A regular look at the world of healthcare and technology, jobs, project management in hospitals, good songs, dogs, and the weather.  We remain interested in all these.

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Jack Williams

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1/8/15 - The Things We Make By Hand

Spinner

My father died in 2004 yet I have reminders of him each day.

11 years ago, not long before he died, he made a then 8 year-old something he called a spinner.  It's a piece of wood that serve...

Posted by Jack Williams at 08:28

11/13/14 - Leadership Challenge: Volunteer with Children

Teamphoto2

Introduction

Finding ourselves with 2 children off to college and an 8 year old son at home, feeling only-childish, my sweet wife surprised me in late July of this year with her pla...

Posted by Jack Williams at 07:53

10/23/14 - How Much of Your Paycheck Do You Need?

Minimum Cleaning Fee

In Which A Stupid Question Is Posed
If you last long enough in business you're going to be asked a handful of truly ridiculous q...

Posted by Jack Williams at 14:46

10/8/14 - Living the Dream

Stone3

It's not a Granny Smith apple a day.  It's not lasagna, or massive amounts of protein, or raisins.  It's not crispy bacon or pizza, which is a real shame.  It's definitely not beets or American chees...

Posted by Jack Williams at 14:20

9/25/14 - Faith in Bullet Holes

Call me Jules.

There's a scene in the terrific movie Pulp Fiction, when Samuel Jackson's character Jules is faced with gunfire, unable to escape, yet the shots scatter on the wall behi...

Posted by Jack Williams at 14:38

9/16/14 - The Green Things of Business

When the building I work in was built, there was a small tree save area where native plants and trees were left untouched. It sits between the upper and lower parking lots, wit...

Posted by Jack Williams at 08:02

9/9/14 - Informed Fearlessness

19 years ago, in the summer of 1995, my wife was pregnant with one of our sons.  

For reasons that are both unexplainable and laughably stupid, I offered to take a dog home when I overheard a woman in my office bragging about mistreating her dog.  Something about thinking that n...

Posted by Jack Williams at 17:19

8/27/14 - How to Make Your Professional Life Omni-Incredible

When I was in high school, my sister was already in the workforce of the real world. She had a boyfriend named Paul who came around to visit who used the word "omni" in front of other words, for emphasis, to be cool, probably both. It definitely made him unique which is why I remember him.

<...
Posted by Jack Williams at 16:29

8/18/14 - The Top of the Wall

Saturday I ran in the  5k obstacle race in Atlanta with some colleagues. This is my second year in a row doing it. It was incredibly fun.

It was perfect w...

Posted by Jack Williams at 13:00

8/7/14 - Life is a Series of One Day Contracts

I put a lot of stock in dogs. They're generally kind, they love unconditionally, are excellent judges of character, and I've never had a dog let me down in any significant way.

I have a 14 year old dog named Fetcher, and he's as good natured a dog as I have known. ...

Posted by Jack Williams at 09:58

7/28/14 - Meetings Don't Drive Nails

I attended a meeting ten years ago and in attendance was a man from the planning department for the city of Atlanta.  He'd been invited in order to offer some guidance on a planned real estate development, and he showed up because lunch was free and he knew the specifics on density as it rel...

Posted by Jack Williams at 17:39

7/15/14 - People Will Lie About Anything

Full disclosure: I find the subject of resumes about as interesting as sewing.

However there's no escaping the simple fact that most people produce lousy resumes. You'd be hard pressed to find another example of a person's abilities that's in more disarray. No one sets out to look incapab...

Posted by Jack Williams at 00:00

7/11/14 - Singing Doesn't Come Naturally to Songbirds

Several years ago, in an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, naturalist Charles Seabrook made the following fascinating comment about the reason many of us in the Atlanta area can't miss the wonderful music of songbirds:

Singing is the key to succe...

Posted by Jack Williams at 00:00

7/3/14 - Better Arrives

I've always loved short stories. There's something appealing to me about a story you can read in a few minutes and then have it hang with you the rest of the day, the way a smoke ring circles the head of a grizzled old guy drawing on a pipe. It just stays with you, turning and shifting as you thi...

Posted by Jack Williams at 04:00

6/27/14 - The Little Hallelujah of Gratitude

Between ages 16 and 18, I worked as a bag boy at a mom-and-pop grocery store called Thriftown. It was in Clarkston, Georgia, about 6 or 7 miles from my home in Stone Mountain.

What a job. I got tips for taking out groceries, and all I had to do was wear a tie and look presentable and be f...

Posted by Jack Williams at 04:00

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