Welcome to SmartsMatter

“What I lack in smarts, I make up for in work…and given how hard I have to work, I must not be that smart!”–Greg hague

Verbal Oatmeal

At the age of 12 I had become an incessant chatterbox, often to the irritation of my dad, Chubby. One Sunday afternoon in 1960 I was in

Read More »

Ask A Woman

Sara was a pretty good student at Florida State with a dream of becoming an attorney…until she took the dreaded LSAT to determine her aptitude for

Read More »

Prove Them Wrong

In 2007 Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were roommates in San Francisco, and they had a problem…they couldn’t afford their rent. The roommates had met in

Read More »

A Mask To Loyalty

Lori Holden had the same fears most children experience growing up (meeting other kids, speaking in front of her class, trying new things). Her dad taught

Read More »

Stripe Builds Roads

Patrick was the oldest of three boys, born in 1988 in a small village in Ireland.  His mother, a microbiologist. His father, an electrical engineer. Patrick took

Read More »

Mind Over Mattress

Jim invited his mother over for dinner. When Mom arrived she was a bit surprised to meet Jim’s breathtakingly beautiful roommate, Krista. Mom had assumed her

Read More »

Birthing A Spongmonkey

Yes, you read that right…Spongmonkey.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuPTZWhz46M I know, the name alone might make you cringe. Spongmonkeys were the pair of horribly annoying, disfigured, singing rodents that appeared

Read More »

A MARKETING MISCONCEPTION

Have you heard the joke that marketing is like sex? Every company thinks they’re good at it…but few actually are.  That joke is usually followed by

Read More »

The Kiln of Competition

When Robinhood launched in 2015 with $3 million in venture capital, established stock brokers  laughed it off as just another fintech fad, much the way taxi drivers

Read More »

Doing The Impossible

During the height of the Cold War in the 1960s nuclear paranoia was at an all time high. I remember those scary “duck and cover” drills we

Read More »

The Success Trap

The Boston Globe named his company “the Apple of its time,” calling it “a juggernaut of innovation.” When Harvard scientist Edwin Land founded the company in Cambridge,

Read More »

Gravity Doesn’t Care

When my three boys were young I fondly remember nights with them studying at the kitchen table after dinner. When they were old enough to deal

Read More »

The Reality of Tomorrow

It’s August 19, 1971. Men armed with machine guns stand guard at Santa Martha Acatitla prison in Mexico City. The warden is expecting a visit from

Read More »

Rental Nation

“Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.” -Andrew Carnegie You’ve probably heard of D.R. Horton. Dubbed “America’s Builder,” the company has been the

Read More »

Spending Oneself

It was the fall of ‘66. I was 18. Freshman year in college.  My friend Bob and I wanted to bum around Europe the following

Read More »

Draw Your Widest Circle

On March 13, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a national emergency. Lockdowns followed, and the world seemed to change overnight.  Trying to stay safe forced us to “draw

Read More »

Verbal Oatmeal

At the age of 12 I had become an incessant chatterbox, often to the irritation of my dad, Chubby. One Sunday afternoon in 1960 I was in

Read More »

Ask A Woman

Sara was a pretty good student at Florida State with a dream of becoming an attorney…until she took the dreaded LSAT to determine her aptitude for

Read More »

Prove Them Wrong

In 2007 Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were roommates in San Francisco, and they had a problem…they couldn’t afford their rent. The roommates had met in

Read More »

A Mask To Loyalty

Lori Holden had the same fears most children experience growing up (meeting other kids, speaking in front of her class, trying new things). Her dad taught

Read More »

Stripe Builds Roads

Patrick was the oldest of three boys, born in 1988 in a small village in Ireland.  His mother, a microbiologist. His father, an electrical engineer. Patrick took

Read More »

Mind Over Mattress

Jim invited his mother over for dinner. When Mom arrived she was a bit surprised to meet Jim’s breathtakingly beautiful roommate, Krista. Mom had assumed her

Read More »

Birthing A Spongmonkey

Yes, you read that right…Spongmonkey.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuPTZWhz46M I know, the name alone might make you cringe. Spongmonkeys were the pair of horribly annoying, disfigured, singing rodents that appeared

Read More »

A MARKETING MISCONCEPTION

Have you heard the joke that marketing is like sex? Every company thinks they’re good at it…but few actually are.  That joke is usually followed by

Read More »

The Kiln of Competition

When Robinhood launched in 2015 with $3 million in venture capital, established stock brokers  laughed it off as just another fintech fad, much the way taxi drivers

Read More »

Doing The Impossible

During the height of the Cold War in the 1960s nuclear paranoia was at an all time high. I remember those scary “duck and cover” drills we

Read More »

The Success Trap

The Boston Globe named his company “the Apple of its time,” calling it “a juggernaut of innovation.” When Harvard scientist Edwin Land founded the company in Cambridge,

Read More »

Gravity Doesn’t Care

When my three boys were young I fondly remember nights with them studying at the kitchen table after dinner. When they were old enough to deal

Read More »

The Reality of Tomorrow

It’s August 19, 1971. Men armed with machine guns stand guard at Santa Martha Acatitla prison in Mexico City. The warden is expecting a visit from

Read More »

Rental Nation

“Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.” -Andrew Carnegie You’ve probably heard of D.R. Horton. Dubbed “America’s Builder,” the company has been the

Read More »

Spending Oneself

It was the fall of ‘66. I was 18. Freshman year in college.  My friend Bob and I wanted to bum around Europe the following

Read More »

Draw Your Widest Circle

On March 13, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a national emergency. Lockdowns followed, and the world seemed to change overnight.  Trying to stay safe forced us to “draw

Read More »