A Letter from Chris Suarez
WE ARE ALL CHANGED
It is hard to write about anything of importance in the early morning hours as my mind has been consumed with the families huddled in subway tunnels, basements, and shelters scattered across the country of Ukraine.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
NOT JUST ANOTHER HALLMARK CARD
I’ve been thinking about the reminders we get from our calendar, from society, from strategically designed Hallmark commercials. Special days, special weeks, special months. The reminder to do things we should have thought to do before the reminder.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
“ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET?”
Last week I took my kids on a drive. I didn’t tell them where we were headed - just that we were going to be spending some time together. I didn’t tell them where we were going or how long it would take to get there. I just told them to be patient. That may have been my first of many mistakes.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
YOU ARE NOT AVERAGE
New York, and most cities for that matter, can provide renewed focus on avoiding the average. The past couple weeks have given me three distinct reminders on just how extraordinary humans really are.
WELL THAT WAS A BAD IDEA
WELL THAT WAS A BAD IDEA
I have plenty of people in my life that will tell me when I have a bad idea. In fact, I hear that almost daily. I suppose that means I either have really bad ideas, or it means I just have a lot of them. Either way, what makes something seem like such a great idea to me, but can be so easily shot down or proven to be ill-contrived by others?
A Letter from Chris Suarez
IN A WORLD OF CHANGE - HUMANS NEED NOT COMPLY
Sure the world has changed, but humans need not change with it. We may not all live out on acreage. Most of us may have moved closer to town, and closer to work, and closer to schools, and closer to amenities. Yet in moving closer, the underlying sense in all of the comments is that we actually moved further away - from each other.
A letter from Chris Suarez
THE DARK SIDE OF COMPETITION
This week I got back on the wagon. Well, more accurately, back on the bike.
A Letter from Chris suarez
DON’T “SLACK” OFF NOW!
Based on overuse, the word “innovate” may have lost some of its true meaning, but all of us are looking for change. If we aren’t looking for change somewhere in our life, it means we have settled.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
THE TRUE MEANING OF TIME
Humans love fresh starts and temporal landmarks. We look for certain days of the week or the month or the year to reset, to refocus, to recommit, and to recenter. We look at the year ahead as if we know exactly what we will do and when we will do it. As if we know exactly how much time we have for everything we want to accomplish. As a species we have an overall fascination with time - how we spend it, what we accomplish in it, what we can do with it, how to slow it down and speed it up.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
THE WORLD IS WIDE BUT LIFE IS DEEP
It is easy to keep adding to the list of things we want to see, want to complete, or want to experience. It is easy to keep adding to the list of places we want to go to, the list of people we want to meet, or the list of things we want to do and achieve. The world is incredibly wide.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
HOW TO HIT A HOME RUN
Over the past few months I’ve taken the opportunity to spend some time getting better acquainted with some historical figures that contributed to our world in meaningful but different ways. Each of them had a considerable impact on the world. Unfortunately each of them never experienced that impact as the world took note, recognized, acknowledged, or felt it only after their death.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
LESSONS LEARNED WHILE TRAPPED ON AN ISLAND
Every day I woke up and they were in control. It’s how I like it when on vacation. Vacation is for my family. In a world where I find myself being asked to make decisions almost every day, I love the opportunity to go an entire week without needing to have an opinion or make a decision.
A letter from Chris Suarez
IT'S LONELY AT THE TOP… AND THE BOTTOM.
There's a commonly used expression which has turned into a commonly held belief that “it is lonely at the top.” Some use that to indicate that as you grow and build and achieve, you will find yourself in a class of your own… But that thinking is limited and flawed.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
YOU HAVE MORE CONTROL THAN YOU THINK
Ultimately, we allow a day to decide how we feel. We allow a day to decide that we will spend time with family and loved ones. We allow a day to motivate us to let other people know how we feel about them through phone calls, messages, texts, and emails.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
A RUN THROUGH NEW YORK
There has always been something about New York that allows me to feel anonymous while being surrounded by millions of people. As I ran through the streets, at times weaving through groups of tourists, dodging the dog walkers, and ducking past the obligatory selfie-taker, there is something about being surrounded by other people, while being completely unknown.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
PERFECT 20/20 VISION
A few days later with the lenses in place, and glasses sitting squarely on my nose, a new crisp picture of the world came into view. What I thought looked perfectly fine before suddenly became crystal clear. It was almost shocking what I had settled into accepting for my vision.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT TRAIN?
There is something about traveling that excites us as humans. It’s the thought of seeing something new, meeting new people, creating new experiences. I’ve always been amazed how you can start the day on one coast and get off that same airplane on the opposite coast or an entirely different country or even continent just a few hours later.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
WHO HERE IS COMPETITIVE?
In those moments, it seems almost natural to begin to compare yourself to other people. We notice: How far they’ve come. Or perhaps more specifically how much farther I thought I’d be at this point. How much they’ve grown. Or perhaps more specifically how much larger I thought I’d be at this point.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
GO AHEAD, TEASE ME.
... I made good on my promise to take my daughter to a concert. The headliner started a bit after 9:30pm so I knew I’d be there for the evening.
A Letter from Chris Suarez
OUR LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH SPREADSHEETS
Over the past few weeks, we have been working on business planning for 2022, building budgets across all of our companies, and pouring over proforma’s. Needless to say, I’ve spent a few too many hours staring at Excel spreadsheets, figuring out formulas, and correcting those formulas. In most cases, I was able to get the spreadsheet cells to do what I wanted them to do. The spreadsheet definitely serves a purpose, but it also made me grateful to be able to work with people every day as well. My frustration with that spreadsheet led to a valuable leadership lesson.