If you learn anything with age, it’s that life can be a funny old dog, chock full of unexpected ironies. For me, last week’s New York City mayoral election drove that lesson home once again. Those of you who know me or read my blog are aware that my first job out of college more … Continue reading When Donald Trump Endorsed Andrew Cuomo For Mayor, in 1992
Random Stuff
Other stuff I feel like writing about
Taking A Big Swing
The future of media is bright. So bright that I decided to launch a new entrepreneurial media venture called Big Swing Media. There isn’t much optimism in media these days, especially from those of us in our fifties who have worked in the industry for decades. So why am I so sunny about the business? … Continue reading Taking A Big Swing
Thinking About Bill Gerber (1964-2025)
It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Fairfield, CT, my home of more than 25 years. On July 15th Bill Gerber, Fairfield’s First Selectman (the mayor, basically) passed away from brain cancer. He was 60 years old and left behind a wife, two grown children and a large extended network of family and friends. … Continue reading Thinking About Bill Gerber (1964-2025)
Your Commencement Speech
It’s graduation season. We are celebrating two in our family this year: Sammie, our oldest, finished her MBA and Juliet, our youngest, graduated from college. Of course, graduations mean graduation speeches. Like carols at Christmas and pumpkins at Halloween, the commencement address is foundational to the season. A good speech can make all the difference … Continue reading Your Commencement Speech
Fathers, Sons and Heroes
I had a birthday recently, which always makes me think of my dad. This isn’t unusual, birthdays cause many people to think of their parents. Although in my case there is a more uncommon connection: my dad and I shared a birthday. On the day I was born he turned 49. I used to joke … Continue reading Fathers, Sons and Heroes
What Is LinkedIn For?
I’ve been asking myself that question a lot recently. As a longtime user and fan, I want to believe LinkedIn sees itself as a platform designed to help professionals expand their networks, learn new skills, discover job opportunities and grow their careers. But lately it seems LinkedIn’s primary purpose is to get us to spend … Continue reading What Is LinkedIn For?
Coming Clean
Sunday is a good day to talk about coming clean. Owning up to our mistakes is core to many religious faiths. Judaism sets aside a day each year, Yom Kippur, for it. Catholics are expected to go to confession at least once a year. This idea that “confession is good for the soul” extends far … Continue reading Coming Clean
Practicing Silence
Sunday is a good day to talk about silence. Not the kind we experience in our sleep, but a waking silence. It’s hard to come by these days, usually because we are never truly alone in our digital “always-on” world. The buzzes and bells of alerts and notifications constantly interrupt and command our attention. Yet, … Continue reading Practicing Silence
Where do you find inspiration?
I started experimenting on TikTok a few months ago. Mostly because it's a great platform for promoting books. I've got a long way to go and a lot to learn, but it's a fun process. If you're on TikTok, I'd love it if you follow me. You can find me @fredbucherbooks. Every once in a … Continue reading Where do you find inspiration?
Celebrating the Little Wins
LinkedIn is an awesome place to celebrate the big wins - the new job, the promotion. But what about the little wins? I had one this week in my fiction writing. To be honest I haven't always been good at recognizing the importance of little wins. Here's a quick video I made for LinkedIn today … Continue reading Celebrating the Little Wins
Riding Wild Horses
Every artist has their muse. One of the legendary muses in rock history died last week. Marianne Faithfull lived a colorful life – pop star, model, actress, addiction survivor. For all her experiences and accomplishments, she’s probably best known for her intense (and very public) relationship with Mick Jagger in the 1960s. Legend has it … Continue reading Riding Wild Horses
The Road to Forgiveness
Sunday is a good day to talk about forgiveness. Walk into any church on Sunday and you’ll get an earful about forgiveness. It cuts right to the heart of religious faith. The reassurance that there is a God who knows us better than we know ourselves and never fails to forgive no matter the offense … Continue reading The Road to Forgiveness
Sorry, Not Sorry
For a Peak Years Friday bonus I thought I'd share a fun little video I made for LinkedIn about our cultural epidemic of non-apology apologies. Hope you enjoy it. Feedback always welcome. Speaking of apologies, watch for my post this Sunday about forgiveness. Have a great weekend.
