DW's Blog

Coper River Salmon

by DW Green — May 7, 2025

“I love those competitors that won’t sell the neat stuff, I call them Sales
Preventions Managers.”—Wise retailer.

Salmon from the Copper River in Alaska could be the world’s best tasting fish. It’s truly a very special early summer treat. I remember back in the late 1980’s, suggesting a Copper River salmon promotion to an Alaskan retailer. The owner said, “No way Jose. They wouldn’t sell. Because everyone who lives in Alaska, catches their own salmon.” After some arm twisting, a couple shots of bourbon and a small wager, he agreed to promote them. It was a huge success and they continued to promote Copper River salmon every year thereafter. Now days, the cost of procuring Copper River salmon is the reason cited by retailers not to promote them. They are expensive, nearly $50 a pound retail in California.“I love those competitors that won’t sell the neat stuff, I call them Sales Preventions Managers.” Funny yet true. How many times do retailers discourage or prevent sales? Fear of loss always prevents gain.The Copper River salmon season in 2025 officially begins on May 22nd with a 12-hour opener for sockeye and Chinook salmon. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) anticipates a strong sockeye run, forecas...

by DW Green — April 30, 2025

“By practicing stillness, we don’t retreat from life—we dive more deeply into it.”

In our perpetually busy world, stillness is often misunderstood. Stillness is not emptiness or absence—it’s presence in its purest form. Like a serene pond whose surface barely ripples, stillness may appear quiet on the outside, but beneath teems with vibrant life and profound connection.When we allow ourselves to be still, we create space to discover what already exists within us. Life is within. Love is within! By pausing and becoming still enough to notice the love that dwells both inside us and all around us, we engage in an act that is simultaneously personal and revolutionary. This practice of intentional stillness becomes a deeply powerful and countercultural statement in a world that values constant motion.Most contemporary society operates on the assumption that movement equals progress—that we must continuously move quickly and climb upward. Stillness challenges this deeply ingrained notion that being busy and occupied is inherently better than being present and attentive. It refuses the constant call to distraction and the expectation that we remain perpetually plugged in to the digital stream of information and stimuli.When we embrace...

by DW Green — April 23, 2025

“Activities are the building blocks of your business model and the foundation of
your competitive advantage. They answer the question:
“What do we actually do?”

In marketing, we often focus on traditional metrics—brand awareness, customer acquisition costs, conversion rates—but there’s a more fundamental metric that deserves our attention: activities.Beyond the Status Quo:Most businesses operate within established industry norms. They analyze competitors, observe standard practices, and make incremental improvements to existing models. This approach inevitably leads to imitation rather than innovation.True differentiation comes not from doing things marginally better, but from doing fundamentally different things— or doing the same things in dramatically different ways.Activities as Competitive Advantage:Activities are the building blocks of your business model and the foundation of your competitive advantage. They answer the question: “What do we actually do?”Consider Southwest Airlines. Their market position as a low-cost carrier isn’t just a tagline—it’s built on specific activities:

Using secondary airports
Em
...
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The Wisdom of Little Eyes

by DW Green — April 16, 2025

“I found myself wondering how much richer our lives might be if we could reclaim even a fraction of that child-like perception…”

Last Saturday, I found myself sitting across from my old friend Rich on his back porch. The afternoon sun filtered through the oak branches as we sipped coffee and caught up on life’s latest chapters. Rich’s face lit up when he mentioned his four-year-old grandson, Ethan, who had been staying with him for the week.“You know what’s strange?” Rich said, leaning forward in his chair. “Yesterday, I was having a rough morning— nothing major, just feeling a bit off. I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, was just going through the motions making breakfast. Ethan walked into the kitchen, looked up at me, and asked, ‘Grandpa, why are you sad today?’”Rich shook his head in wonder. “I hadn’t said a word about being upset. My wife didn’t notice anything different about me. But somehow, this little boy picked up on something in my expression or posture that gave it away.”As Rich continued sharing stories about Ethan’s uncanny perceptiveness, something clicked for me—a realization that felt like a gentle wave washing over my understanding of human consciousness.Children like Ethan exist in...

by DW Green — April 9, 2025

It’s been my experience that following the status quo promotes imitation rather than innovation.

It’s been my experience that following the status quo promotes imitation rather than innovation.I was reading an article on leadership the other day. The following from Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company, makes really good sense to me.“The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action—an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign—even as the rest of the world wonders why you’re not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special.”It’s been my experience that following the status quo promotes imitation rather than innovation. Leadership is about discovering and performing different activities from rivals or performing similar activities in different ways. Differentiation arises from both the choice of activities and how they are performed. Activities, then, are the basic units of competitive advantage. Overall advan...

by DW Green — April 2, 2025

Our dreaming mind might be showing us something profound about reality that our word-saturated waking mind often misses.

