Top Executive Coaching with Tony Mayo

My mother, my wife, my sister, and Oprah recommended Ellen Foster to me. Ellen Foster is a very young, very mistreated Southern girl who tells her story in simple, compelling language. She takes us energetically into her world and lets us see adult behavior through her worldly but never cynical eyes. Her saga is funny, clever, and heart-rending. But most of all, it is a true human experience.

I read Ellen Foster in between reading

Read the rest of this entry »

Share it!

I am pleased if a novel provides me with insight into one type of person. I am thrilled that When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of the Earth by Fernanda Eberstadt took me deeply into the heads of three people: Alfred, the man who married so much money he never learned what he might have made of himself; Dolly, the heiress who loved the art milieu more than she cared about art; and Isaac, the brilliant artist whose personality and creations forced their compromises to the breaking point.

The book introduces us to a wide cast of realistically drawn characters who interact in a believable and compelling manner while moving in

Read the rest of this entry »

Share it!

Spidertown
by Abraham Rodriguez, Jr.

Ever wonder, as I have, what it is like to come of age in the South Bronx? To be a citizen of the world’s greatest nation, a short ride from Trump Tower, commuting distance from a million high paying jobs yet to be in reasonable fear for your life night and day, to have

Read the rest of this entry »

Share it!

One of my favorite radio programs and podcasts is the non-denominational, non-doctrinaire Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett. Krista interviews deep thinkers with important ideas about the essential human experiences of awe, eternity, and community. Every show leads me to reflect deeply and, very often, to live a happier, more involved life. I consider it one of the most nurturing practices of my continual development as an executive coach.

A recent guest was Esther Sternberg, Ph.D., an expert on immunology and stress. She relates the remarkable history of stress’s role in heath and healing. It seem that every culture has always known that emotional and physical stressors contribute to

Read the rest of this entry »

Share it!

The Essential Gandhi:
An Anthology of his Writings on

his Life, Work, and Ideas

---

by Mahatma Gandhi

or Mohandas K. Gandhi
Louis Fisher, Editor

[Items in square brackets are by Tony Mayo.]

{Items in fancy brackets are by the editor, Louis Fisher.}

p. 15 [As a boy, Gandhi confessed a petty theft to his father and was forgiven.] This was for me an object lesson in Ahimsa [Love and Non-Violence]. Then I could read in it nothing more than a father’s love but today I know that it was pure Ahimsa. When such Ahimsa becomes all-embracing it transforms everything it touches. There is no limit to its power.

This sort of sublime forgiveness was not natural to my father. I had thought he would be angry, say hard things and strike his forehead. But he was so wonderfully peaceful and I believe this was due to

Read the rest of this entry »

Share it!