Growing a business is hard.Selling your own art is hard.Working a tasking 9-5 is hard.Starting a side-hustle is hard.Selling engineering solutions is hard. Choose you hard and keep it moving. I remember frequent early morning flights out of Austin’s airport, as an engineer, on the way to a client’s factory. I’d unwrap a breakfast taco, […]
Emotional intelligence is very important for both personal and professional growth. We just don’t talk about it that much. One day, I strolled into the office on the north side of Austin – the arboretum. I had some client work to get to. Some distillation columns to stabilize. Some tank levels to equalize. I had […]
I write these letters to help curious minds and avid learners reflect, gain perspective, and find meaning in work and life. I learned something a few years back: At the end of 2020, I was seated near the window in my apartment in Oakland. On my computer, my QuickBooks for my business was open. I […]
Writing is a habit. Habits build character and facilitate growth. I learned this over 18 months of writing a newsletter every week. Here’s the story. I was spending my time managing sales for my business, hopping on to LinkedIn to track conversations about helping industrial businesses with their expansion into Africa. On twitter, I was […]
I write these weekly newsletters to help me reflect and clarify my thoughts while sharpening my storytelling and marketing skills. My hope is to help others do the same and it starts with empathy. I had just quit my job in 2014. I was moving out west. From Texas, on the way to sunny California. […]
The most important skill you need to thrive in work, life, and business was not taught in schools. You have to learn it now. My friends and I were in the parking lot of Jewel-osco, a grocery store in Chicago, back in 2005. Sparks flew as the train passed overhead while we entered the store […]
The person in control of your mind, controls your experiences. The question is: who is in control? I walked confidently to a session across campus. It was a nice sunny day with a slight chill in January 2015 within the borders of the nerd nation. Just like any other Stanford student: My day had been […]
True joy cannot be acquired from anything outside of you. It’s built within. There I was, sitting in my tiny room in Palo Alto. Laptop open, my little keyboard on the side, headphones on. My black beat machine to the side. It was my second year of business school. The year before, I had more […]
Telling your story effectively is the most important skill you’d need in the 21st century. As I sat back at my coworking space, my gaze was in the midst of multiple tabs open on my laptop. I took a few minutes to look at the stats on my newsletter. The open rate was good. I […]
You will only build real connection when you own the connection. Take your relationships off social media and foster real community. I stared at the white screen on my computer in disbelief. A few minutes before, my sister had just sent me a message on Whatsapp. “My bro, what’s good? I can’t find you on […]