Is a Viking burial legal? A burning boat on the water? Seems like it should be.

Really important reality check for your over-reliance on AI... hbr.org/2026/03/researchers-…

CEO AI challenge: use it all day every day before you spend money, hire or launch initiatives.

You can't use a big laptop in coach seats. Even with extra legroom.

The easiest path to growth is almost always one you can’t see from inside.   I built a free 10-min diagnostic that finds it. Growth paths, competitive positioning, strengths you’re undervaluing.   CEOs scaling $1M–$10M — need testers while I refine it:   ScalingCoach.com/q20

Markets go up and down. Things move left and then right. Another week goes by. The candles burn out but soon new candles take their place. I'm grateful for this moment.

In the midst of so much fear and real suffering around the world there is also love and whimsy. Enjoy some frosting and sprinkles on your pie today.

A business lesson I learned from sailing: Less Sail, More Speed linkedin.com/pulse/less-sail… via @LinkedIn

How Do Leaders Stay Clear-Headed in the Age of AI with Bill Gallagher player.captivate.fm/episode/…

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees. $30 per seat per month. $1.4 million annually. I called it "digital transformation." The board loved that phrase. They approved it in eleven minutes. No one asked what it would actually do. Including me. I told everyone it would "10x productivity." That's not a real number. But it sounds like one. HR asked how we'd measure the 10x. I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards." They stopped asking. Three months later I checked the usage reports. 47 people had opened it. 12 had used it more than once. One of them was me. I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds. It took 45 seconds. Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations. But I called it a "pilot success." Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail. The CFO asked about ROI. I showed him a graph. The graph went up and to the right. It measured "AI enablement." I made that metric up. He nodded approvingly. We're "AI-enabled" now. I don't know what that means. But it's in our investor deck. A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT. I said we needed "enterprise-grade security." He asked what that meant. I said "compliance." He asked which compliance. I said "all of them." He looked skeptical. I scheduled him for a "career development conversation." He stopped asking questions. Microsoft sent a case study team. They wanted to feature us as a success story. I told them we "saved 40,000 hours." I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up. They didn't verify it. They never do. Now we're on Microsoft's website. "Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot." The CEO shared it on LinkedIn. He got 3,000 likes. He's never used Copilot. None of the executives have. We have an exemption. "Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction." I wrote that policy. The licenses renew next month. I'm requesting an expansion. 5,000 more seats. We haven't used the first 4,000. But this time we'll "drive adoption." Adoption means mandatory training. Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches. But completion will be tracked. Completion is a metric. Metrics go in dashboards. Dashboards go in board presentations. Board presentations get me promoted. I'll be SVP by Q3. I still don't know what Copilot does. But I know what it's for. It's for showing we're "investing in AI." Investment means spending. Spending means commitment. Commitment means we're serious about the future. The future is whatever I say it is. As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

Any allergies? Yes, checked luggage gives me hives.

It’s Friday. Time soon to stop working. Be with family. Go on a date. Move your body. Sleep well. Reset. Write down your ideas, but save the real work for later. And whatever you do—don’t email, text, or call your team this weekend. Take the break.

I turn 61 today. Grateful for the wisdom gained from 40 years of cycles and challenges—and still energized to innovate with AI and new ideas. Confidence, perspective, and gumption all in the mix. Onward.