I still vividly recall my 10th-grade social studies teacher preaching to our impressionable minds. Our constitution may not be perfect, he said. But It’s the best governmental framework ever written.

As an adult, it’s hard to buy into that claim. Today, we gloss over some of the more repulsive clauses of our constitution which have since been repealed or expired.

• Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3, known as the 3/5 compromise, counted five slaves as three people for apportionment purposes.
• Article 1, Section 9 allowed the importation of slaves until 1808.

As horrifying as these clauses were, it’s the underlying…

I rolled out of bed at 5:30 this morning, eager to start on my daily writing. In an act of weakness, I opened up Facebook… just to take a peek.

The trending post came from a local community page. A neighbor ranted about the injustice and inhumanity of having to wait three whole minutes at a traffic light on Springfield Avenue. A few dozen other commenters followed with their own horror stories of slightly extended wait times at the notorious intersection.

My mobile Starbucks order was ice cold by the time I got there. Something must be done!

Okay, that…

By the time I reached my 30th birthday, I had never been in a relationship for more than four months. I blamed everyone but myself for my struggles, but even then, I knew better.

Two years later, I began what should have been a two-month fling. That was 19 years ago, and we’re still together. Luck played a role, but I also learned valuable lessons during the lost decade of my twenties.

I was one of those dudes you cringe at — the youngish guy with thinning hair who spent hours in front of a mirror with a bottle of…

The most outlandish lies can fool even the most intelligent folks. That became apparent when I was a teenager in the 1980s.

I fell for a big one.

He was the cool dad — the one who worked in the music biz and handed out demo cassettes of hot new artists he was shopping around to record labels. We were awe-struck. A bunch of teens on Long Island with access to music from the next Bon Jovi.

You could imagine how much cooler he became when we found out cool dad was on the verge of signing Whitney Houston.

Months…

As an introvert, I used to dread taking part in conversations. I was the guy who stood there looking dumb, not knowing what to say. Still, I couldn’t avoid engagement, not after seeing friends exploit their gift of gab to win friendships, expand connections, and find romance.

Those two dueling fears, looking dumb and missing out, nudged me into sales decades ago. I thought it would make me a better communicator, buying into the myth that the one who says the most, speaks the loudest, and pushes the hardest wins all the spoils.

That belief evaporated after spending months observing…

In 1969, Stephen Stills released a hit song, Love The One You’re With, starting an ongoing controversy with the iconic phrase he borrowed from Billy Preston, “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”

The catchy lyric offers advice to those who both dread loneliness and fear loveless relationships. Just love the one you’re with.

It’s both insightful and practical, solving two problems with one solution.

That was the mindset I found myself in the late 90s, drowning in a dating dry spell and feeling desperately lonely. …

In 2004, I shelled out $12,500 for a business mentor, expecting him to guide me towards entrepreneurial stardom. Twelve months later, I teetered on the precipice of bankruptcy.

Did I make a poor investment decision?

Maybe, but consider this. A month after my business failed, that same mentor coached me into getting a job I was grossly unqualified for. The income from that job totaled well over two million dollars the next decade.

Monumental decisions like those often yield unpredictable life-changing effects. But small, seemingly insignificant decisions can also shape our futures in ways we cannot foresee.

Nineteen years ago…

As a young twenty-something, well-meaning family and mentors offered me the same cliché career advice that everyone gets in their youth.

Don’t choose a career based on money potential. Do something you enjoy.

Like most folks that age, I dutifully nodded in agreement and then disregarded the advice.

Twenty-five years later, after bouts of burnout and disillusion, I finally recognized the tired old wisdom of my youth was more than just refrigerator magnet philosophy.

Why did it take so long to figure out?

My story played out much like everyone else's. Mounds of advice for decades from trusted figures failed…