September 2010
5 posts
One Year Left To Live →
New Year’s Eve
When I was 33 years old, I made a new year’s resolution that changed my life. I resolved to live every day of that year as if I only had one year left to live. At first I thought the resolution would be: to live every day as if it was my last. But I’m pretty sure I’d just want to spend the last day of my life just being with friends and family. If they knew it was my last...
Nations Don’t Really Compete
I recently turned down a job to be the Director of the Asia Competitiveness Institute in Singapore partly because I couldn’t figure out how countries (or regions) are really competing with each other.
We have created a false analogy to business. In business, if you make soap and I make soap, we may be competing for the same buyer. But that is business. If I make government, and you make...
Honesty Is Such Lonely Word →
My internship at the American Embassy
One summer when I was in college, I got a summer internship as the Assistant Systems Manager at the American Embassy in Tokyo. They had a Systems Manager, Mr. Itoh, but he really only spoke Japanese. And since some of the most important people in the Embassy were Americans who didn’t speak Japanese, they needed someone to teach them how to use the new...
Good versus Good: The Arizona Immigration Law...
Imagine a room full of angry Arizonans discussing SB 1070—you know, the law that says government officials should inquire about the immigration status of any individual they think might be in the country illegally, and opens those officials to criminal penalties and civil lawsuits if they don’t. Some talk about family members lost; some tell of economic hardship, here (US) or there (Mexico); some...
From Dean Beck～Stupid Things I've Done…And What I... →
The worst sin as a consultant
One of my very first management jobs was as the team leader on a consulting team that was supposed to help with the strategy for a joint venture between two companies. We had been called in late because the project wasn’t going very well. And, as I interviewed people and got to know more about the project, it was clear to me that it wasn’t going well because...
