Hanging on my father’s office wall were six portraits of older men. Each represented a single character trait he wished to emulate in his own life and every morning standing before them he [...]
We helped move our daughter from Los Angeles to Dallas this month and it was a good opportunity to once again experience what a group of Harvard researchers labeled, the “Ikea Effect: When Labor [...]
Listen to “No Words” By Fred Smith When I came out of the Navy I had developed an acute allergy for profanity. All four years I had listened to men young and old who could not [...]
Listen to “Repaid by Love” by Fred Smith Stories come in all shapes, don’t they? Today, there is an industry devoted to people anxious to understand their personal [...]
Listen to “Bearing Witness” by Fred Smith The first time I read the phrase “bearing witness” was in Elie Wiesel’s book “Night” recounting the horrors of the Holocaust and the [...]
Listen to “Mama’s Boy” by Fred Smith If you visit Elk Lake, Minnesota and the headwaters of the Mississippi, you will see a stream that is about 20 feet across and 2 feet [...]
Listen to “The Four Hundred Pound Day” by Fred Smith Tiger Woods‘ victory at the Master’s is a myth. I know that sounds like a post on a fringe site but I’m not [...]
Listen to “Our Little Town” by Fred Smith When we moved from New York to a small town in rural East Texas thirty-five years ago small towns were not trending. That has changed. [...]
Listen to “He Told Stories” by Fred Smith Years ago, as a much younger man, I began a search for wisdom in giving. Although looking back, I realize that I didn’t know what [...]
Listen to “A Sometimes Solitary Life” by Fred Smith If you read biographies you notice a frequent pattern in the lives of many great leaders. Early success and then years of [...]
