It’s a regular Tuesday. You walk into the meeting room a few minutes before things kick off. A couple of people are already there, chatting as they slide laptops out of bags. Around the table, coffee cups and glowing screens stand like little flags, quietly marking each person’s chosen seat. Someone’s joking about traffic. Another mentions the game last night. Then someone turns to you. “So, how’s work?” You know this script. You’ve heard it a hundred times, answered it [more…]
When you get married, it is a whirlwind of a week. Usually, you are still young, or at least young at heart, and it goes by fast, like a Formula One race car on the streets of Monaco. A far more interesting week is the week your son or daughter gets married. You have more time to reflect, more time to think about the future, and what it all means. For over a year, the wedding seemed far off in [more…]
This September, I spent a few days in Paris. It gave me something I rarely get at home: more time to think. My cell phone data plan went on strike for four full days. To a digitally wired guy, it felt like trudging across the Sahara without a canteen. First-world problem, yes—but the gift was perspective. Three observations stood out: 1. We need more time to ponder. Smartphones feed us a constant drip of “what’s next.” News, emails, social media—there’s [more…]
This is a very interesting graphic summary of a recent WSJ survey: The article that accompanied it (WSJ September 2, 2025 if you want to look it up) had these takeaways: 1. People don’t believe they can get ahead anymore 2. Pessimism is everywhere, not just one group 3. People think it used to be easier—and the future looks worse 4. The numbers say one thing, people feel something else 5. We’ve been hit from all sides, for years First [more…]
If you hand two families the same paycheck — one American, one German — you’ll notice something strange. The German family tucks a fat slice away in savings. The American family? Their paycheck dissolves faster than a popsicle in Phoenix. And here’s the twist: the American family probably worked more hours to get there. The German Way: Waste Not, Want Not Germans don’t wander around chanting “save, save, save.” It’s just cultural muscle memory. They drive smaller cars, live in [more…]
Big news: my latest book, Escape Average, is now available on Amazon.com. This one has been a long time in the making. It’s not theory, it’s not recycled clichés—it’s a battle plan for anyone who refuses to settle for “good enough” and wants to push themselves into a higher orbit. Average is comfortable, but it’s also a trap. You don’t climb mountains by hugging the safety rail. You climb by pushing past fear, by designing habits that stretch you, and [more…]
Most salespeople stare at quota and think, “If I can beat it by 20 or 30%, I’m doing great.” That’s the wrong game, especially if you have a decade of experience and are getting set (perhaps stale) in your selling habits. If you want to hit 200% or 300% of quota — year in and year out — you can’t just mirror the habits of the guy grinding his way to 110%. You were that guy or gal when you [more…]
I’ve been working on something new—and I’m excited to share it. I’ve trained a ChatGPT-based assistant called Sakology GPT (go to http://sakology.com and use your free ChatGPT account to leverage it) to help people create and sharpen their presentations for workplace meetings. Think of it as a personal presentation coach—always ready, always patient, and always pushing you to level up. Here’s what Sakology can do for you: Sakology GPT has been trained on all the papers and guides I’ve written [more…]
I started playing around with Gen AI recently and, truth be told, I got more than a bit obsessed and enthused. For weeks I’ve been tinkering, training, and testing — late nights, too many coffees, a few Heinekens too, chasing the idea that AI could actually be life-useful, not gimmicky or too quick to spout advice without understanding the nuances of a situation. After a number of resets, I’m excited to finally share it with you: Sakfucius GPT — my [more…]
I played about by dropping some white papers by work topic into Google’s Notebook LM, an AI powered tool for creating Audio Podcasts. Wow, this is entertaining, and it will only get better. What a brilliant way to take material that is usually dry as a saltine cracker and learn (and spice up) workplace topics well, while taking advantage of traffic time while driving to work, or time while exercising on a treadmill or elliptical. Check them out here: http://sapdeepdive.com [more…]
The phrase “I’ve made it” sounds harmless. But it’s poisonous. The moment you believe you’ve arrived, four things often happen: “Made it” tricks you into acting like a retired professor who no longer creates new lessons but still acts as though he knows it all over a pint of Guinness. The second you stop living like a student, your learning slows—and so do you. A wise optimist takes a different path. They never crown themselves finished. They don’t keep score [more…]
For more than a decade, I’ve highlighted how optimism and belief are of crucial importance if you want to change the world, or maybe just change your own world. I also have many posts about taking decisive action, as well as posts about determination and others about patience, but I don’t think I’ve ever put the magic ingredients together. To give yourself the best chance of greatness, you must choose to be an unwavering optimist who takes decisive, committed action, [more…]
Are you in your 20’s or 30’s and still haven’t started saving and investing? Don’t miss your window of opportunity. The sooner a person starts investing, the longer compounding can work in their favor, and compounding is the magic to a comfortable financial life. Below is a simple chart of one’s investment returns if he invested in the S&P 500 Index for the last 40 years. Over four decades, you would have made a return of 10+% 25 times, with [more…]
I love New Year’s resolutions because it feels like a great time to reset, to re-calibrate, to take an optimistic perspective of what is possible. This year, I’m adding one important fine-tuning to the mix: in 2025, I will define quarterly progress targets — milestones that are waypoints to a greater accomplishment — to every resolution on my list. Why? Because it is just too easy to not make consistent progress if you give yourself one year of runway. As [more…]
Anyone who has read this blog knows that I love quotes. To that end, I started a new site to create my own quotes, questions to ponder, and derivatives from other quotes updated for today. It is found at Sakfucius.com I hope that you get a chance to visit the site as it grows and evolves in 2025 and beyond. My hope is to communicate ideas, observations, and occasional wisdom in a much more concise format than my decade plus [more…]
Harvey Mackay had a business best-seller by this title in 1999 but the phrase first gained popularity with Chinese philosopher Zhu Xi over 800 years ago. When it comes to careers, lifetime earnings, and financial survival, it matters more now than it ever has. Top-tier corporations today rarely show loyalty. Employees are often seen as interchangeable parts and upper management often does not ask first-level managers who is worth retaining. Your odds of remaining with a firm for more than [more…]
I intentionally disappeared from blogging for most of 2023 and 2024 to work on my special project. I am now past the creative / production / post-production edits phase and on to the ‘infernal little details’ phase that always takes more time than anyone plans or appreciates. I will have a ‘release party’ for my project in Q1 2025. Hit me up on the contact form if you would like an email announcing the premier. The good news is that [more…]
I’ve written my blog for a dozen years in a row, so it seems like a good time for a bit of a sabbatical. My posts on Optimisman will be stopped for most of 2023 because I have decided to focus on a special project: I am heads down finishing my third book and a comprehensive website that will accompany it. Sometimes you just have to clear the deck, commit, and laser-focus to get great stuff done. I’ll be back [more…]
One definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over yet expecting different results. Fitness is an area where most people are a bit crazy then. Your body, my body, everyone’s body is a near perfect reflection of what it has physically done, what work it has been forced to do, over the last 1 – 3 years. The human body offers an amazing lesson and reflection of the decisions that you have made in the mid-term past. [more…]
Optimism is the most important fuel of champions, of winning, and of success, especially in the face of change. At one time or another, all of us have chased a goal when, in our hearts, we did not truly believe that we would succeed — and more often, we did not. Nothing is more important that all-in commitment and unwavering belief. Humans are in a never-ending battle with our own minds, our own anticipation of future events, our memories, and [more…]