"I do not represent blacks or tall women, or women or Samoans or Californians or Americans. Or rather I hope I do, because I am all those things. But that is not all that I am. I am all of that and more and less. People often put labels on people so they don’t have to deal with the physical fact of those people… I simply refuse to have my life narrowed and proscribed."
-Maya Angelou

Editor’s comment:  I’m careful about famous heroes, it’s like they are just as flawed and vulnerable as I am.  But I do hold up a lot of people, both famous and local, as models for my own behavior and this letter reminds me why Bill and Melinda Gates have become models for me.  Hope you enjoy.

Editor’s comment:  A friend of mine and I were praying the other day about his late wife and their adult children in her memory and this song came to me.  By all accounts she was one who lived her life out loud and so I share, in Danni Bowers’ memory one of my favorite songs of all time.

Editor’s comment:  When this book was among Gates’ recommendations, I jumped at it.  I’ve never put together anything coherent about the jihadist movement until some things connected through this book.  The good news for casual historians like me, Warrick won the Pulitzer Prize for this with facts but it reads for me like a novel, albeit a very dark one.  It takes a chapter or two to connect names using four or five words and a hyphen or two, but I felt I learned a lot by turning its pages.

I’m a curious guy so I try to listen carefully for thoughts from others that might guide my actions.  I’ve always preferred learning from someone else’s pain rather than my own.  Here are some good ones.

Editors comment:  I used to think speed was essential to managing. Now I know thoughtfulness - mindfulness - makes better management. Enjoy. 

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

Editor’s comment:  This might be the first book I’ve ever repeated as book of the month but we’re closing in on its 20^th anniversary and I probably recommended it 8+ years ago on this site.  Godin’s books are all fun and easy to read, the most important to me other than this one were “Tribes” and “Purple Cow”.  All Godin books are short, entertaining reads with important points for marketers.  I promote Permission Marketing, his first I think, at every Vistage presentation I make however (even though it’s dated) because I built a business with this single Godin thought in mind:  “Mass media is dead; long live niche media”.

Editor’s comment:  On my daughter’s Christmas mix this year, she wrote these words to me about this song:  This song became a favorite of mine in my late teens.  I remember listening to it once with you and you blasted it! I had no idea it was one of your favorites. I think of you now whenever I hear it.  It’s something that you always worked hard to instill in us.