I learned a new word today – autodidact. It means, “a self-taught person”. AKA someone who has acquired knowledge without seeking help from a teacher or formal education institution. I’ve heard the word before, but never knew its meaning. Today, when I heard it on the Reason Roundtable podcast, I looked up the meaning. I…
Author: Steve Ainslie
A Bottle Of Water, A Box Of Tissues And A Hug
Over the course of my career, I worked my way up from entry level sales rep to team lead to manager to director to VP. During this time, I also had several major career setbacks that forced me to start over from the bottom again. Because of this, I had direct experience and expertise doing…
Father Of Mine
I could have written this song by Everclear about my father. It pretty much sums up my relationship with my father. He abandoned us when I was 5. Except for an occasional card or letter we rarely heard from him. He got a new wife, had a baby, owned a house and new cars. My…
Learning Curve
I am addicted to learning. I would guess I was born this way. As far backs I can remember, I wanted to know more and do more. My learning memories include: During all of these years, I wasn’t actively pursuing learning, I was pursuing some other end objective. Learning was the means to get there….
Full Throttle
When I am invested in something, I tend to go all in – especially in the beginning. I’ve followed this pattern my entire life as far back as I can remember. I’m not very good with moderation. So when I fell for MGLN, it was no surprise to me that I was “all in”. With…
Embracing Bachelorhood
Many years ago I went to a book signing by one of my favorite authors, Robert B. Parker. It was held in the Mystery Lover’s Bookstore and was really cool. Parker sat at a table and spoke to us for half an hour about his life, his career, his characters and his approach to writing….
Wishful Thinking
When I was small child, I wished my parents would stop fighting and not get divorced. When we moved across the state to a strange city where I had no friends and no relatives, I wished we would move back “home” to Tamaqua. When I was a flabby 7th grade adolescent recently interested in girls,…
The Last Gift My Wife Gave Me
When my wife’s lung cancer spread and I realized she was going to die, I had a one track mind with a single purpose – make her remaining time as peaceful as possible and prevent her from suffering. I failed at that. Her final four months of life were horrible. She was wracked with pain….
Crazy Eyes
In a fit of madness, boredom and pathetic-ness, I created a Tinder account last night. I wanted to see if there were more choices of datable women than what was on Hinge and Bumble. My Tinder experience was short lived. Three hours later, I deleted my account. Here’s what I noticed that was different with…
Ghosted
I have officially crossed another dating milestone – I’ve been ghosted. In fact, I’ve been ghosted multiple times this past week. Two times it was online in dating apps with women who “liked” me. One never responded to my request to chat. The other said, “Sure how about tomorrow?”. I suggested several times/dates and she…