I have no way of knowing how people really feel but the vast majority of those I meet couldn't be nicer. Every once in a while someone barks at me. My New Year's resolution is not to bark back.

While there are towns and cities still planning Memorial Day parades many have not held a parade in decades. Some think the day is for honoring anyone who has died not just those fallen in service to our country.

As America celebrates Memorial Day we pay tribute to those who have given their lives in our nation's wars.

People have nannies and big cars and they want to go to Maui for Christmas. When there are those kind of stakes involved people get ruthless.

I remember wishing there was snow in L.A. And how jealous we used to get of those Christmas specials with kids playing in the snow.

According to an ancient Sardinian legend the bodies of those who are born on Christmas Eve will never dissolve into dust but are preserved until the end of time.

When you have kids you instantly feel that you do not want to do them wrong. Those dads that go off to Florida and start a new life I couldn't imagine that: seeing my kid once every Christmas every three years. If I'm gone for six days it feels like too much.

The bottom line is when people are crystal clear about the most important priorities of the organization and team they work with and prioritized their work around those top priorities not only are they many times more productive they discover they have the time they need to have a whole life.

What moves those of genius what inspires their work is not new ideas but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.

The difference between people who believe they have books inside of them and those who actually write books is sheer cussed persistence - the ability to make yourself work at your craft every day - the belief even in the face of obstacles that you've got something worth saying.