Category: SoapBox

I was speaking at a genetics conference a couple of years ago. After the last panel discussion broke for the day, I stood chatting with a few people about our agency’s marketing history within the genetics space. I politely shared a few generic details, not wanting to dominate the conversation. Still, I noticed that one […]

Change is No Picnic Making a change is difficult. Tiptoeing into the shallow end of change and hoping for a positive outcome never works. To be successful, one often has to commit, run at the cliff, and jump out as far as possible.  “Let’s see how this goes.” When trying something new, I’ve found that […]

I remember a cartoon from when I was a kid about two guys on a train. One of them is very clumsy and always gets into trouble, while the other one is smart, analytical, and bureaucratic. As the clumsy guy is sleeping the smart guy notices the emergency brake. Having experienced the other guy’s clumsiness […]

“Indiana Jones is irrelevant to the story.”

“What?!” I gasped with fearful indignation.

“Yeah, If you remove Indiana Jones from the story’s plot, the Nazis would have found the ark, taken it to the island, opened the lid, and all died. Just how the movie ended. He’s totally irrelevant.”

The fall of the Berlin Wall, which occurred in 1989, is one of the most important moments of the 20th century. It also happened by accident, because of a faulty decision. Guenter Schabowski, a spokesman for the East German Politburo, was hosting a press conference about the possibilities of East Germany allowing travel through the […]

If you believe the experts, we’re are in the worst crisis in the history of crises. That sounds gloomy — and it is. Your thumbs push story after story through your feeds of the world doing its best to hop into the flaming dumpster behind a taco bell. You long to curl up in bed […]

On a rainy Sunday afternoon last week, we turned on a YouTube fireplace and enjoyed the digital crackling fire here in Southern California (that’s how we do fires here). During a commercial break, I watched an ad for a dating app called Hinge.   Their tagline: The dating app designed to be deleted. Bold. Our purpose as human beings […]