During our recently completed Dreams and Zen retreat, participants explored a fascinating territory that many of us overlook—the profound differences between our waking and dreaming minds, and what these differences reveal about the nature of reality itself.The Word-Soaked Waking MindIn our daytime consciousness, words and concepts dominate our experience. We narrate constantly, labeling, categorizing, and explaining our reality through language. These words seem to express our whole experience, yet they actually limit our awareness in subtle but profound ways.Our waking self-identity becomes wrapped in verbal constructs—stories about who we are, what we want, what we fear. We soak our experience in words until the direct encounter with reality becomes obscured by our descriptions of it.The Dreamworld’s Wordless WisdomBut at night, something remarkable happens.In dreaming, we fully experience a concentrated presentation of reality that operates largely without words. We enter what feels like a collective storehouse of pure experience where we interact directl...

by DW Green — March 26, 2025

The emotions we experience, though very real, originate from within ourselves, not from external circumstances.

When we say things like “My work is overwhelming” or “My boss is frustrating me,” we’re making a fundamental error in how we understand our emotions. These external factors—work tasks or another person’s behavior— don’t actually have the ability to create feelings within us. They exist outside us and cannot access our minds.The emotions we experience, though very real, originate from within ourselves, not from external circumstances. This insight was central to Stoic philosophy, which used the term “hypolepsis” (meaning “taking up”) to describe how our minds process perceptions, thoughts, and judgments.What we assume and what we generate in our minds belongs to us alone. We cannot legitimately blame others for making us feel stressed or frustrated any more than we can blame them for our jealousy. The true cause of these feelings resides within us—external factors merely serve as the targets of our emotional responses.

Read more – Smart & Dumb

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by DW Green — March 19, 2025

The ego loves being “center stage” where the self becomes the hero or heroine of the melodrama.

Do you remember the 1978 novel The World According to Garp by John Irving? Later made into the 1982 movie starring Robin Williams. I loved the book. I like John Irving and Robin Williams. I also like eating waffles for dinner on Taco Tuesday. This has nothing to do with The World According to Garp. It has to do with the world according to the ego. Personal judgment is based on perception. This perception is reinforced by belief and prior programming. All of these elements are held in place by the payoff of the ego’s negative energies. Holy moly! The ego just “loves” suffering a “wrong.” It enjoys being the martyr, being misunderstood, and being the endless victim of life’s changing conditions. Consequently, it gets an enormous payoff. This comes not only from the positionality itself but also from sympathy, self-pity, entitlements, and importance. The ego loves being “center stage” where the self becomes the hero or heroin...

by DW Green — March 12, 2025

It teaches us that balance is not a static state but a dynamic one – a continuous adjustment between opposing forces.

The Spring Equinox marks a profound moment in our yearly cycle – that perfect balance between day and night before light begins its gentle dominance. This astronomical event has been celebrated across cultures for millennia, and for good reason. It symbolizes not just the changing of seasons, but a universal principle that applies to our lives: renewal requires change.As the natural world awakens from winter’s slumber, with tender shoots pushing through soil and animals emerging from hibernation, we’re reminded of our own capacity for renewal. The equinox invites us to consider what dormant potential lies within us, waiting for the right conditions to flourish.In our current era, this symbolism feels especially resonant. Humanity stands at a crossroads of unprecedented change – technological, social, environmental, and personal. We’re collectively shedding outdated systems and beliefs, much like trees dropping their leaves in autumn to prepare for new growth. This “upgrade” process, while necessary, rarely feels comfortable.Our resistance to change is completely natural. The human brain is wired to prefer the known ...

by DW Green — March 5, 2025

Learning to trust your instincts and following that inner guidance can be powerful.

Intuition is a phenomenon that allows us to know or consider something likely through instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning. It involves trusting the collective wisdom of all your subconscious experiences. This internal guidance system draws on everything you’ve experienced throughout your lifetime, which means it’s constantly growing and evolving.Unlike logical thinking, intuition bypasses the linear thought process of the mind to directly perceive or cognize a truth or insight. Rather than methodically assembling different thoughts, ideas, and perceptions to reach a conclusion, intuition provides an immediate understanding of the final answer without the mental busywork.Some say that “Intuition is the highest form of intelligence, transcending all individual abilities and skills.” Learning to trust your instincts and following that inner guidance can be powerful. Consider that you’re connected to a broader consciousness with a holistic knowledge base that extends beyond linear cause-and-effect logic.