No one will argue that the job market of the last 18 months has been a beast. Unemployment peaked at 10.6% in January and has hovered around the 10% level since. Some 15 million Americans find themselves without jobs. Companies have started rehiring, but oh so slowly, as they have consistently wrung higher productivity out of the existing workforce. Many heads have rolled since the recession began and they are just not being replenished quickly. Ugly, ugly beast. Read the rest of this entry »

I must admit that I never heard of Evan Lysacek prior to the 2010 Winter Olympic games and am not typically a fan of men’s figure skating. But Mr. Lysacek has caused me to do an abrupt about-face and take notice of his compelling story. Not so much because of the typical Olympic storyline of heroic athleticism, though he certainly has such a story. But because of what each of us can learn from his example of laser-like focus and determination. Read the rest of this entry »

My little corner of the world, idyllic Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was the unlucky recipient of 46.5 inches of snow over the last week. Two blizzards in rapid succession demonstrated the unyielding power of a one-two sucker punch from mother nature. It is simply not reasonable to get whacked by two, two-foot snowfalls. That kind of thing happens in Minsk, or some barren frigid landscape inhabited only by penguins. Or so I thought. Read the rest of this entry »