I’m reading Walter Isaacson’s wonderful biography of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was the embodiment of the American archetype. On one hand, he was a self-made man who ran away from his family in Boston and established himself as a success in Philadelphia. He always believed in the civic good and served his community with everything from microloans for small businesses to encouraging diversity of religious thought. Issacson shares the story that when a hall was being built to allow for visiting...

Last week I was the guest on Power Athlete Radio which is a global strength and conditioning organization. I connected with them through my Crossfit coach who thought they would want to hear about my resilience work and its application for elite and professional athletes. The 90-minute interview was headed by John Welbourn, a former NFL lineman turned performance entrepreneur and CEO of Power Athlete, along with two of his top coaches. While we had a great time talking about...

Ford Motor Company announced the acquisition of the 105 year old Michigan Central Railway station in the heart of downtown Detroit last month. The train depot and its 18 story office building were abandoned in 1988 and while undergoing some renovations it was far from being occupancy ready. Ford plans to turn the building into their headquarters for autonomous vehicle development but more importantly they want it to be seen as their commitment to restoration of that dilapidated part of...

When I opened my door to walk Cody the other morning, there was the annual surprise that I don’t ask for waiting on my porch…the 2018 edition of the Yellow Pages or as they refer to themselves, “The Original Search Engine.” This year’s soft covered, thin-paged edition is loaded with ads by attorney looking for medical malpractice cases, home repair companies looking to fix roofs, and restaurants with B ratings from the health department offering discount coupons. Oh and did...

It’s got to be something special when the Wall Street Journal and NBC News agree on something and that happened this weekend. Courtesy WSJ, 2018 On Saturday, the WSJ headlined a story about The Overprotected American Child. On Sunday, NBC News ran a story about making playgrounds for children more adventurous as a way of encouraging creativity and resilience. Resilience teaches us that facing up to our challenges is the surest way to strengthen our capacity for success. It’s not...

NASA is planning a human trip to Mars in less than 20 years. Robotic missions to the Red Planet (orbiters, landers and rovers) have provided good data on the technological challenges and NASA has a three-phase plan that will build the skills and science that will allow a surface landing. A still significant issue is in developing the psychological hardware that will be required of the space travelers. Research being done right now is attempting to mimic the elements of...