Morning Briefings

What does the world want? Build a company that answers this question in all its shades of meaning, and you’ve unlocked the most intricate riddle of marketing, of business, and arguably of human culture itself.

– John Battelle
The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture

In my survey of wives, women voted motherhood as one of their top three prayer needs. They said that one of the most worrisome aspects of parenting is finding the successful balance between being a good mother and being a good wife. Whether she says it or not, she often feels guilty about neglecting her husband or her children.

– Stormie Omartian
The Power of a Praying Husband

Being a male is part of our biological coding. Being a man is something different. It is taking these male traits and forming them into a life that meets the demands of the world around you while serving the needs of others. It is action in service of a dream. It is being grounded in belief while reaching for the stars.

– Kent Nerburn
Letters to My Son: A Father’s Wisdom on Manhood, Life and Love

Western civilization seems to have forgotten what every primitive society understands–you need kids to have a healthy society. Children are huge consumers. Then they grow up to become taxpayers. That’s how a society works, but the postmodern secular state seems to have forgotten that. Europe and Japan, which comprise two of the world’s major economic engines aren’t merely in recession, they’re shutting down. This will have a huge impact on the world economy. There is a direct correlation between abandonment of traditional religious society and a drop in the birth rate.

– Herbert Meyer
What in the World is Going On?

Human courage and internal fortitude take us only so far without a stronger wind to our backs.

– Robert J. Morgan
The Promise: How God Works All Things Together for Good

He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.

– Proverbs 14:26 as noted in
Proverbs for Parenting

Be still and know that I am God.

– Psalms 46:10

To develop a reliable routine, a golfer has to decide to follow it and practice it time after time until it becomes an ingrained habit that will show up no matter how much pressure he or she is under. You can be sure that under pressure, you will find out what your dominant habit is.

– Dr. Bob Rotella
Golf is Not a Game of Perfect

Your pain and suffering are real because they are yours. You must embrace them and realize that they, too, are a gift of life because they take you out of yourself and, for a moment, make you one with all others who have known loss or pain or suffering.

– Kent Nerburn
Letters to My Son: A Father’s Wisdom on Manhood, Life and Love

While it is certainly worthwhile to seek advice from others, ultimately a calling is between you and God.

– Ray Pritchard
Leadership Lessons of Jesus: A Timeless Model for Today’s Leaders

Irvine’s HireRight bought for $195 Million: US Investigations agreed to pay HireRight shareholders $15.60 per share, a 49% premium above HireRight’s closing price on Monday.

– Jessica C. Lee
Orange County Business Journal

I’ve learned so much from what I believe my dad did right in his life. I’ve also learned a lot from reflecting on the mistakes he made. And when I get smug about being able to develop my parent skills by learning from another’s mistakes, I suddenly realize that my boys will learn from my mistakes. Scary.

– Vincent Staniforth
Questions for My Father: Finding the Man Behind Your Dad

A Final Farewell: How Randy Pausch, a 47-Year-Old College Professor Came to Teach His Family About Love, Courage and Saying Goodbye. Dying of pancreatic cancer, he showed a love of life and an approach to death that people have found inspiring. His lecture has become a reminder that our own futures are similarly–if not as drastically–brief. His fate is ours, sped up.

– Jeffrey Zaslow
The Wall Street Journal, May 3, 2008

This is true wisdom, to find a faith that can carry us through darkness, doubt and suffering.

–
Sacred Space

As a teenager, I felt immeasurable wiser and savvier than my dad. But as I grew older, I saw my dad as more of a man because he let me share in some of his fears and regrets. Because of that courage in showing me that he was just another guy, I saw him even more as godlike and supremely lovable.

– Vincent Staniforth
Questions for My Father: Finding the Man Behind Your Dad

We are coming to the end of the age of employer and employee. Employers can’t guarantee jobs anymore because they don’t know what their companies will look like next year. Everyone is on their way to becoming an independent contractor. The new workforce contract will be: Show up at my office five days a week and do what I want, but handle your own insurance, benefits and health care. This used to happen only with highly educated professionals. Now it is happening at the level of the factory floor worker.

– Herbert Meyer
What in the World is Going On?

When you find a vocation, embrace it with your whole heart. Few people are so lucky. They begin their search for work with an eye to the wrong prize, so when they succeed they win something of little value. They gain money or prestige, but they lose their hearts. Eventually, their days become nothing more than a commodity they exchange for money and they begin to shrivel and die.

– Kent Nerburn
Letters to My Son: A Father’s Wisdom on Manhood, Life and Love

Never let someone else determine God’s will for your life. No one else can understand God’s unique call on your life as clearly as you can.

– Ray Pritchard
Leadership Lessons of Jesus: A Timeless Model for Today’s Leaders

The goal of life is not happiness, it is living! Living cannot exist without suffering.

– Edward M. Hays
Pray All Ways

Vacation for Your Health, And Your Job Productivity: Your continued health and productivity may depend upon getting away from work periodically, and employers grappling with rapidly rising health-care costs are starting to embrace the idea as well.

– Kristen Gerencher
The Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2008

Sooner or later, even the upbeat soul gets beat up by life. We need a higher power, a deeper strength, a wider mercy, and a mightier word.

– Robert J. Morgan
The Promise: How God Works All Things Together for Good