Middle Eastern – Dining Philosophy

April 9, 2017 / 0 Comments

Belief

Belief flowing through the mind creates ruts akin to the wagon wheel ruts along the Oregon Trail. Once an easy route is found, all traffic is shuttled into the same path without question, particularly disastrously in the event of a local maxima in your beliefs. But it is natural and necessary – and thus life needs to be a constant vigilance against questioning your own thought process. My best of friends told me once that if you are beating your head against the wall on some seemingly insurmountable issue, then the true path to resolution is to gain enough distance from the issue to realize that the wall represents a boundary that you yourself have created. Challenge those underlying assumptions that created the wall and you break through the conflict.

March 22, 2017 / 0 Comments

Dog Sniffing and Spice Racks

I’m blessed to have parents who possess a rich repertoire of stories and sayings. My father had one such saying of “a bunch of dogs all sniffing each other’s asses at the dog park”. He used this saying to describe those introductory business meetings when the participants are feeling each other out, testing each other’s prowess and their respective awareness to the nonverbal acts of negotiation. It is a particularly apt reflection when all that sniffing each other lasts too long and nothing is getting accomplished.

March 20, 2017 / 0 Comments

Choice

There is an epic struggle in the human psyche between choice and happiness. Giving people a choice gives them a sense of control, which leads to empowerment. But in the end, it really is happiness that holds the trump card for long term satisfaction – and the kicker is that people are generally happier with less choice not more. Think of how Steve Jobs upon his return to Apple immediately cut out the bulk of their SKUs to hone the message and get their customers happy.