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North Koreans high-fiving me, an American? I finished the Pyongyang Marathon in 4:13, past the 4-hour cutoff, but they kept the course open for me anyway. My lasting image of North Korea isn’t the propaganda, it’s the families who cheered me to the finish line.
Read MoreOur sightseeing tour in Pyongyang included a war museum with no mention of Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, or the atomic bomb, just a total rewrite of history. It’s no wonder 25 million citizens are taught from birth to distrust the outside world. Sometimes you just have to see it yourself to understand.
Read MoreWe flew into Pyongyang on the airline consistently rated the world’s worst, watched in-flight propaganda videos, and then, inexplicably, went bowling. North Korean customs makes the TSA look like Massage Envy. I still don’t know what was on the fifth floor of our hotel, and I wasn’t about to find out.
Read MoreCall it an early midlife crisis, or call it plain dumb like some of my friends did, but I signed up for the Pyongyang Marathon. Before we ever landed, we had to sign waivers agreeing to bow to a statue of the Kim family. I had no idea what the next three days would hold.
Read MoreIn 1958, a 24-year-old piano prodigy from Fort Worth walked into a Soviet competition designed to prove Russian cultural superiority. Van Cliburn won anyway, and Khrushchev himself ordered the judges to give him the prize. Sometimes individuals accomplish what governments cannot.
Read MoreA mechanic once charged me a small fortune for a ten-minute fix, and I asked him to justify it. His answer changed how I think about every professional bill I’ve gotten since. You’re not paying for the ten minutes, you’re paying for the decade it took to know exactly what to look for.
Read MoreHere’s a trick I use in interviews: check how many keys are on someone’s key ring. It sounds strange, but after 137 hires, it’s taught me more about readiness to work than most resumes have. Show someone you believe in them, and they might start believing in themselves too.
Read MoreI used to think being cheaper than Panera would win customers over. Wrong. People associate price with quality, and my chicken salad taught me the value of being known for one specific thing instead of everything.
Read MoreMy parents were worried when I signed up for a Spanish immersion trip staying with four host families in two weeks. What I found was nothing like the stereotype: family, food, and dancing that put most of what I knew about the country to shame. If only more students could have a host family experience like it.
Read MoreCulture shock strikes fear into every foreigner’s heart, but after seven years abroad and 19 countries, I’ve learned it’s not always a bad thing. My best advice: don’t recreate home wherever you go. You’ll waste the whole opportunity.
Read MoreI named my business “Z’s Café,” not realizing every business starting with a letter before Z would rank higher on every vendor list. Lesson learned the hard way, along with a few others about bartering and certifications. Every day you wait is an extra day’s advantage for your competitor.
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