The Storyteller NotebookA new story every Monday · 20 in the archive

Stories worth telling.

A weekly publication and a permanent archive. Every Monday I publish one true story from my life — one that made me laugh, taught me something, challenged me, or changed the way I see the world. This is where they all live.

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This Week's Story

Featured Monday publication

Lessons from Life

Sometimes the story that changes your life isn't the one you finally have the courage to tell — it's the one you finally have the courage to hear.

7 min read

Story № 24

I Thought I Knew the Story

I went back to Leavenworth, Kansas, for my 55th high school reunion thinking I knew the story. After all, I'd been carrying it around for more than half a century. What I didn't know was that before the weekend was over, one of my classmates was going to give…

reunioncouragememory

Recent Stories

Fresh from the notebook.

Personal Growth

Sometimes you don't discover your purpose by looking for something new. You discover it by paying attention to what keeps showing up in your life.

So This Is What 72 Looks Like

I’m 72 years old, and I think I’ve finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be me. Now, it took me 72 years to…

Business

A leader isn't the person at the point because he can do everything. He's at the point because he knows he can't.

The Point of Leadership

★ Featured Aug 31, 2026

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams I thought I was…

Personal Growth

You can cheat the test, but you can't cheat the lesson.

The A I Never Earned

★ Featured Aug 24, 2026

The other day, I learned that one of my fraternity brothers, Roy Jones, had passed away. When someone from your past dies, it's interesting…

Personal Growth

A rule somebody else gives you is one thing. A standard you give yourself is something else entirely.

You've Got to Show Up

★ Featured Aug 24, 2026

I got fired from one job for stealing. Then I went to work for Southwestern Bell and didn't miss a day of work for the next 40 years.…

6 min readRead or Listen

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Each collection is a curated set of stories on one theme — a place to sit and read for an afternoon, not just scroll a feed.

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5 stories

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Running

2 stories

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Speaking

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2 stories

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Retirement

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Wisdom

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Lessons from Life

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Lessons From a Lifetime

Ten principles drawn from seven decades — ending with the one that matters most: die empty.

Read the ten principles

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The Archive

Every story, all in one place.

20 stories

Lessons from Life

Sometimes the story that changes your life isn't the one you finally have the courage to tell — it's the one you finally have the courage to hear.

I Thought I Knew the Story

I went back to Leavenworth, Kansas, for my 55th high school reunion thinking I knew the story. After all, I'd been carrying it around for…

Personal Growth

Sometimes you don't discover your purpose by looking for something new. You discover it by paying attention to what keeps showing up in your life.

So This Is What 72 Looks Like

I’m 72 years old, and I think I’ve finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be me. Now, it took me 72 years to…

Business

A leader isn't the person at the point because he can do everything. He's at the point because he knows he can't.

The Point of Leadership

★ Featured Aug 31, 2026

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams I thought I was…

Personal Growth

You can cheat the test, but you can't cheat the lesson.

The A I Never Earned

★ Featured Aug 24, 2026

The other day, I learned that one of my fraternity brothers, Roy Jones, had passed away. When someone from your past dies, it's interesting…

Personal Growth

A rule somebody else gives you is one thing. A standard you give yourself is something else entirely.

You've Got to Show Up

★ Featured Aug 24, 2026

I got fired from one job for stealing. Then I went to work for Southwestern Bell and didn't miss a day of work for the next 40 years.…

6 min readRead or Listen

Running

Old age doesn't begin when your hair turns gray. It begins the day you stop showing up.

The Day the Competition Disappeared

★ Featured Aug 10, 2026

The January air was cold enough to make you question your sanity. As I stood at the starting line of the Mansfield Run for Your Heart race,…

3 min readRead or Listen

Wisdom

Positive people don't have fewer bad days — they keep looking until they find the blessing.

