Essays From the Book

All essays.

Short pieces from the manuscript and its surrounding material. New pieces arrive about once a month.

The Controlled Burn

From Nursery Lessons, Book One

In the spring of 1993 I rode to Forest Hill, Louisiana with two veteran nursery managers for a seminar and a day of visiting growers. The one driving had been born and raised up there, and since we were ahead of schedule he took us off the interstate and onto the back roads, which nobody objected to. Narrow, winding, pine on both sides. Somewhere past a sign telling us we were close, we came around a curve and the whole horizon was smoke.

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Black Lincolns

From the Foreword to Nursery Lessons

On a Friday in the fall of 1982, most of the people who ran Woolco learned from the radio that the company was closing every store in the country. Twenty-five thousand jobs. The Baton Rouge paper reached Roger Mayes before headquarters did, and he told the reporter it was not true, that it had to be a misunderstanding about a few underperforming stores. They printed his quote in the same edition as the headline.

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Accept Challenges

From Nursery Lessons, Book One

I can't tell you how many times I have heard, “that's not in my job description” or “that's above my pay grade.” I can tell you one of the most common traits of successful people is their willingness to take on challenging tasks or work outside of their comfort zone.

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