Editor's Note: This is a very difficult book to read for me. Yet I will read it at least two more times. I was raised in an atmosphere where it wasn’t always right to say what was on your mind and so I still maintain many techniques which get me around conversations instead of through them. This is especially true with those closest to me personally and in business. This book causes me to want to change. Scott’s basic themes are “a fierce conversation is one where we come out from behind ourselves into the conversation and make it real” and “the conversation is the relationship.”

Editor's Note: An obscure but long time favorite of mine, David Wilcox, wrote this song many years ago. It came back to me though while I was writing this month's blog about Jake and Father Welsh. It's an upbeat song that reminds us that life can only be lived well one day and one moment at a time.

My fondness for my son-in-law, Keith, grew on my daughter’s college graduation day. In his toast to her, he said “among the many things I love about you is that you I am a better person for knowing you.”

"You can only make money by being right about something that most people think is wrong.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/education/06oneducation.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Editor’s note: This is the best business book I’ve read in a year or more. Mr. Sinek uses simple, if sometimes repetitive language and tangible examples to support the concept that great businesses are centered on “why” they exist rather than “what” and “how”. Sinek teaches forming your “why” and also how to use your “what” and “how” to maintain and build that “why”. He also tells of those who found their “why” then lost it. He thinks, and I quite agree that people prefer buying from and working for organizations with a clear purpose beyond making widgets.

Editor’s Note: Alright, picture me at 19 years old still in the college angst of “what’s the meaning of my life?” The song will make more sense that way as I can still remember singing along with my friend, Bobby Jackson, on the deck of our apartment when it was playing. I’m a pure child of the 60s electronic rock and roll and as such I loved Edgar and Johnny Winter as much or more than their more famous brethren. This song features a simple, haunting keyboard and strings behind Edgar’s bluesy, pleading voice – yep I’m a sucker.

Dennis is a guy I met a few years ago. Our first work together was a failed attempt at establishing a walk-in health care center for the poor in our little town.

Editor’s Note: Because I read a lot of books and articles on philanthropy, I assumed this would be another dull but earnest attempt to improve the world of charitable giving, but Dan Palotta makes a pretty compelling case for the need to move towards a free-market system (e.g. investment in marketing, tolerance for risk, competitive pay) in order to win the war against poverty and disease. Dan will be coming to Cleveland on April 10th to the Cleveland Social Venture Partners' (CSVP) second annual bigBANG! event. Go to http://bigbang.csvp.org/ for more information.