About twenty years ago, my company put me in charge of a major project. The project was previously mismanaged, and I was asked to turn it around. I formed a leadership team, developed a project plan, and received senior management budgetary approval to implement. My team worked long and hard, …
Kern River Valley
My first college summer job was working for Union Oil Company in the Kern River Valley oil fields around Bakersfield, California. I, along with several other Colorado School of Mines engineering students, worked as a summer roustabout. At the end of my freshman year, I loaded up my dad’s old Ford …
Time to Grieve
In the late summer of 2011, I flew from London to Istanbul (Turkey) for a European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) Board meeting. The meeting started Wednesday night and finished Friday with enough time to catch a return flight to London that afternoon. My mother was in a Houston hospital, and I …
Active verses Passive
In his second letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul wrote: “For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” (3:10, NRSV) Paul was addressing the issue of idleness within this Greek community. He defended his decision to work and not burden …