Gratitude: The Essential Career Practice
Sunday is a good day to talk about gratitude. For the religious, setting aside one day a week to rest and give thanks is foundational. However, you don’t have to be a person of faith to relate to the idea of regularly scheduled gratitude. A need to give and receive thanks is hard wired into … Continue reading Gratitude: The Essential Career Practice
Taking Time to Celebrate 32
This is what thirty-two looks like. For a long time, a significant part of our lives revolved around that number. Why thirty-two? To complete a bachelor’s degree generally (but far from always) requires four years of college or eight semesters. That’s eight tuition payments. (I’m defining tuition broadly to include room, board, and all other … Continue reading Taking Time to Celebrate 32
Confidence and Humility
Sunday is a good day to talk about humility. It’s a timeless virtue that feels out of step with the times. Attention is the name of the game these days. Politicians, athletes, entertainers, influencers, and brands crave and trade on it. The social media platforms that consume so much of our time harness and profit handsomely from it. … Continue reading Confidence and Humility
A Matter of Faith
Sunday is a good day to talk about faith. How much faith do you have and in what do you place it? Raising questions of faith on a Sunday naturally evokes religion. It’s not a topic most people like to discuss in the context of work, but all of us have faith in something: ourselves, … Continue reading A Matter of Faith
Circle of Life – When A Parent Needs Help
Sunday is a good day to talk about circle of life moments. Growing older and hitting our peak years brings many opportunities, but it also brings its share of challenges. Caring for aging, declining parents is a big one. We’ve had a bit of that in our family recently, including this week. Fortunately everyone is fine, but it … Continue reading Circle of Life – When A Parent Needs Help
The Two Best Ways To Spend Your Time
A quick Peak Years riff on the value of time before we head into the weekend. Time, as everyone knows, is our most precious asset. We pay nothing for it, but it isn’t free. None of us knows how much of it we have. And we can’t make more. Therefore, the choice of how to … Continue reading The Two Best Ways To Spend Your Time
The Blank Page
The blank page. Where every project and creative endeavor starts. A symbol of hope, endless possibilities, and abject terror. I felt all those things when I sat down in front of the computer this week to start my third novel. After spending the past few months casually noodling an idea for a murder mystery set … Continue reading The Blank Page
Little Things & Big Things
The text not sent. The call not returned. The email ignored. In the moment, they seem like such small things. Not as urgent or important as today’s fire drill. Or maybe we just don’t think that person deserves our attention right now. So, we tell ourselves we’ll get to it, later. But too often we don’t. We like … Continue reading Little Things & Big Things
Old Dogs & New Tricks
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Faithful readers of Peak Years know that I don’t buy into this notion. Sure, it can be harder to learn as we get older. But can’t? No way. I thought of the old dog trope recently while watching the terrific new Netflix documentary, Inside the … Continue reading Old Dogs & New Tricks
The Most Important Day of Your Life
Ask a random person to identify the most important day of their life and you’ll probably hear things like the day they were born, the day they met their significant other, their wedding day, the birth of their child; any of the major milestone days of our lives. Unless the person has a major life … Continue reading The Most Important Day of Your Life
Red Penguins, Pack Rats and Empty Nests
After working more than two decades in media and marketing I’ve accumulated a lot of tchotchkes. While the various collectibles and freebies are undoubtedly a fun part of the job, over time all this stuff can become a problem if you are bit of a pack rat, like me. A visit to the back corner … Continue reading Red Penguins, Pack Rats and Empty Nests
Order My New Thriller Today
I wanted the loyal readers of my blog to be among the first to know that Burning Ambitions, my new book, is now available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback formats. From my previous posts, by now you are well familiar with the basic storyline and saw the sneak peek of Chapter One. The … Continue reading Order My New Thriller Today
Burning Ambitions – A Sneak Peek of Chapter 1
Here's a sneak peek of Chapter 1 of my latest thriller, Burning Ambitions. The book is available at Amazon and other major book retailers. August, 2019 - Buffalo, NY Matt Gleason paced back and forth across the security office inside Municipal Stadium. He glanced at his watch for the fourth time in the past 10 … Continue reading Burning Ambitions – A Sneak Peek of Chapter 1
Burning Ambitions – Coming March 19
I am excited to share that my new book, Burning Ambitions, will be available for purchase on March 19. It's a page-turning thriller featuring two arch rivals competing for the biggest job in sports. The story is set amidst a backdrop of high stakes global politics, ruthless billionaires, and a diabolical conspiracy that will keep you on … Continue reading Burning Ambitions – Coming March 19