The Luckiest Bad Days of My Life

★ Featured Aug 3, 2026

People sometimes ask me how I stay so positive. The truth is, I don't think positive people have fewer bad days than anyone else. We've…

5 min readRead or Listen

Storytelling

Comparison doesn't just steal our joy. Sometimes it steals our participation.

When Comparison Silenced Me

People have been telling me for years that I should sing. Sometimes it's after church. Sometimes it's after a speech. Sometimes it's after…

3 min readRead or Listen

Wisdom

Courage and wisdom aren't always the same thing — maturity is knowing which battles belong to you.

The Shirts Were Insured

★ Featured Aug 31, 2026

"Wisdom is knowing the difference between what is worth fighting for and what is worth walking away from." Just the other day I was…

4 min readRead or Listen

Wisdom

Discipline is far more dependable than motivation — extraordinary lives are built by ordinary habits repeated with extraordinary faithfulness.

The Quiet Power of Discipline

★ Featured Jul 20, 2026

Every morning at six o''clock, my alarm clock and I have the same little disagreement. The alarm says, "Time to get up." My body says, "I…

3 min readRead or Listen

Family

Courage isn't the absence of fear — it's the willingness to keep moving in spite of it.

My Father Never Hit The Brakes

★ Featured Sep 7, 2026

“It took me many years to understand what my father was really doing that night.” When I was growing up, we didn't take many vacations.…

4 min readRead or Listen

Retirement

Live so fully that when your time comes, you die empty — because you gave this life everything you had.

The Years Ahead

The second Saturday of every month, I attend a Men's Circle. It's one of those places where men can slow down for a couple of hours,…

3 min readRead or Listen

Personal Growth

You don't have to be certain — you only have to believe enough to take the next step.

Believe Just Enough to Make the Effort

Before 1954, people didn't simply believe that no one had run a four-minute mile. They believed no one *could*. That one little word —…

4 min readRead or Listen

Business

People judge you by what they see, not by what you intend.

The View from the Other Side

I thought I was the perfect employee. I took my breaks exactly on time, ate lunch exactly on time, and went home exactly at five o'clock. I…

3 min readRead or Listen

Speaking

The day I started calling myself a speaker wasn't the day my career changed. It was the day my thinking changed. Everything else followed.

The Day I Gave Myself Permission to Speak

★ Featured Sep 14, 2026

During my run this morning, I found myself wondering when I actually became a speaker. It wasn't when I won my first Toastmasters contest.…

3 min readRead or Listen

Storytelling

When you tell a personal story, make someone else the hero.

I Never Stood Alone

★ Featured Aug 17, 2026

Over the years I’ve attended countless meetings, conferences, workshops, and speeches. Somewhere along the way—I’m not even sure where…

4 min readRead or Listen

Running

We often discover our greatest supply only after making a greater demand on ourselves. Don’t let your first limit become your final destination.

The Other Side of Supply and Demand

This morning, somewhere around mile three of my run, I found myself back in an economics classroom. Funny how that happens. When you’re…

3 min readRead or Listen

Personal Growth

Most of our biggest challenges are too overwhelming if we try to tackle them all at once. But almost anything becomes possible when we simply focus on taking one more step.

Sometimes You Have to Take the Stairs

Every year my nephew, Lemuel, calls with the same invitation. “Uncle Michael, are you coming to Seattle for the stair climb?” I know…

4 min readRead or Listen

Family

The values our parents instill become the foundation we build our lives upon—and that foundation carries us farther than talent, luck, or circumstance.

Now I Can Tell You This About a Foundation

One of the things I can tell you about life is that a good foundation matters. When we look at a building, we admire the architecture, the…

3 min readRead or Listen

Family

The things we wish were different about ourselves are often perfectly fine just as they are. Perspective turns embarrassment into gratitude.

Mom's Lesson About Shaving

★ Featured Sep 21, 2026

When I was a youngster, I spent a lot of time worrying about things I couldn't control. I worried about my height. I worried about my…

3 min readRead or Listen