Everything is your fault. That’s what you tell yourself. The argument with your partner, your fault. Your colleague’s bad mood, your fault. Your friend’s disappointment, your fault. The weather’s ruined the party, somehow, also your fault. You go through life saying sorry for things you didn’t do, taking responsibility for events you couldn’t control, and…
Your network isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s infrastructure. Think about your phone. If you were the only person in the world with one, it would be worthless. Two phones and you can call each other, assuming you get along. Five phones and there are ten possible connections between them. Twenty phones and you’re looking at 190…
Sometimes the only way to move forward is to first let go of what’s holding you back. And what’s holding you back isn’t usually what you think it is. It’s not the lack of opportunity. Not the missing motivation. Not even the circumstances you blame. It’s the negative event from last week, last month, or…
“How do I tell my wife?” That’s what he asked me. Not “Am I going to die?” Not “How do we beat this?” Not “What do I do now?” Just “How do I tell my wife?” I’d just told him he had cancer. He was a man’s man. The one everyone leaned on. The provider….
Does your happiness depend on what other people think? Read that again. Does it sound ridiculous? It should. But if you’re someone who constantly seeks approval, needs praise before you act, or measures your worth by how others respond to you, then congratulations. You’ve just outsourced your entire emotional wellbeing to people who probably aren’t…
You’re willing to do what it takes to succeed. You’ll work harder. You’ll sacrifice sleep. You’ll put in the hours. You’re ready for the challenge, the difficulty, the effort. But here’s the question you haven’t asked yourself: are you ready to accept the effect it will have on those around you? This is the Second…
Every interaction you have with another person ends in one of three ways. You both come away better off. One of you comes away better off at the other’s expense. Or you both come away worse off. Understanding which of these is happening, in real time, is one of the most practical relationship skills there…
Two suspects are arrested and held separately. Neither can communicate with the other. The prosecutor makes each the same offer: testify against your partner, and if they stay silent, you go free while they take the full sentence. If you both testify against each other, you both get a moderate sentence. If you both stay…
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union each built enough nuclear weapons to destroy the other many times over. Neither side used them. The reason wasn’t goodwill, it was Mutual Assured Destruction: both sides understood that any attack would guarantee their own annihilation as well as their opponent’s, so neither had…
It’s going to happen. Someone you trusted, relied on, or genuinely liked is going to let you down. Not the genuine villains we covered earlier, ordinary, well-meaning people who simply fail to come through when it mattered. How you handle that moment says a lot about the health of your relationships going forward. The Cost…