The Story Leaders Must Convey To Get Their Teams To Believe I recently read an article that described the importance of a leader’s narrative - the story they share about themselves, the story they tell their team about the mission they are on collectively, and how they communicate and conduct themselves. A leader’s narrative is made up of all these things, and more, and these things form the leader’s identity.  It is the team’s belief in this narrative and identity, or their

Out of Many, Comes One I recently binge-watched the show “Pluribus”, produced by Apple TV+ studios, and created by Vince Gilligan, who also created the hit shows, “Breaking Bad”, and “Better Call Saul”.  As binge-watching would suggest, I was quite enamoured by Pluribus, because of the premise of the show, the storyline, and the excellent portrayal of the lead character, Carol Sturka, by actress Rhea Seehorn.  The cinematography in Pluribus is beautiful and consistent with wh

I recently read an article that argued the minimum wage in the United States should be $25/hour.  If an employer were to pay that amount per hour to employees, who worked a full forty-hour work week, and worked year-round for 50-52 weeks, that would equate to an annual earnings of $50,000.  With over thirty years in business, having hired hundreds of staff during that time, ranging from clerical and admin staff, to professional engineers and vice president level staff, that n

I hope everyone enjoyed the Holidays, and got to spend time with family and friends.  I was able to do so and was really happy to spend time with our two sons and their friends.  I took the opportunity to take a break from writing and did not publish an article last week.  During that break I did spend time thinking about and coming up with an outline of topics I want to write about in 2026.  My list of topics is not etched in stone, and so if there are any topics of interest

What A Year! I’m writing this article on December 21st, which is the shortest day of the year.  This time of year (November and the first half of December) are particularly tough because it gets dark so early in the day, around 4:30pm…and then later in the day while it may only be 6:30 at night, it feels like it’s 11PM.  Why is that?  It’s partially due to the end of Daylight Savings Time, or the “Fall Back”, which brings on the darkness an hour earlier.  That plus the fact t

Should This Be A Thing ? In the past week I read two articles about artificial intelligence that got my attention.   The first was about a recently released song that made its way to number 1 on the Billboard Country Charts. This song, entitled, “Walk My Walk” was generated entirely by AI, was credited to a fictional artist named “Breaking Rust”, who didn’t exist two months ago and whose avatar is depicted as white.  The ethnicity of the avatar is important because it turns o

In My Humble Opinion The other day I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and I came across a post from Rolling Stone magazine that listed their top 24 bands of all time.  When it comes to music, these “Greatest Of All Time” lists always generate lots of debate and discussion about who made the list and why. They are very subjective, and usually based on the author’s own taste/favourites in music.   This Rolling Stone magazine post got me thinking that while I advertise my S

What It Takes…Not Only To Succeed But To Cope I’ve always been a fan of the concept of “grit”.  Grit is the combination of passion and perseverance toward long-term goals; the ability to stick with something difficult over a long period, even when progress is slow or setbacks happen.  The concept has been around forever, and was popularized by psychologist Angela Duckworth, in her book entitled “Grit”, published in May of 2016. This book by Duckworth is a fantastic read and I

What Are The Dangers of AI & How Do We Protect Ourselves? Artificial Intelligence is front of mind these days. Much of the current news is dominated by stories about how much money is being spent developing AI (the tools, agents and infrastructure), and how much influence the AI phenomenon has on the stock markets.  We are fortunate that there haven’t been many stories about AI being used to scam people; or, being used to cause physical harm, apart from the one allegation whe

There Aren’t Any NINJA Loans, But There’s A Lot of Incestuous Dealmaking Happening Every day we read about the latest industry explosion, that is Artificial Intelligence.  We hear about its possibilities, and the endless ways in which it can improve our lives. We also read about the risks to our society that may result from AI and what we should do to prevent real harm from occurring.  There is confusion on how AI will be  used  and how AI should be  used . Amid this confusi

Why I Am Never Satisfied I am reading Howard Schultz's first book, "Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built A Company One Cup at a Time”.  Schultz was the long-time CEO of Starbucks and was the driving force behind taking the original four stores that sold coffee beans and equipment in Seattle, and turning that into what Starbucks is today.  In the book, Schultz comments that after every one of his accomplishments, rather than celebrating and enjoying the achievement, he

The Stock Markets Are Outperforming Expectations In 2025 Because of These Ten Companies Happy Halloween to all those that read my articles posted under “Pontifications From Paliwal” ! I write for my pleasure, and to clarify and articulate my thoughts on various topics. But, I’d be lying if I didn't admit that I do look at what my viewer counts and engagement levels are on my posts; it feels good to know people are reading and enjoying what I write.  Thank you all for reading

Medicine In Canada vs. The United States I recently heard a story from a friend who is Canadian, but spends most of his time in Florida.  He was in Ottawa in November 2024, when he suffered a heart attack while driving his vehicle.  His wife was in the passenger seat, accompanying him on that drive.   While driving, he started feeling pain in his chest. Despite the discomfort, he tried to manage his way through the pain and briefly continued to drive the car.  When the pain b

Using Your Phone Line To Find Out “You’ve Got Mail” It seems like every morning starts with some new information about the ways in which Artificial Intelligence is going to impact our lives, or how much money is being invested in AI, or the data centres that house AI technology. With the world experiencing a technology revolution because of AI, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the dawn of the internet, I was really surprised to read that internet pioneers AOL (America

Waymo Could Be The New iPhone I recently read that Waymo had reached 250,000 rides per week. I was impressed by that number, as it means...

“Standing On The Corner in Winslow, Arizona”  We recently visited Phoenix, Arizona, arriving August 26 and departing September 22nd. ...

There seems to be a lot of angst directed towards members of the Boomer and Gen X age cohort about the amount of wealth they’ve...

I’ve been planning to write about gun violence in America for some time now.  The idea  came about a few weeks ago when I heard the...

By now, you have likely heard about the massive pay package Tesla’s Board of Directors are planning to award its’ CEO, Elon Musk.  This...

Last week I published an article about wildfires and them being caused by climate change.  In that article I implored readers to take...