The Map is Not the Territory: It’s Time to Focus on the Core

The stock market is down. Inflation remains stubbornly high. And whether or not we are in a recession, the economy is challenging. Nearly everyone and every business is negatively affected. This is a good time to remember the words of Alfred Korzybski, the Polish American scientist...

Ringing the Bell, Eyeing the Future

Next week – if the schedule doesn’t change – I will stand at the dais above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and ring the bell that signifies the start of another trading day. This will celebrate Hagerty’s first day as a publicly...

40Under40 Class: Keep going and keep growing

Congratulations to everyone who was named by Traverse City Business News to the 2021 Hagerty “40Under40” list. Hurrah! Our region needs more people like you. I hope the magazine does a follow-up story on this year’s class of leaders in 20 years. I bet they’ll all...

The View from the Crow’s Nest

I recently attended my first, large public event in 14 months. It seemed strange at first but it was largely outdoors—a car show in Florida. People were mingling and laughing. Sometimes within six feet of each other. Without masks. Whoa, weird. But also, wonderful. I...

Leaders, This is Our Time

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." – Anne Frank In my early twenties, I was sure I was going to be a Russian Orthodox priest. I even earned my master’s degree in theology from Saint...

Better Together

“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” – Howard Zinn By McKeel Hagerty The trouble with big challenges is their scale. When we look at them in total, we simply do not know where to begin our work. As a colleague of mine...

Dig the Well Before You Are Thirsty

One of the joys of 2020 has been driving my mom around. She is 85 and since the weather turned warm enough, I have been taking her on long drives on Old Mission Peninsula and throughout Leelanau Country in vintage cars with broad bench seats...

Letting Go of Normal

I have the honor of owning a 1915 Ford Model T that was delivered new that year to its first owner in Traverse City. It is painted black (the only color Ford offered back then) and it has the last of the brass radiators that...