It’s hard to overstate the sorry condition of Continental Airlines in the early 1990s. The company had twice faced bankruptcy. A third financial disaster was looming. Employee morale was abysmal. The airline ranked last in every measurable performance category. Its stock had sunk to $2 a share. Continental’s advertising slogans during the previous two decades reflected marketing desperation: The Only Airline… Read more »
On the day Thomas Carlyle’s wife was buried it poured down rain. In April 1866, the Scottish writer and a group of mourners tramped through the mud to the cemetery where Jane was laid to rest. They had been married for 40 years. Then he returned to his home, feeling desperately alone. The Carlyles’ relationship had been shaped by his… Read more »
For hundreds of years, it’s been a kind of running joke: The moon is made of green cheese. “Green” in this context means not-yet-fully-aged, as opposed to spectacular fungal growth. It’s easy to understand how medieval observers, gazing at the brightest object in the night sky, were reminded of a wheel of cheese. Besides, no one would ever be able… Read more »
Most gifted speakers make use of a handful of signature stories – anecdotes they can pull out at a moment’s notice to drive home special points. John F. Kennedy used one of his favorite stories at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He was present to dedicate the new School of Aerospace Medicine. It was the heyday of… Read more »
Generally speaking, it’s not a good idea to deliver a sermon with the express intention of sending a message to the President of the United States. Then again, most preachers don’t have the chief executive sitting in their sanctuary on a Sunday morning. On February 7, 1954, Rev. George MacPherson Docherty – the Scottish-born pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian… Read more »
Conrad Hilton, founder of the hotel empire that bears his name, was once Johnny Carson’s guest on The Tonight Show. At one point Carson said, “If you could look into that camera and say just one thing to America, what would it be?” Hilton turned and looked into the camera. He said, “Please remember to put the shower curtain on… Read more »
Linus Pauling was always the smartest person in the room. These days we hear the word “genius” associated with people who excel at making omelets, organizing birthday parties, and playing fantasy football. Pauling, who was born in 1901, was an old school genius – a brilliant scientist with unrivalled powers of deduction and imagination. His 1931 paper, The Nature of… Read more »
Lillie Baltrip is one of the finest school bus drivers that Houston, Texas, has ever seen. In the spring of 1988 her school district took note of her spotless, accident-free record and announced that she would receive, along with 29 others, a special safety award. Lillie was even chosen by her fellow recipients to chauffeur the whole group in a… Read more »
In the late 1960s, Dr. James Reddick – a Seattle dentist and experienced mountaineer – took his 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son on a hike up the steep slopes of Mount Rainier, the volcanic peak that towers above the city. It was Memorial Day weekend, a time late enough on the calendar for hikers not to be overly worried about… Read more »
You undoubtedly know yourself better than anyone else knows you. After all, you alone have unfettered access to your thoughts, feelings, and motivations. At the same time, ironically, you probably know yourself less well than other people know you. That’s because you exist at the center of a bundle of self-protecting, self-justifying, impression-managing behaviors that you’ve practiced for so long… Read more »
