Category: Featured

The story goes: A ship engine failed, and no one could fix it. Then they brought in a man with 40 years on the job. He inspected the engine carefully; top to bottom. After looking things over, the man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. The engine was fixed! 7 days later the owners got a bill for $10,000. ‘What?!’ the owners said ‘You hardly did anything. Send us an itemized bill.” The reply simply said: Tapping with a hammer: $2 Knowing where to tap: $9,998 Don’t ever underestimate experience. I have always believed that experience is the best teacher. You can go to college and learn methods, outcomes and even tools of the trade. But…

Let's take a moment and think... You see that wasn't hard. Sometimes in life you must take a pause. Reflect on what has just been told to you. Choose to not come back so quickly with some kind of statement that potentially you may regret, or even worse, could never take back. (more…)

I read an article recently on Ted.com about "When Shakespeare Committed Word Crimes."1 It shared thoughts about how he had invented new words and metaphors as he needed them. The culture was changing at that time and his ideas added so much to the English language that we now tend to take for granted. I thought it interesting because being from a different part of the country, the South, and now in the Midwest I have noticed the differences in the phrases, metaphors, and/or cliches people say. Even more interesting is how they change regionally within a state and even from state to state. (more…)