Sublime

I’m aware that Chloe may have no memory of me at all. She’s too young. But I want her to grow up knowing that I was the first man ever to fall in love with her. I’d always thought the father/daughter thing was overstated. But I can tell you, it’s real. Sometimes, she looks at me and I just become a puddle.

If anyone knows about having a lot on the line, it’s Jordan Walters of the Silicon Valley branch of the investment house Smith Barney. Jordan is exactly the kind of person you’d look for in a financial planner: he’s calm, he’s thoughtful, and he always takes the time to listen. As we sat down in his office and sipped from the minibar-sized can of a

Tamagotchi.”

What they did value were things like quality friendships, being part of something bigger than themselves, and spending quality, unstructured time with their children.

THE MOST formidable brick wall I ever came upon in my life was just five feet, six inches tall, and was absolutely beautiful. But it reduced me to tears, made me reevaluate my entire life and led me to call my father, in a helpless fit, to ask for guidance on how to scale it.

Give yourself permission to dream. Fuel your kids’ dreams, too. Once in a while, that might even mean letting them stay up past their bedtimes.

But I like to think that my flaws are in the social, rather than in the moral category.

Don’t Obsess Over What People Think