Entrepreneur, Explorer, Angel.
Sometimes all at Once.
15TH August 2021
Culture - Entrepreneur - Family and Friends - Geopolitical - Legends and tales - Uncategorized
Five Fantastic Qualities of Russell Kagan
A dear friend and confident passed awhile back named Russell Kagan. I always favored calling him Russ, but one walk down the Croissette in Cannes changed all that as people on every block yelled his name, in every accent known to man… “KAGAN!” It was 1998 and the dot.com boom was in full swing. Media properties began to realize content could go multiple places…. and be sold multiple times. This was manna for Russ, a consummate deal maker/salesman in TV distribution throughout Europe and Asia. Of course everyone flocked to the south of France twice a year to shop for media content and enjoy the lifestyle, but Russ was already there waiting. And that’s where the true magic of Russ’ investment in mankind payed off. He was Kind. Russ didn’t seem to […]
14TH May 2021
Choate - Friends - Good Story - Legends and tales - Timeless - Uncategorized
Choate Football ’80 Hall of Fame Benediction
Welcome Judges. Forty years ago, we played for a warrior, poet, and coach. So with apologies to Kipling, Shelly, & Keat, here’s a verse, while you lace your cleats. Halftime had been all despair. 24 minutes left to bear. Down 14 at the break A perfect record still at stake We had not come this far For close again, but miss the bar So Forte’s tiptoes made a play Plus three more from the foot of Bray. As time ticked down the defense held We’d get the ball for one last spell 11 Young men, most in their prime Seventy yards before the final chime Long shadows revealed shortness of breath As we chewed up time, chalk and grass Until three yards and ten ticks […]
10TH February 2021
Geopolitical - Mobile - Timely
Holy War
Apple is a tool. Facebook is a distraction. Or so says Tim Cook, rather elegantly, in his recent speech in Brussels for International Data Privacy Day… which BTW sounds like a wonderful holiday! No doubt, the fortunes of Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon have been tightly woven together since the iPhone launched. They all existed before 2008, but having devices in hand rather than at a desk was wildly disruptive in how people spent their computing time- and where. But let’s think about each company- and their products- in terms of one ratio; utility vs. distraction. Apple seems the handiest, a really useful tool. Why does one pick up an Apple device? Aside from Phone, Facetime, text and music? For the… Camera- if I want to record events from laundry […]
30TH January 2021
Creative problem Solving - Culture - Friends - Parenting - Timely
Covid the Accelerant
I think Covid is one of those accelerants that make us more of who we already are. You know the type. Alcohol. Money. Power. It’s said that they are truth serums. Inhibition droppers. Corruption makers. We’re surprised when someone gets their hands on said catalyst, and they seem to behave differently. I argue just the opposite – they behave just as they always were. Even perhaps just more so. Money gives the resources to pursue more of what you are. Power probably makes it harder for people to stop you. Alcohol, well, at this point it’s a universal defense for anything untoward. (Note- Winston Churchill’s last words were “I should have had more wine”). Covid should be added to the mix, or at least the pressure that comes with it. […]
24TH January 2021
Creative problem Solving - Family and Friends - Legends and tales - Timeless - Uncategorized
The greatest risk is taking no risk at all.
You can ski in any number of safe trails to the bottom. So why would anyone choose to ski down on the difficult black diamond run instead? Most passionate skiers would ask the question differently: why wouldn’t you? The point of skiing isn’t to get to the bottom. The point is how it feels on your way there. I grew up scaring myself half to death, and was a VIP at my local ER. And this despite my upbringing which basically discouraged medical treatment and put prayer as the first choice in healing. We had nothing against doctors, mind you. We just thought that 80% of our so called “medical issues” were mostly in our heads, included the risk and the fear that came with it. In retrospect, perhaps I […]
23TH January 2021
Adventure - Creative problem Solving - Family and Friends - Uncategorized
Remember Travel
It’s been a year now. After years and years of miles and miles (pun intended), I’ve spent twelve months pretty much staying put. It wasn’t that bad at all. Because the common thread, at least to me, was curiosity. And curiosity, properly applied, is just as powerful at home as it is halfway across the world. Like most people, I travelled for business, and for pleasure. Often a little of both. But what I liked when I travelled was being out of the comfort zone. Different food. Different languages. Different traffic laws. Funny accents. Different ideas of personal space. Different views of history and current events. It was the ability to adapt, or utter failure to do so, that I found exciting. How to sit on the floor and eat […]
27TH December 2020
Adventure - Family and Friends - Friends - Timeless - Uncategorized
Adieu 2020
Egyptians wrote about passing, as if someone got off the Nile and passed into the reeds. The Nile was life. Anything afield was not. They lived within a mile of the water, and what was beyond the reeds remained a mystery to most. The Romans called it alleysium, as in Gladiator before battle “if you find yourself alone, riding in green fields, with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Alysium, and already dead”. Even in a movie, chilling words. Homer referred to it as the Elysian plain…where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor heavy storm, nor ever rain, but ever does Ocean send up blasts of the shrill-blowing West Wind that they may give cooling to men. If death […]
08TH November 2020
Culture - Family Office - Geopolitical - Leadership - Timely
Hang on, Whitey. Whitey hang on.
Ok, that just happened. It’s like we’ve all been watching this intrepid surfer, up high on the board, whooping for the crowds, showing his tan on a remarkable ride… that lasted four years by last count. And that ride is now likely over, but the wave beneath is much bigger than the surfer himself. And this wave will be with us for awhile; it’s called White Extinction Anxiety. I grew up marginally upwardly middle class in Allegheny County, PA. Yes, that Allegheny County, where we seem to count a little slower… when it counts. We were white- my team mates from Little League Champs Robert’s Oil, my hunting camp family in Pennsyl-tucky (aka Clearfield, PA), my Brighton Township Bears Pop Warner football team, my family reunions of the OG Miles […]
17TH September 2020
Family and Friends - Friends - Good Story - Legends and tales - Timeless
Five Fantastic Qualities of Mark Von Kreuter
My eulogy for a friend, Mark von Kreuter
23TH April 2020
Creative problem Solving - Entrepreneur - Family and Friends - Mobile - Parenting - Timely - Uncategorized
Hair, in the time of Corona.
We didn’t have a cure for Corona. But it sure had a cure for us. It’s like we were all swimming nicely in warm waters… when suddenly the tide went out, and all of humanity’s stark realities were there on display for most anyone to see. Startling. Hair; We like it more than we knew I probably didn’t think much about hair before Corona. My Dad and Grandfather passed a full head on to me, though Vitalis is no longer on the grooming essentials list. On a regular basis- monthly I’d say- most of us had some version of this routine (for men- women please add steps as you see fit). Call ahead to salon (or spa, or barber, whichever), to see how busy they are. Maybe book a time […]
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- Angel investing for Family Offices: What if you knew ‘Zuck… back then.
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