It was late September, 1999, and the Phoenix heat pressed against my skin as I slid into my Jeep Cherokee, which had recently lost its AC. Every commute to downtown felt like a slow roast. As I wiped sweat from my brow, I found myself wondering, for the hundredth time, if I made the right … Read more
On a flight home from Boston, I found myself watching Bill & Ted Face the Music. It was Thanksgiving, and Jocelyn and I had just spent the holiday with my family, catching up with old friends and reminiscing about the past. As I settled into my seat and let the movie play, something about Bill … Read more
The conference room buzzed with tension. We were three days into a company summit in Sacramento, five round tables filled with team members hunched over laptops and printed documentation, hashing out our customer onboarding process. Papers rustled, pens tapped against notepads, and someone let out an audible sigh of frustration. What was supposed to be … Read more
It was 8 a.m. and I was late. Again. I’d pedaled across campus faster than I should have, backpack bouncing against my shoulder, still tasting the coffee I hadn’t finished. The lecture hall at Arizona State was already buzzing when I got there, backpacks hitting the floor, notebooks opening, that low roar of two hundred … Read more
There’s a moment from the Peanuts comic strip that I’ve always related to: Charlie Brown gearing up to kick the football. Every time, he gives it his all, determined to finally succeed. And every time, Lucy pulls the ball away, leaving him flat on his back, staring at the sky, wondering what just happened. That’s … Read more