anecdotes

Mara asked me to give Charlie a bath. He’s our 4th and our last, so naturally I’ve gotten pretty good just in time for my hard won wisdom to go to waste; sadly life’s like that. So I threw lots of things into the tub that Charlie knows he shouldn’t play with; that’s the secret, ’cause he’s human. He zeroed in on a 50-yard roll of dental floss. And with all the talk these days about

One of my mentors builds propulsion systems for stealthy Predators. He’s a 75 yr old entrepreneur, leads by example – never stops moving, or loses his intense curiosity. Last weekend he brought me a picture-book. The iconic 1937 Hindenburg photo dominated the cover. Swastika’s adorned the zeppelin’s tail. Took 30mins to read. Hydrogen didn’t destroy it. An intense electrical discharge ignited the silvery skin,

Met a professor, taught at Yale. He’s real smart and better yet, used that blessed gift to build serious wealth on Wall Street. We’re all born with gifts, clever guys figure out how to use ‘em well. Anyhow, he taught the History of Financial Crisis, telling stories to hungry youngsters, of the battle for power and money on the Street. And kids love listening to lyrics from guys who’ve walked the walk, got some scars,

American’s are simple creatures. We love underdogs, work hard & innovate, get easily whipped up into righteous frenzy, quickly start fights, frame our battles in good vs evil, and expect to always win. The Cold War was scary, but suited us perfectly. Naturally we won. Then after a decade of celebration, partly funded by the peace dividend, things got confusing. As global military/economic hyper-power, we lost our

20yrs ago I crossed paths with a brilliant contemporary, figured we were headed in different directions. How naïve. We liked playing games: his mortal, mine money. But the older you get, the more you discover that lives and cash are fungible in the game of global politics/economics. As a young man, he earned a PhD that made Defense Ministers want him, then developed the experience, poise and rolodex that made aerospa

Pretty much everything I learned about climbing mountains, I learned from Vincent Ravanel. He’s 7th generation high altitude mountain guide from Argentiere, France. And from father to son, the Ravanel’s passed a simple mantra: “The Mountain never ends.” And like most things profound, it touches on something universal and fundamental. Cause climbing mountains, physical and metaphorical, is what

Perry’s a baseball fanatic. And it’s springtime, so when the NY closing bell rings, he trades his Bloomberg for a bat and ball. Hops in a Ford 150, tunes into baseball talk-radio, hits the diamond. Perry fell in love at age 6, “By 8 I was coaching my coach – drove him nuts.” And sure, plenty of kids fall in love early, marry a team – but Perry’s got no favorite, couldn’t care less who wins, who loses. That’s the trad

Thomas Edison wrote, “Opportunity is missed by most folks cause it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.” I got some friends who went to fancy schools, took fancy jobs at fancy firms, then returned to run the family business. They do things that ain’t glamorous but they’ve done real well – I love guys like that. Nick makes junk mail for credit card banks. Employs 1,200 people, manufactured 1bln pieces this

Spent Thanksgiving with family & friends on a farm, real crowded and real American. My buddy Mike gladly slept on the floor, and it made me love him more cause most guys in his spot take themselves so seriously. You see Mike’s one of Stanford’s youngest tenured professors, the Saudi King gave him a $25mm research grant, VC’s seek his blessing, start-ups want his guidance, and govt’s fly him all over the world to