A good input metric is one that enables us to monitor and change our behavior. It should have the following characteristics: (1) Focus – it measures one thing; (2) Ownership –a specific person is accountable for its performance and accuracy of the measurement; (3) Benchmark – there is a target which informs whether or not performance is satisfactory.

Data is an investment, just like any other asset. This is why we have to think about it as such.

Whose responsibility are they and why should we treat them more like tennis than football? Just take a look at Johnsonville Sausage.

When you are first starting out you want to make a huge impact. It can be tempting to seek out the biggest problem and dive in. Caution. That’s not the purpose of your first deliverable. The purpose is to set an impression.

Please judge.

The most important book published by a Kunken this year.

Chaos ensued, and it was not my fault. Chase first fourth = an all-timer.

Three weeks and counting…

This is the third and final installment of our New Adventure Series capturing the thoughts and feelings following the birth of my children. (ref: Next Adventure, Lila 2019; New New Adventure, Ciara 2021). Now Ciara’s a big sister too. So let the games begin in this Last Adventure into parenting with the addition of blessing #3, baby Chase. As my cousin Tim said, it’s a full house, Queens over Kings…

You're only as good as the last envelope....THE MANUSCRIPT IS COMPLETE!

I still think it’s a good idea…

I recently learned the difference between story and plot. Thats what I’ve been working on for the past 2 years…

1960's Harlem and a Pulitzer Prize winner enters the genre with 'HARLEM SHUFFLE'. Here's some lessons.

Why they are a litmus test and have resulted in more re-writing than any other editing aspect.

This will solve everything for your novel. At least that’s my hypothesis.

In some heists the floor is hot lava. In others you can scamper right across the lobby. Here are 5 misc. things I’ve learned thus far on the genre and the process of writing.

3 Lesson about writing emotions from ‘The Emotional Craft of Fiction’ by Donald Mass.

And why does everybody keep saying you need to find it? My thoughts...

Three (plus one) hidden gems I uncovered this week from circa 1983, for anybody on their grind; from John Gardener's 'On Becoming A Novelist'

Three writerly ninja moves I've collected this week.

A list of my research books with cool tidbits before I retire them. (It’s my attempt to move on from toiling away on Act 1).

How often do best selling authors tell you what the character is thinking? (Spreadsheets inside.)

There are three states of information in a book. You either know: (1) More than the hero; (2) Less than the hero or; (3) The same as the hero.

And there’s one more state in a heist.

Here is some more research into why this is taking so long: I've unintentionally been tackling this story in three stages.

Today I have three small lessons I’ve collected and observed lately. In other words, three more things I am in the process of overthinking.

This post is a really long way of describing all about how I eventually stepped away from using spreadsheets to do the actual writing (and finally finish) my manuscript.

Here are two tools I’m trying that keep me engaged as a reader.

Not in real life, unfortunately. We're talking about book (of course).

What’s the proper order of descriptions? And when are you supposed to tell readers how tall a character is? These are the questions I never knew I’d have.

“Ask yourself what makes you happy.” - Van Tran, Amazon Treasury, Capital Markets

A good input metric is one that enables us to monitor and change our behavior. It should have the following characteristics: (1) Focus – it measures one thing; (2) Ownership –a specific person is accountable for its performance and accuracy of the measurement; (3) Benchmark – there is a target which informs whether or not performance is satisfactory.

Data is an investment, just like any other asset. This is why we have to think about it as such.

Whose responsibility are they and why should we treat them more like tennis than football? Just take a look at Johnsonville Sausage.

When you are first starting out you want to make a huge impact. It can be tempting to seek out the biggest problem and dive in. Caution. That’s not the purpose of your first deliverable. The purpose is to set an impression.

Don’t hide behind fear by calling it being ‘risk averse’.

I’m not referring to the scope of your idea, We’re talking about your approach to implementing it. Thinking small is the thinking required to execute. At work and in life.

When I think about my recent realizations from working the earth they sound like good ideas that could apply to careers as well: patience, persistence, things like that. Same goes for writing.

This post is to share some ideas that could hopefully inspire you if you’re feeling stuck looking for a job, at Amazon or anywhere. If it all sounds crazy then good! Your tactics should match your ambition!

In the world of tech finance, especially for analysts it’s not uncommon to step into a role supporting a business you have no prior experience in. When the conversation comes up of ‘how to get ahead’. This is what I offer…

It’s simple: make your employee’s goals your number one priority. Employee obsession boosts tenure and performance. It’s a virtuous cycle that amplifies customer obsession and results…

Sharing pictures with friends and family is great however, a different mindset can help leverage social media for business.

