Thought partner for men who've built something and are quietly wondering what's next.
About
I lost my dad when I was 22. He was 49.
He was my mentor, my guide, and the man I counted on most. Losing him that young left me navigating some of the hardest early years of my life without the person I needed most beside me.
What saved me was asking for help. Not from everyone. From the right people. Men who had no stake in my outcome, no reason to tell me what I wanted to hear, and enough experience to ask the questions I hadn’t thought to ask myself. There were several of them over the years. Each one showed up at a moment when I was too close to my own situation to see it clearly.
I’ve never forgotten what that felt like. Someone simply thinking alongside you. Not fixing, not advising, just genuinely present. It can change everything.
Over the next 40 years I built a career leading teams and navigating transitions of every kind. Career shifts, organizational upheaval, changes I chose and changes that were chosen for me. I got through all of them. And I only understood later that they were all harder than they needed to be. Because everyone I could turn to was too close to it.
That’s what I do now. Not because I have all the answers. Because I know what it means to need someone in your corner who isn’t tangled up in your situation.
I live in Oklahoma City with my wife Vicki. We have three sons and three granddaughters. The part of my life that keeps everything else honest.
If something I’ve written here struck a chord, I’d be glad to hear from you.