Work In Progress Newsletter
Edition Six | June 27, 2022

WRITE THIS WAY…
Hello and welcome to the altogether new sixth edition of my Work in Progress newsletter. After a highly tumultuous week I found myself watching the Shawshank Redemption on repeat. Andy Dufresne, a character serving a life sentence for a crime he did not commit, while suffering much physical violence shared this with his best friend: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” 

THREE DOTS… GOOD NEWS ONLY
Meet Timothy Brown… A Vietnam veteran, who drove a bus cross-country (6,000 miles) to attend a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington D.C., recently earned his college degree in drama at South Carolina State. He wrote a play about his journey to see Dr. King… One of the newest Harvard MBA graduates has anything but a typical story… Nataly Morales Villa is a first generation immigrant from Mexico who credits her mom, Veronica, for a relentless quest for a better life… This clip from Jamie Foxx reflecting on his time spent with Ray Charles and the wisdom he shared gave me goosebumps… I guarantee that this will be the best duet featuring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds you will see today.

SNIPPETS AND IDEA WISPS
And now a collection of elegant phrases, snippets and quotes consumed last week.

New phrase: Hooverines – employees who hover in hallways looking for managers to intercept and suck up to

Acronym Mania: SOY (Shit of Yesterday); PPNNW (Post-Pandemic Never Normal World)

Bonus “The Office” quote: “Sometimes I’ll start a sentence and I don’t even know where it’s going. I just hope I find it along the way.” – Michael Scott, Season 5, “The Duel” 

OTD – JUNE 27, 2021
Notable Historical Moments… Trailblazing pugilist… Canadian George Dixon becomes the first black man to win a world championship, winning in 18 (!!!) rounds in London against Edwin “Nunc” Wallace in 1890… Charlotte Taylor rolled to her third Wimbledon singles title, 6-4, 6-4… in 1898… President Harry Truman sent U.S. troops into Korea in 1950.

Famous Birthdays… Legendary education pioneer Helen Keller (1880), IBM founder and one of the best gifts SNL (and Dana Carvey) ever received, Ross Perot (1930)… noted Marvel Universe webslinger Tobey MacGuire (1975)

WHAT I LINKEDIN LEARNED
Watched a compelling weekly LinkedIn Live event – The M&M Show featuring Marshall Goldsmith and Martin Lindstrom. Last week’s topic: Social Intelligence in a Post-Corona World. Definitely a fascinating conversation. It appears that being an international best seller is a good occupation to have.

WHAT I’M READING NOW
For Improvement: The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter

**One sentence review: From 1969, one of the more remarkable, accurate assessments of what life in a traditional corporate culture resembled.

For an Escape: The Law of Innocent by Michael Connelly

**One sentence review: In the fourth book in the Lincoln Lawyer series, our hero Mickey Haller’s day goes south faster than Matthew McConaughey’s accent when police discover a dead body in the trunk after a traffic stop that is anything but routine.

Embracing my inner history nerd: Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

**One sentence review: Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark did not own a single piece of North Face, Patagonia or REI gear and yet still managed to be better outdoorsmen (and much, much tougher) than you.

WHAT I WATCHED
My folks went through a chaotic series of canceled and delayed flights while awaiting their fifth (!) attempt to return I went to the movies and watched the new biopic Elvis. A few notes: It is long. Very long (like reconsider finishing that super big gulp, long). It is at times dazzling, at times hypnotic, at times mesmerizing – typically when Tom Hanks does truly Hanks things with the character of Col. Tom Parker. Definitely worth a watch, just be prepared for the time commitment.  

ESCAPE POD
One of my newest daily listens is The Lead: Starting Five on Wondery. Just a sharply produced and concise summary of five major topics from the previous day in sports. Listen and you too can drop knowledge at the water cooler (is this still a thing?). Shameless plug, Sarah Kezele, a fellow WCC alum, is a key contributor to this squad.

All episodes of The Lead: Starting Five are available HERE. 

CLIP OF THE WEEK
A Tillman Throwback: Remembering a very good boy… The bulldog who surfed and skated his way into the hearts of thousands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzDg7aabYPE

MY GIF TO YOU
A huge thank you for reading my newsletter today…

https://giphy.com/gifs/thank-you-keanu-reeves-QAsBwSjx9zVKoGp9nr

QUOTABLE
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
 – Maya Angelou

SHAMELESS
Last week I attended a virtual summit on the 50th anniversary of Title IX, presented by Front Office Sports. Check out my recap HERE.

THIS WAY OUT
Thanks for reading the latest edition of my Work In Progress newsletter. Look for a new article on my timeline later this week. My goal is to release these on Mondays – because who doesn’t need a shot of good news to start the work week? Thanks to Kim Kaupe and Terry Rice for encouraging me to launch this into the universe. Feedback welcomed!