“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”

In the middle of a recession in the US, it is all too easy to hark back to those "good old days" when jobs were more plentiful and going out for dinner was the highlight of the week.

Sometimes, it takes a JOLT to make us raise our eyes to aspire higher.

If he had never become a double amputee, Liu would never have learned to "keyboard" with his toes. At the age of 19, when he decided to resume his dream of becoming a musician, he has astounded the world.





If we did not have the financial crisis and the mortgage crisis and the job crisis, those of us who can imagine the grace of superb service, and engaging in rewarding relationships everyday might have felt our dreams were fantasies.

If we had not experienced the disruption of information technology in re-shaping our work and lives, we might not imagine it within our power to use technology to lift the quality of our well-being. As Douglas Engelbart described in the conclusion of his seminal paper "As we may work" : Technology is like fire, it can burn us up, or it can be harnessed for great good.

At dinner tonight at Brabo's in Alexandria, VA talking about the opportunity we have to transform our health institutions into instruments of well-being, Edna St Vincent Millay supplied the first stanza, the second is inspired by the work I am doing these days

Upon this gifted age in its dark hour
Falls from the sky, a meteoric shower of facts
They lie unquestioned, uncombined
Wisdom to leech us of all our ill, is daily spun
But there is no loom to weave it into fabric

Upon our gifted age in its new awakening
Falls from the sky a meteoric shower of stories
Of acts of beauty;
Compassion that lies unremarked and unrecognized
Wisdom to nurture life, heal hurts, grow joy, is daily spun
Let us commit our loom of civilized intention
to weave wisdom into the fabric of our souls


When people are wondering what next big wave will drive our economy, NOW is the time to resume our dream of a Service Economy that puts people at the center - service that is uplifting for employees and customers alike!

Service by the people, with the people, for the people