This is what I’ve learned by experimenting in the twenty nine months since publishing my first blog post...

The magnitude and negativity of news stories can give us a false sense of obligation to consume them all, but it can be counterproductive when it comes is at the expense of actually doing stuff. This is what I think when people tell me that I ‘should be watching more news’….

Not a coach. Not a celebrity superstar. They had a captain that led from the shadows. This post is a review of the book, ‘The Captain Class’ by Sam Walker and a summary of his fantastic work. His study adds a missing element to what we thought we knew about culture.

It's not just about the end target, but how calibrating the end target helps you move along the way…here are two lessons I learned from my Grandfather by the way he is revered…

This is the mission behind the new ‘Finance In Tech’ podcast - because where ever you work and wherever you’re from, it’s the stories that get us to the middle…

In addition to the core functions (receivables, payables, reporting, tax), here are three ways finance can add strategic value.

1: Translating Inputs To Outputs

2: Highlighting Risk & Uncertainty

3: Offering Tradeoffs

At Amazon they call it ‘dealing with ambiguity’. This post is about how to contribute in a situation where you haven’t been given a specific problem to solve.

What a hurricane taught me about leadership.

That question is: Are you playing a short game or long? (Episode #1 of the Amazon Fall series,, AF#1)

Shine a light where only you can reach.. We need more Avengers…

There are only two poles from which you can operate when making decisions. Fear is one…

A mindset shift that can free you from the main thing holding you back…

It takes 7 years to build mastery. That either sounds long to you or it sounds like you have time to become very good at 7 totally different things after college. Which perception you take is your test....

Transformation Series #6 - The lifestyle required for your dream seems maverick because you’re only comparing it to the people in your immediate vicinity…

Transformation Series #5 - You are and will become the product of the things that imprint their influence upon your brain. So who’s choosing them for you?...

Transformation Series #4 - If you only realized it, you’d see that you can start to reverse it this week...

Transformation Series #3 - “Here lies Ned. His expectations were reasonable.” Let me ask you…how does that feel?…

Transformation Series #2 - How to gain the leverage to call your own shots…

Did you even know you were in one?…

We have one job, but it’s not as easy as it sounds….

We can only judge our past decisions by the process we used to make them…

We only truly learn when we DO SOMETHING…

What we decide to do with our time is what we are in life…

The subconscious is not just a storage device, it’s a processing machine…

We mistakenly view setbacks as throwing us off course but that’s just too short a timescale on which to judge them…

Our desire to control outcomes is the source of anxiety in Life. What we control is our inputs…

It’s not how much you love a company, it’s how good you are at solving their problems.

Achieving big ideas is not limited by our ability to execute, it’s what we permit ourselves to consider possible…

Our attention is our most valuable asset. How we choose to allocate it is how we decide who gets our power…

Resumes do not serve us as an account of everything we’ve ever done. They should be a ticket to where we’re going…

Why being on the hook to ship is good for us even before we have an idea...

It’s not what we make it’s how we make ‘em…

Why shorter is better, more economical, and maybe even divine…

It’s frightening when we strip away all the excuses for not doing what we’re meant to…

Most will tell you it’s not ok but not us. Not here…

The difference between Fiction and Non-fiction is what we’ve agreed upon…

Understanding the nature of creativity and how we use it at work reveals why art is the best way to exercise the creative muscles…

The purpose of behavioral questions is not to tell specific stories about your past. It is to use stories to signal to interviewers how you are going to behave in the future. Here’s how to do it…

It used to save us from becoming dinner, now it can ruin our appetite. But if we think of it in a new way perhaps we can make it our ally.

There’s a 2,000 year old trick to nailing this classic interview opening…

I was focusing on well-constructed answers while missing the fundamental principle all along…

It’s not how much you love a company, it’s how good you are at solving their problems.

Resumes do not serve us as an account of everything we’ve ever done. They should be a ticket to where we’re going…

Understanding the nature of creativity and how we use it at work reveals why art is the best way to exercise the creative muscles…

The purpose of behavioral questions is not to tell specific stories about your past. It is to use stories to signal to interviewers how you are going to behave in the future. Here’s how to do it…

There’s a 2,000 year old trick to nailing this classic interview opening…

I was focusing on well-constructed answers while missing the fundamental principle all along…