Why I’m Writing These Stories

This started as a private thing.

Over the years, I’ve picked up small lessons from a lot of places: amazing mentors and coaches I was lucky enough to work with, books that landed at the right moment, and a fair number of mistakes I had to learn from the hard way. Some of those lessons shaped how to this day I handle my personal and professional life. Many of these lessons had nothing to do with “process” and everything to do with people.

When I look back, most of the important lessons are really about true human interaction, following a moral compass and applying emotional IQ. They’re about staying curious, asking one more question, trying to understand before judging. They’re about empathy, basic humanity, being honest when it’s uncomfortable, and holding on to integrity when it would be easier not to. In today's self-absorbed, confirmation bias seeking society, I believe we all need more of this, not less.

If you read through these stories, some lines might sound like they were lifted from a favourite business book. In fact, they’re situations I actually lived through or witnessed first hand. Books like The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, to name a few, gave me language and structure for things I was already experiencing, or how to handle new situations. These books helped me see patterns and define my choices more clearly.

The lessons here also come from people, not just pages. I’ve been fortunate to learn from amazing mentors and coaches such as Barb Godin, Roop Lutchman, Reink DeVries, Bob Munro, Don Faulkner, Terry Brueck, Sherry Revesz, James Nesbitt, Adam Grahn, Rob Breithaupt, Shak Parran, and others I’m surely forgetting in this moment. Some taught through formal guidance. Others taught by example, or by asking that right question at exactly the right time that made me go "Hmmm?".

Recently, someone i used to coach told me I should be a career and life coach, because I always seemed to share the right thought or ask the right question at the right moment—something that helped them reframe an interview, a promotion, a difficult stakeholder, or a negotiation. I don’t know how universally true that is, but I do know those conversations mattered to me. I have never been one to deliver “big speeches.” Instead, I tend to share clear, specific stories and asked simple questions that unlocked different ways of looking at the same situation.

This blog gives me a place to capture those stories and lessons while they’re still reasonably fresh. It’s partly selfish: writing them down helps me remember what I’ve learned and keeps me honest about how I show up for people. It’s also a way of saying thank you to the mentors, colleagues, and authors who shaped my thinking, whether they know it or not.

I don’t assume a large audience. I’m not trying to build a “personal brand” or a coaching empire. I’m just putting these stories in one place where they’re easy to find. If no one ever reads them, that’s okay. If one person reads a story at the right moment and it helps them handle a tough situation, that’s more than enough.

Each post will focus on a specific situation—a conversation, a decision, a project, or a fork in the road—with one clear lesson can apply more broadly. The situations will be different, but the themes are mostly universal: curiosity, respect, courage, clarity, and the quiet discipline of doing the right thing when no one is watching.

If you choose to read along, I hope you find a lesson or two that sticks—and that you pass on in your own way when someone comes to you for advice.

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