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Japanese meetings follow protocol Fort Worth delegations don’t always expect, right down to how gifts are wrapped and presented. Fortunately, cowboy culture travels well, and our hosts at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs loved every bit of it. Note to self: bring more bandanas next time.
Read MoreFor more than 25 years, the Yuza family has been my Japanese family, first welcoming me during a TCU exchange in 1999. Since then, my parents, sister, wife, friends, and students have all stayed with them. Saying goodbye is always difficult when friends have become family.
Read MoreThe first photos from this exchange captured pure joy: a group of young visitors from Oman meeting real cowboys, horses, and longhorns for the first time. They chose Fort Worth because of our innovation work, not just our boots. Curiosity, it turns out, travels in both directions.
Read MoreSomewhere in Barcelona, I pitched a group of Japanese business leaders on Fort Worth in Japanese, then made them all honorary cowboys, which is apparently considered cool everywhere. A gym in Barcelona had somehow already heard we were hosting the 2024 CrossFit Games. Small world, big boots.
Read MoreEvery time CrossFit visited Fort Worth, we felt a connection: it’s the cowboy and the crossfitter, grit meeting grit. That instinct turned into a winning bid for the 2024 CrossFit Games. Take a behind-the-scenes look at how our cowboy culture helped seal the deal.
Read MoreFor 19 years, I said I would never go back to school. Then I found a Harvard program built for working professionals, and it became one of the best decisions of my life. If you’re considering going back, don’t assume the timing you thought was too late isn’t exactly when it matters most.
Read MoreNearly 100 people from 21 cities gathered for Fort Worth’s first Big Ideas Summit to ask how municipal governments should use generative AI. The bigger question isn’t what the technology can do, it’s what we should ask it to do in service of people. This innovation work is pretty cool. It’s also work worth approaching with care.
Read MoreRachael and I each stayed with the same host family in Eswatini, two years apart, before we ever knew each other. When Bongani Dlamini and his wife later officiated our wedding, it felt almost impossible to explain in a few sentences. Hosts become friends. Friends become family.
Read MoreRegina Smith walked into my commercial kitchen five years before I ever walked into her own restaurant and watched her beam with pride. Effective support doesn’t create dependence, it helps someone recognize the strength they already have. If you get the chance, go enjoy a meal and meet the person whose persistence made it possible.
Read MoreWhat kind of student crumples a paper airplane into a ball because it might travel farther? An innovative one, and the AllianceTexas Student Influencers proved it during a one-sheet-of-paper distance challenge. Before improving a familiar solution, it’s worth asking whether the problem was framed correctly at all.
Read MoreSpending several days with chief innovation officers from cities across the country reminded me we’re all wrestling with the same questions: AI, data privacy, digital rights, smart cities. A failed experiment in one city can save another from repeating the same mistake. History and innovation, it turns out, make an unexpectedly good pairing.
Read MoreSigning the final structural beam for the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington was an extraordinary moment, made more personal by my wife’s great-uncle, Medal of Honor recipient Roy Benavidez. Courage isn’t just a quality someone possesses, it’s a decision made in a single moment. I was proud to sign the beam.
Read MoreJapan has long been one of DFW’s most important economic partners, but the statistics only tell part of the story. Fort Worth Sister Cities International and Mae Ferguson were recognized for the relationships that keep the partnership alive between elections and headlines. The most important result is the friendship that continues after everyone goes home.
Read MoreServing as president of the Rotary Club of Fort Worth for a pandemic year meant mastering Zoom overnight and having harder conversations than usual. Leadership during a crisis isn’t about having every answer, it’s about building enough trust for people to stay engaged. The year left me better than it found me.
Read MoreIn nine weeks, volunteers and donors helped Z’s Cafe and our community partners provide food for 20,000 people, one bag and one family at a time. One family alone measured out 1,800 pounds of beans and rice. Food insecurity feels enormous until you organize the next practical action.
Read MoreTwenty-four years ago, I got rejected from the only university I applied to, the one I’d already had the mascot inscribed into my class ring for. Real smart. Disappointment is often disguised as opportunity, rerouting you somewhere better than you thought possible.
Read MoreI’d never been inside an actual prison until I spent an afternoon advising inmates through the Prison Entrepreneurship Program. Less than 7% of PEP graduates ever return, in a country where the average recidivism rate tops 60%. Haven’t we all, at some point, asked for a second chance?
Read MoreA young Black woman was shot and killed in her own home in my hometown, and it hurt to watch what followed. I understand that I will never fully understand what it’s like to live as a person of color in America. The cost of doing nothing is everything.
Read MoreThe morning after a young Black woman was shot in her own home, I found myself wanting to make a case for empathy instead of another round of cable-news shouting. My own grandparents faced discrimination as Italian immigrants decades ago, a different wound but a related one. Friendship is the first step toward empathy, and it can’t be learned through a case study.
Read MoreMark Twain was right. Watching 38 high school students from six countries spontaneously sing Adele’s “Hello” together on the last night of a leadership program I helped organize was proof enough. One of the greatest gifts you can give a young person is a global experience.
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