, New York is the exception, a place that makes the world feel bigger than most people allow themselves to imagine.

Problem Solvers, Not Problem Pointers

Are you an asset to the organization when problems arise?

Power and Influence Are Part of the Job

Good work is mandatory but not enough. Reading notes on Pfeffer's Power, and why competence has to travel with influence.

Self-Belief Is a Leadership Requirement

Leadership isn't a popularity contest. Listen, stress-test the facts, then be willing to make the call the room doesn't like.

All About Crises

The first damage report after a hurricane is almost always wrong. Lessons from Admiral McRaven's Conquering Crisis, starting with that one.

Nobody Thinks They Work in a Silo

Almost no one thinks they work in a silo. Most of us do. What McChrystal's Team of Teams teaches about fixing it.

Nobody Can Learn AI for You

AI isn't a corporate initiative. It's a personal skill every executive has to build, and nobody can do it for you.

The CEO's Most Valuable Tool Is Another Human

AI is making the Chief of Staff more valuable, not less. Speed is easy to buy. Judgment, influence, and political awareness aren't.

Aim to Put Yourself Out of a Job

Four rules for leading a team, ending with the one that matters most: always be preparing someone to replace you.

Monsters in Our Heads

What two Disney rides showed me about perception

All Compass, No Map

You come into this world with a built-in compass and no map.

Deal Makers and Deal Breakers

Their role is to flag every risk. Yours is to decide which ones to take.

Everyone Wants the Bicycle Kick

Mastery is nothing more than obsessively focusing on the fundamentals.

Free Riders

Some executives shed responsibility as they climb, but the organization keeps score.

On Founders and Operators

The skills that start a company are not the skills that scale it.

Discarding Pity

Accepting pity is a polite way of giving up your agency. On internalizers, externalizers, and owning your circumstances.

The Floor

When life falls apart, you don't need a philosophy. You need a floor — a short list of things that survive contact with chaos and keep you standing until the season passes.

Pirates

When two finalists are equal on paper, ask which one is a pirate: goal-driven, comfortable with risk, willing to find the unconventional answer.

The habit of tracking habits

Track enough habits and the only habit you build is tracking. What changes when you stop measuring and just do the work.

The Train Never Stops

Empathy goes a long way. But empathy must be met with the burden of command, because the team depends on you.

The Inner Citadel

Marcus Aurelius had absolute power and still wrote that the only real escape was inward. Self-care only works when you confront what's within your own mind.

Drawbridges

"I hate this city," I muttered, stuck at a drawbridge that had added ten minutes to an appointment I was already late for. My son, in the back seat, was telling me how beautiful the view was. He was right.

Speed Is the Surprise They Never See Coming

Among surprise, speed, and violence of action, the latter two are the skills that matter most. The institutional resistance to that truth is not a tactical disagreement — it is an excuse for poor training.

Revenue Ain't Shit

Revenue is easy to flaunt. Profit is harder to explain — and that's exactly why most gurus won't talk about it.

"Please Let Me Know Your Thoughts"

Most workplace communication fails not because of the tools — but because of how we use them. "Let me know your thoughts" is not a close. It's a postponement.

To Do the Work

It's binary. You're either out doing it, or you're not. You're truly committed, or you're not.

Technology Is the Opiate

Karl Marx said religion was the opiate of the masses. He was wrong for this era. Technology took the role — and unlike religion, it manufactures the suffering it claims to relieve.

The 2 a.m. Test

Are you a friend or an acquaintance? Let's find out.

How Many Christmases

My son woke me in the middle of the night to ask how many Christmases I had left. I told him the truth.

It's All About Mind Clarity

"Mind clarity" started as a trading concept. I took the words literally, applied them to my own life, and built everything around them.

Quiet

My father's instruction was simple: be quiet and listen. It took decades to understand what he was actually teaching me.

Sunrise Reflection

I refuse to photograph the sunrise. Every one of them committed to memory — just the run, the light, and the moment.

Power Is the Product

Toxic organizations are not failing businesses. They are functioning vehicles — built, consciously or not, to serve the ego and power needs of the people who run them. Profit is the cover story.

What My Children Saw at Kennedy Space Center

Visiting Kennedy Space Center with my kids over President's Day Weekend — and meeting a real astronaut — was a reminder that excellence is never accidental. It is built deliberately, over decades.

