On January 15, 2009, US Airways 1549 departing LaGuardia airport hit a flock of geese, causing the extremely rare loss of both engines. What followed became known as the Miracle on the Hudson in which all 155 people on board miraculously survived, although the geese didn’t fare quite so well. The recent movie “Sully” has…
While going through some old boxes I stumbled across my investment research records going back to the 80’s. I found dozens of notebooks on which I had written down my daily market trades. Every page was filled with stock ticker symbols and pricing, as well as the financial results of each transaction. A flood of…
While hiking in Switzerland years ago, Launa and I were surprised to see someone jump from a nearby cliff wearing what we later learned was called a wing-suit. Just before hitting the ground, the jumper pulled a small parachute and landed on his feet to great excitement from a nearby crowd. This was followed by…
Americans have always had a soft spot for the underdog. Our natural compassion leads us to cheer for those who face great adversity and yet are still willing to put everything on the line, even when they know their chances of success are low. This may be partly due to our own historical underdog status…
I was in Salt Lake City this week for a large event. Tens of thousands of people had come to town and the city was quite crowded. As I stood at my window on the 7th floor I looked down at the heavy traffic on the street below. The sidewalks were full, the crosswalks were…
In my most recent article I discussed some of the challenges from the early days of Wall Street. As it happens, my son Jared had the opportunity to have a private tour of Wall Street last week as part of some business research. He gained some valuable insights that I would like him to share…
As a new pilot I was taught that all weather on earth is caused by the uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun. This uneven heating causes moisture to rise and fall and air to move. As this happens, energy from the sun is distributed unevenly around the globe which, at times gets…
The weather this week has reminded me of a time I took off from El Paso on a hot August day. It was 115 degrees when I climbed into my plane at the little Texas airfield. There was smoke in the air from local fires and the southwest heat wave was in full swing. As…
My mother passed away about a year ago at the age of 93. She had 11 children, so there was little free time for herself. As a result, late at night she could often be found at her desk putting together a puzzle. It was her personal break from life that she deeply loved. One…
My grandpa loved inventing contraptions. He was always looking for an easier way to do things. One of his more popular inventions with the neighborhood kids was his ice cream maker. Long before the invention of automated kitchen appliances, making homemade ice cream required turning a hand crank mixer for about 30 minutes. Grandpa would…