Florida State and the Cynics at the CFP
Five options. Four seats. That’s the predicament the College Football Playoff committee found itself in this weekend. Michigan, Washington, Florida State, Texas, and Alabama – one team was going to be disappointed. By now you know that team was Florida State – the first undefeated, Power Five conference champion not to be selected for the … Continue reading Florida State and the Cynics at the CFP
Family Data Plans – Parenting’s Final Frontier
There’s a challenge unique to this generation of parents, never previously confronted in all recorded human history. When do we drop our adult children from the family wireless unlimited data plan? It is the final frontier of parenting. An undiscovered country marked by shadowy terrains of nostalgia, sentiment and perhaps a bit of fear. … Continue reading Family Data Plans – Parenting’s Final Frontier
My Next Chapter – Ready Golf
Earlier this summer I shared that after much thought and deliberation, I made the difficult decision to step away from a job and a group of co-workers that I really liked to take a shot at fulfilling a long-held dream of being an entrepreneur. Today I wanted to share more about my plans and how … Continue reading My Next Chapter – Ready Golf
Where Ideas Come From
Whenever I get into a conversation about writing inevitably someone asks where my ideas come from. I think any person who shares their creative work with the world, whether famous or not, hears this question at some point. Often the questioner follows with a lament that they wish they could write, play piano, paint or … Continue reading Where Ideas Come From
You Make Me Feel So Young
It’s one of Sinatra’s classics. You make me feel so young You make me feel there are songs to be sung Bells to be rung And a wonderful fling to be flung My wife comes from a big Italian family so Sinatra tunes like “You Make Me Feel So Young” were always on the play … Continue reading You Make Me Feel So Young
What Golf Must Do Right Now
Golf has dominated the headlines in a way we haven’t seen since Tiger Woods burst onto the scene. Even people who don’t know the difference between a birdie and a bogey have an opinion about the PGA Tour/PIF agreement. I’m sure you do. Regardless of how one feels about the deal, I think it’s fair … Continue reading What Golf Must Do Right Now
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
Like a lot of people my office is littered with keepsakes from my career. One of my favorites is a horseshoe. It’s a reminder of a memorable business trip I made to the thoroughbred horse farms of Kentucky years ago. (I highly recommend going if you get the chance.) Horseshoes are symbols of luck, that’s … Continue reading Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
What’s In A Name
As a marketer it’s been fascinating, and more than a bit horrifying, to watch the recent rebrand of Twitter to “X” unfold. Others have said this as well: never have we seen a company take a flame thrower to its brand so quickly and thoroughly. Elon Musk is a brilliant visionary who long will be … Continue reading What’s In A Name
The Winds of Change
Bob Dylan famously sang, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Dylan was right about a lot of things, but this one he got wrong. When the wind is blowing something fierce and you’re feeling scared, there’s no one you want more in that situation than the weatherman (or woman). … Continue reading The Winds of Change
Ghosted in the Machine
The email or text that gets no response. The call unreturned. The promised meeting that’s never scheduled. It’s happened to all of us. Quite likely all of us have done it ourselves at one time or another. People used to refer to it as getting blown off. Today the more common term is ghosted. Technology … Continue reading Ghosted in the Machine
The BS Around WFH and RTO
CEOs, especially those running media companies, are under enormous pressure from Wall Street these days. Finding profits in the streaming age is proving to be a very thorny task. Not to mention the impact rising inflation and a potential looming recession are having on the ad marketplace. To appease investors and analysts, CEOs have been … Continue reading The BS Around WFH and RTO
Floyd and Freebird at Fifty
Lest we never forget, the rock gods have a way of drawing our attention to seminal moments in music history when we least expect it. Earlier this month the world lost Gary Rossington, the last surviving, original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Rossington is most known for his signature slide guitar work on Skynyrd’s legendary hit … Continue reading Floyd and Freebird at Fifty
The Love We’re Left With
If you read one book this year, make it I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye by the sportswriter Ivan Maisel. The book is a memoir of the experiences of Ivan and his family dealing with the suicide of his son Max in 2015. Publishers Weekly called it “beautiful and heart-wrenching.” I can think of … Continue reading The Love We’re Left With