Whether the Storm

That’s not a typo. The future of your business might depend on whether you become fixated on, or chart a path through, this storm. It was 2013, and the storm clouds were brewing over my business. When I acquired the healthcare company in 2005 it was a turnaround situation, a live or die moment for…

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Do I Need a Coach?

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.” Tom Landry (Dallas Cowboys Head Coach 1966 – 1985) It’s the start of a new year, and you want to…

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Manage Your People

That’s a picture of Eddie, the newest addition to the Stewart household. If Eddie looks a little guilty, it’s because he just chewed up our living-room rug. When I caught him in the act, I did the logical thing: I sat him down and said “Eddie, I’m disappointed in you. You need to perform at…

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Friends with the Pain

I rode a mountain bike race a couple of weeks ago, and half-way through I was in a lot of pain. My legs were burning, my heart was pounding, and my arm hurt from an unfortunate encounter with a tree. But in the pain, there was a certain amount of comfort. Now, I’m not some…

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Beware the Tailwind

Today, like every Saturday, I went cycling with my friends. I pedaled down to the bike shop, met the guys for a ride in the country, and then headed off for the solo ride home. After three hours on the bike, that ride home can be tough. But not today! Today I was the lucky…

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Pressurize the System

Everyone knows it’s important to stay hydrated when you exercise. What most people don’t understand, but endurance athletes fear, is overhydration or Hyponatremia. Here is the layman’s description: Hyponatremia occurs when excess fluid washes too much sodium from your body, causing your blood pressure to fall to dangerously low levels. When your blood pressure becomes…

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Do Not Overtighten

Parenting is downright scary at times. The list of challenges (or “opportunities” as you glass-half-fullers call them) is endless, but 21 years of practice have taught me that you only have to do three things to be a great parent: Have the hard conversations, like explaining the death of a pet or the “birds and…

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Courage Required

I like racing, any kind of racing. If the goal’s to get there first, I’m in.  I’m also a bit of a redneck, so it’s no surprise that I’m a big NASCAR fan. Yes, for the last 25 years I’ve spent Sunday afternoons in a weird trance watching people go fast and turn left. I…

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Strong Company

If you want a strong company, you’re going to have to stress it. Think of the way the human body grows stronger: when stress in the form of exercise or hard work damages muscles, internal systems respond to fix the damage and make the muscles stronger than they were to begin with. Or as people…

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Clean Company

We have a saying in the mountain bike world: “Clean bike outside, dirty bike inside.” Mountain biking is messy. A few hours in the woods and the bike’s covered with mud, sweat, maybe even blood. One solution is to break out the high-pressure hose and blow away all that messiness, leaving your bike shiny like…

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