Alan C. Fox's Blog, page 20

As a writer I’ve discovered that my “good ideas” have a life of about twenty seconds. If I fail to make a note, either electronically or on paper, half a minute later I’ll only remember that I had a good idea. I won’t remember what the good idea was.

Of course, different writers have different styles. I understand Stephen King never writes down a new idea. He feels that if the idea is good enough, then he will remember it. Obviously that has worked well for him.

What I know for sure is that i...

It’s almost New Year’s Eve, and my list of potential resolutions for the New Year is long, almost infinite. There is so much I want to improve in myself.

But do you remember your resolutions from one short year ago? If you do, did you follow them for more than a few weeks? Did they make you a better person now than you were on January 1, 2015?

These are rhetorical questions: no answers are expected.

But for this New Year I will limit my New Year’s resolution to one. It will be simple to remem...

As we celebrate the holiday season our thoughts turn to family, friends, and gift giving. For more than twenty-five years my family has assembled in Northern California for dinner together on Christmas Eve, and then gift giving, along with my spaghetti sauce, on Christmas day. We long ago abandoned the practice of everyone giving a gift to everyone else. That would require the purchase and wrapping of thirty separate gifts by each of us. Nine hundred gifts total. We now buy one gift each, and...

A few months ago I wrote a blog entitled “Life is a Team Sport.” This is a crucial subject, and as 2015 draws to a close I’m sharing five tips on how to create and maintain an effective team in 2016 and beyond. The acronym is TEAMS, which stands for:

Together

Encouragement

Allegiance

Management

Strength

Together. For the past four years my family has sponsored the five-person Fred Fox Wind Quintet at the University of Arizona. We have all attended a number of their concerts, and the quintet t...

It’s time to start thinking about an even better year in 2016. One of my most productive habits is to think positively. Being positive includes using positive words.

For example, I have always told my children “you get to go to school today,” rather than “you have to go to school today.” When I was practicing law if I told a client the structure they proposed for a transaction wouldn’t work, I always followed with, “and here is how you can accomplish what you want to do.”

We all make propheci...

My friend David has directed many plays in many theaters. I sat next to him one day at The Whitefire Theater in Sherman Oaks, California, while he auditioned actors for his next production. One aspiring actor after another took the stage to perform.

Shortly after the second actor began to audition, David turned to me and resumed our conversation. I was uncomfortable because we were both ignoring the actor, but I was a guest and, as such, followed his lead.

But when David turned to talk to me...

This morning I received a letter from an enthusiastic reader of my first book, People Tools, published in 2014. I wrote that book, and the two that followed, to share my thoughts on how you can improve your relationships.

The letter said, in part:

“After reading the strategy ‘Socrates-Know Thyself’, Jen realized that although she had been feeling that she should accept the offer she received to go to college at Berkeley, she felt in her heart that she was meant to go to UCLA and ultimately ma...

Today I aim to do everything better than I did yesterday. I want to be a better friend, a better father and husband, a better writer and businessman. Here are five tips on how to succeed at everything.

First, you simply have to show up. You will never succeed unless you show up, whether in class, to a social event, or at work. I have found I seldom learn a subject until I take a class, read a book, or consult an expert. I have...

Every time I’m asked to write a letter of recommendation my reaction is the same.

“I would be happy to. Please give me a draft. Put in whatever is important to you, then send me the letter to edit.”

In other words – make it easy for me.

A few weeks ago I violated my own rule. Abbot, a friend and business associate of twenty years, asked for a letter of reference. He provided four letters written by other business people. I thought, “This will be easy,” and immediately forwarded Abbot’s email...

“I decide my life when I do not understand. I understand my life in living those decisions.” Alan Fox, Age 18

Success and failure in our lives is largely determined by the quality of our predictions, and each of us makes many predictions every single day, especially for the New Year which is approaching.

Most of those predictions are about relatively minor issues with short term implications such as what to eat for lunch or which movie to see. There’s not too much upside, or downside, either...