Every now and then, ESPN will air the World Series of Poker. They play Texas Hold’Em for gobs of cash and bragging rights. The most dramatic moments occur when one of the players at the table utters two words… All In. Most of the time, this means the player is putting all of his or her chips on the table. …

I walked into the room full of newly elected student leaders. You could feel the excitement. You could sense that each one of them was motivated to do his or her very best. They all wore the same t-shirt. They were all on the same team. The only question that remained between their success or failure as a group was …

The life of a student can be very demanding. You are learning to balance your classes, your relationships, your workload, and your free time. On top of all that, you became a student leader. In the midst of the demands, it’s easy to begin to live from event to event…from one task to the next. When that happens, you will …

Do you know how to pick out a quality piece of fruit? Everyone I talk to seems to have a technique to pick out the sweetest, juiciest, and tastiest ones in the pile. But I don’t have that ability. For example, I was trying to make these fancy fruit parfaits for a special meal I was preparing. The recipe called …

I have a running joke with some of my friends. You might have a similar one. We imagine what we’d do if we won the lottery. We dream about how we would spend all that money. We talk about how many problems we could solve with our winnings. But then someone will state the obvious… “Don’t you have to buy a …

I don’t like to wait. The study of leadership seems to be about doing, about making something happen. But there are situations where I have made the decision to wait. Because that’s the right decision. A good decision can become a bad decision if it’s not the right time. Timing matters. But it’s even harder to wait when the decision …

It was the end of the night. Our students had worked hard all day to put together a top notch event. There were numerous details and all of the elements of the event seemed to exceed expectations. As we were milling around the room, cleaning up all of the decorations, I turned to the student in charge and said one …

There’s a scene near the beginning of the movie, Sherlock Holmes (2009 with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law), where Holmes and Watson have thwarted an occult-like ritual led by the evil Lord Blackwood. As Watson moves in to grab Blackwood, Holmes abruptly stops him. Holmes then proceeds to point to a long, transparent needle protruding from Blackwood designed to pierce …