The Super Bowl, Bad Bunny, and What It Means to Be American

Critics called Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance "un-American" because it was in Spanish. They forgot that Spanish has been spoken in what is now the United States since 1513—decades before Jamestown or Plymouth

Breaking the Responsiveness Trap

The expectation of instant responsiveness—to emails, texts, calls—has turned most of us into human automatons. The day I replaced my Apple Watch with a mechanical watch, I started breaking that rule. Gradually, deliberately, I reclaimed the mental bandwidth to do actual work.

A Walk Around the Block

A morning walk with my kids became a lesson in presence. Last year, I wouldn't have had the patience for this. Cutting social media distractions gave me back the attention my children deserve.

Searching for Sanctaphrax

Sanctaphrax is the fictional floating city-state in The Edge Chronicles—a fantasy series where it serves as the seat of knowledge and academia. For me, writing is a constant search for Sanctaphrax.

The Problem Solver's Trap

You know you're a problem solver when your bosses stop going to your peers and make you the de facto person for almost everything. This is a two-edged sword—and why organizational fit matters more than you think.

AI Didn't Take Your Job—Bad Business Did

The next time an expert tells you AI is taking all the jobs, remember this: it's far more likely the economy is struggling and businesses are bleeding out. We'd all rather be told it's about technological advancement than face the reality of poor management and a stagnant economy.

Let the Work Sell Itself

After watching marketing experts explain the latest growth techniques, I realized I'd rather keep writing genuinely and working on my craft. Consistency trumps any gimmick. If you're patient, you may build a network of peers who truly value your work because they identify with it.

Operate Like a Submarine

Most advice says to announce your goals for accountability. That's wrong. The world doesn't care, envy is real, and sharing invites unnecessary emotional risk. Operate like a submarine—stay below the surface and let results speak later.

A Father, a Hero

A father is his children's hero—until he's not. The question isn't whether they turn out like him, but whether he shows them what a principled path looks like so they can forge their own.

The Friction Problem

Modern platforms reward whatever is most clickable, not whatever is most true. Long-form reading introduces friction that makes quackery harder to sustain.

Betting on the Wrong Horse

Executives who can't admit hiring mistakes keep betting on toxic talent, sending a clear message: ego matters more than performance.

When You Jump

When you take the leap most won't, even those closest to you will resist. Not because you'll fail—because they fear they would.

Ship Your Work

It doesn't matter how good or bad you think it is. Let the world decide. But perhaps someone reads your work and it changes their life for the better—all because you had the courage to ship.

It's About Showing Up Again and Again

Real progress has nothing to do with passion or motivation. It's about the will to do the basic things over and over again—in bad conditions, when you're bored, tired, and not in the mood—and still hold yourself to your standards.

No Time to Read

Most Americans will read 250 books in their lifetime while spending 50,000+ hours on screens. With just 30-60 minutes of daily reading, you could read 600-1,500 books instead. It's all about perspective.

If you want to have a following, “specialize”

They say specialize if you want followers. I say generalize and write for free until the day I die—caring only about getting better at the craft.

If you don't want to sell, increase friction

A Regional Sales Manager turned a simple equipment purchase into an obstacle course. Here's what high-effort sales processes cost you—and why eliminating friction is the only sales strategy that matters.

Don't Be a Sh*t Manager

Management has been studied for over 120 years. Yet we're still surrounded by terrible leadership. Here are my rules for not being a sh*t manager.

Default No

Saying "yes" opens doors—but saying "no" creates space. Why "no" should be your default.

Books

The spatial and tactile sense of a physical book—knowing where it lives, feeling its weight, seeing it on the shelf—creates a different relationship with what you're reading.

While You Panic, We Draft a Kill List

A Saturday phone call about world threats leads to a conversation about the Disposition Matrix—and why worrying about what you can't control is a waste of energy.

Professionals Dry Fire

If you carry a firearm for self-defense, you have an obligation to be professional—competent, skillful, assured. That means being both fast and accurate. Here's what that requires.

Intuition Beats Data

Many executives assume "numbers first" makes you a strong decision-maker. But what about intuition, experience, and creativity? Sometimes the numbers need to be understood, then set aside, so we can make bold decisions that push past the plateau.

The Dictator's Hoodie

A Venezuelan dictator on U.S. soil wearing a 100% American-made hoodie—the irony of freedom's uniform on a man accused of crushing it.

When Discipline Becomes Stubbornness

Refusing to adapt when life changes doesn't make you disciplined—it makes you stubborn. Here's what happened when I finally acknowledged I was in a new season.

