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Paper Napkin Wisdom

“10 minute read → 24 hour action → 7 day transformation." Wisdom Weekly: small shifts that compound into big results.

Give your teams the Freedom of How
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Want Real Growth? Give Your Team the Freedom of How

Issue #2025-37 Lead with Clarity, Win with Freedom Happy Sunday Reader! We often share your insights with our community, and this update will keep you informed about how your wisdom is inspiring others. Today marks a huge milestone—the 300th episode of Paper Napkin Wisdom! Over the past decade, we’ve shared countless napkin-sized insights from entrepreneurs, leaders, athletes, and difference-makers around the world. Each one has been a reminder that big change often starts with a small, clear...

How Our Brains Invent Truth and Why It Matters After Charlie Kirk's Death

Issue #2025-36 Algorithms, Illusions, and the Death of Truth Happy Sunday Reader! We often share your insights with our community, and this update will keep you informed about how your wisdom is inspiring others. Did you know that purple doesn’t actually exist? Your eyes don’t see it—your brain creates it by filling in the absence of yellow. Wild, right? What feels so real is actually a construction. And it made me wonder: if something as simple as color is invented in our heads, what else...

Don't let the Past How Cloud Your Future

Issue #2025-35 The Future How is in Front of You ... Happy Sunday Reader! We often share your insights with our community, and this update will keep you informed about how your wisdom is inspiring others. Have you ever caught yourself holding back on a big vision because you didn’t know how to make it happen? I’ve been there more times than I can count. Every time I set out to build or grow something I’d never done before, I’d freeze. I’d look backwards, searching for instructions in my past,...

Push vs Pull - Pain vs Vision

Issue #2025-34 Stop Running From Pain: The Leadership Shift That Creates Momentum Happy Sunday Reader! We often share your insights with our community, and this update will keep you informed about how your wisdom is inspiring others. So many times in my past I caught myself saying things like “I need to lose weight” or “I need to pay off this debt.” Maybe you’ve said something similar. It’s the natural instinct to push away from pain. And it works—at least for a while. But here’s the problem:...

Clearing the Fog in Communication as Leaders

Issue #2025-33 Clearing the Fog in Our Communication Happy Sunday Reader! We often share your insights with our community, and this update will keep you informed about how your wisdom is inspiring others. Have you ever noticed how, when there’s a gap in communication, it almost always gets filled with negative energy? A short text like “We need to talk” can spark worry. Silence after someone shares something can create doubt. Even polished words that don’t sound quite like us can feel “off”...

Issue #2025-32 How to build and keep trust when skepticism is the default. Happy Sunday Reader! We often share your insights with our community, and this update will keep you informed about how your wisdom is inspiring others. Trust is cracking, and the numbers prove it — Edelman’s 2025 Trust Barometer shows faith in leaders and institutions sliding at alarming speed. That matters because without trust, even the best strategies stall before they start. The data is clear: skepticism has become...

Land Before Lift - 2 minute ritual that will double your speed

Issue #2025-31 Connection → Challenge → Results: The Leader’s Playbook for High Achievement Happy Sunday Reader! We often share your insights with our community, and this update will keep you informed about how your wisdom is inspiring others. Here’s your quick-start to “land before lift.” This package brings together a concise article, an FAA (Focus–Align–Act) supplement, and a TL;DR to help you operationalize structured decompression—the small, intentional pause that makes connection real...

Talk is Cheap - Action Pays the Bills

Issue #2025-30 Talk is Cheap, Action Pays the Bills. Happy Sunday Reader! We often share your insights with our community, and this update will keep you informed about how your wisdom is inspiring others. Ever notice how the loudest voices in the room rarely hold the fattest scorecards? We’ve all met the exec who can recite leadership mantras like a podcast playlist—yet their team’s still stuck in neutral. This post slices through that noise. If you’re ready to swap polished proclamations for...

Issue #2025-29 Do You Need a Vacation, After your Vacation? Happy Sunday Reader! We often share your insights with our community, and this update will keep you informed about how your wisdom is inspiring others. Most people say they’re taking a break — but the truth is, they’re just working from somewhere prettier. If you’ve ever come back from a vacation, long weekend, or staycation and still felt exhausted, you’re not alone. Real rest isn’t about time off — it’s about how you use it. In...

Issue #2025-28 Your Thoughts Are Not Facts. Happy Sunday Reader! We often share your insights with our community, and this update will keep you informed about how your wisdom is inspiring others. What if the voice in your head isn’t telling the truth — just telling a story? In life and leadership, we often mistake our thoughts for facts, letting untested assumptions shape our decisions, relationships, and strategies. But the real growth begins when we realize: just because we think something...