1: “Our conversations started out funny and just got funnier,” Diane Button writes in her wonderful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.
Diane and Franck Battelli, both end-of-life doulas, were meeting with Greg, 53, who was dying from ALS.
Before proceeding, Greg wanted to make sure it would be a good fit.
“He let us know in a very serious tone of voice that … continue reading
1: Scott had been diagnosed with prostate cancer several years before. But now the cancer had returned to his lymph nodes and bones, and he was in constant pain.
Scott’s wife, Susan, reached out to Diane Button, an end-of-life doula—someone who provides emotional and practical support to people who are dying and their families. This role is similar to that of a birth doula, but for end-of-life care.
“Scott didn’t … continue reading
1: “Top-down innovation gets a bad rap,” Panera founder Ron Shaich writes in his terrific book Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations.
“The popular business press abounds with criticism of initiatives that come tumbling down from the peak of the org chart,” Ron observes.
“And yet, take a closer look at most companies, and you’ll find that organizations are still doing it that way.”
Why is … continue reading
1: Yesterday, we looked at the wild story of Opsware’s acquisition of Tangram.
Which saved Opsware.
Because it allowed them to retain EDS as a client.
Which accounted for 90% of Opsware’s revenue.
“During acquisition talks,” Opsware CEO Ben Horowitz writes in his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, “both sides had agreed that Tangram’s CFO, John Nelli, would not become part of Opsware.”
2: But, … continue reading
1: Something seemed off, Diane thought when she arrived at her client, Amanda’s house.
“I noticed immediately that there were no paw prints at the front door. Her house was spotless. The kitchen was uncluttered, no clothes on the floors, nothing out of place,” Diane Button writes in her powerful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.
Diane is an end-of-life doula. She sat with … continue reading
1: Ben Horowitz had been set up on a blind date by his friend and high school football teammate Claude Shaw.
It was the summer of 1986, and Ben had just finished his sophomore year of college at Columbia University and was living in Los Angeles with his father.
This would be a double date, and Ben and Claude decided to prepare an elaborate dinner for Claude’s girlfriend, Jackie Williams, … continue reading
1: Floyd Barker was 88 years old. He lived alone in a rustic farmhouse he had shared with his late wife Ruth, who had passed away six years earlier.
“You couldn’t tell from his gregarious smile and inquisitive eyes,” Diane Button writes in her wonderful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living, but “Floyd was lonely. . .
“He was also dying from kidney failure,” … continue reading
1: Ron Shaich‘s first impression of the company he would sell twenty-four years later for $7.5 billion was not good.
It was 1993. Ron was the CEO of Au Bon Pain. He had gotten up before dawn to visit the St. Louis Bread Company, a bakery that sold sandwiches, baked goods, and pastries, which one day would become Panera Bread.
After making several wrong turns, Ron arrived … continue reading
1: “John was your classic self-absorbed, narcissistic jerk,” David Brooks quotes therapist Lori Gottlieb in her book Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.
“By day he worked as a writer on fabulously successful TV shows, winning Emmy after Emmy,” David writes in How to Know a Person. “But he was a monster to everyone around him, cruel, inattentive, impatient, demeaning.”
John sought out a therapist because he wasn’t … continue reading
Rabbi Harold Kushner‘s son, Aaron, died when he was fourteen of a rare aging disease.
Harold has “spent the years since reflecting on how the tragedy has shaped him, and studying how other people are remade by their sufferings. “David Brooks writes in his book How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.
“I am a more sensitive person, a … continue reading