This Given Sunday

From flower stands to Stephen King, physical books to Nerf warfare—observations from a Sunday well spent.

At the Park

Whenever I'm at the park with my kids, I don't take out my phone. This has several benefits. I give my undivided attention to my children the entire time we're there.

On the 1st: One Hard Thing

What if your new year feels like any other day? Do one hard thing and keep it to yourself. For those who started in a difficult place: it's just another day. You control how you feel about today.

A Simple Way to Change Your Year

Year's end brings predictable advice from business gurus and productivity experts. Most assumes everyone faces identical challenges. My approach: change one habit at a time.

Worldviews

People rarely experience the same event the same way.

You Can’t Delegate Leadership Upward

Leadership is ownership; you can’t delegate it. When leaders tolerate upward delegation, they destroy decentralized command and train the organization to bypass managers and avoid responsibility.

Against the Cult of Speed

Many companies worship speed, but urgency forces multitasking and weakens execution.

Ego is an operating risk, not a leadership trait.

Ego doesn’t protect the business—it protects the leader.

Write Like You Run

Writing is training for the mind—an elemental act that demands the same discipline as running.

Battery

You’ve been a battery—powering systems that feed on your attention. Protect your charge. It’s all you really own.

Friction

Hard things aren’t about time or talent—they’re about friction.

Courage Starts Small

Small choices shape character. Teaching kids to speak up—even when it’s uncomfortable—plants the seeds of courage that last a lifetime.

The Strength of Silence

Silence isn’t withdrawal—it’s oxygen. In solitude we sharpen clarity, become more present, and protect the strength that constant noise erodes

Friction is the Enemy

DayLog 001: Friction kills most creative work. Not time. Not talent. Just resistance. Motion before spark.

Hijacked

Some systems run on the backs of quiet professionals—until those backs break. A strategic breakdown of how high performers get hijacked by dysfunctional organizations, and what happens when they walk away.

The Erasure of the Founder

After Lucas Botkin offered to buy out the other owners, they declined. Now T.Rex Arms is rewriting the story. Founders aren’t always pushed out. Sometimes, they walk away—and then get erased.

Going Analog by Being Quiet

Most people scroll to escape. I started writing again to return. This post is about choosing quiet over noise—and what I’ve been rediscovering by going analog.

The Cost of Casual Equity

When Lucas Botkin walked away from T.REX ARMS, it wasn’t because the business failed—it was because control slipped through his hands. This post breaks down what happened and why founders must protect their cap table at all costs.

Go Write

Journaling isn’t soft—it’s one of the most honest, rigorous tools I’ve ever used to think clearly, train intentionally, and stay grounded through chaos. Writing things down made me better. Go write.

A Day on the Job: Thoughts on the film Warfare

A quiet reflection on the film Warfare—and why showing up, without drama or glory, is often the most honest form of leadership.

The 80% Identity

Perfection is the wrong target. Aim for 80% mastery, and hold that standard with discipline most people would call excessive.

Unexpected Teachers

Some of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned came from people I didn’t expect—on the range, in an empty office, or in my own home. These moments reshaped how I lead, parent, and show up.

Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should

Most Americans take their rights for granted — but owning a gun without skill is not self-defense, it’s a liability. This is a call to those who carry: train, or don’t carry at all.

The #1 Rule Most Companies Break

Most companies don’t fail because of bad ideas—they fail because they hire carelessly. This post challenges the default hiring mindset and makes the case for treating team selection like an elite operation, not a checklist.

When to Ignore Good Advice

Not all popular business advice is universally true. Discover when and why you should thoughtfully ignore conventional wisdom to build genuine skill, autonomy, and professional success.

On the Satisfaction of Writing

Writing is focus. It pulls you back from the noise and revives the creativity you were told to outgrow.

Of Battles and Angels

A bedtime question from a five-year-old, whether angels are God's soldiers, becomes a lesson in pride, freedom, and responsibility.

BUSY IS A LIE

There's no such thing as "I don't have time," only "I don't want to make time." On the Future Busy Fallacy.

More Than a Marathon: A Promise to My Son

A marathon run injured at 43, and the realization that the running was never about fitness. It was about showing children what commitment looks like.

Unlocking Business Wisdom with Founders Podcast

Studying the lives of great entrepreneurs is the closest thing to learning from them directly. Why Founders is worth listening to in order.