by Brooks Mendell | Jun 24, 2026 | Communication Skills, Books, Leading/Managing, Learning, Sports, Thinking/Analysis
We rush. We are quick to react or respond. Unless on Jeopardy, why hurry? My football coach at San Mateo High School, Buz Williams, used to tell the quarterbacks to “set, look, throw.” This meant, first, get your feet set. Next, look and mentally “see” or...
by Brooks Mendell | Jan 16, 2026 | Leading/Managing, Communication Skills, Forestry, Learning, Sports, Thinking/Analysis, Writing
Daily Habits and Practice As a second grader in Cockeysville, Maryland, I came home from school nursing a bruised ego the first time we took a physical fitness test. That day, I had barely managed one chin-up after watching my friends crank out four, six and more. My...
by Brooks Mendell | Oct 31, 2025 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing, Learning, Sports
Years ago, my younger brother, Loren, and I traveled to Uruguay to study Spanish and eat grilled meat. Our return home included a troublesome and frustrating connection in a regional Brazilian airport. Previously, Loren had worked at CAA as a talent agent assistant,...
by Brooks Mendell | Jul 31, 2025 | Thinking/Analysis, Leading/Managing, Learning, Sports
T-H-I-N-K Often, it’s not until years later, after you’ve had a chance to manage or motivate people, lead a project, start a business, or navigate a challenging series of events that you recognize the power and impact of lessons learned years before from parents,...
by Brooks Mendell | May 31, 2025 | Leading/Managing, Books, Communication Skills, Forestry, Learning, Sports, Thinking/Analysis
As a kid, I learned that the “knee bone connected to the thigh bone” thanks to the School House Rock song “Them Not So Dry Bones.” The lyrics remind us how things “really fit” and “it’s a framework… holding you together.” This idea, that we are combinations of...
by Brooks Mendell | Dec 22, 2024 | Learning, Sports
Beaverball, my book about a season with the MIT baseball team, includes stories about how we sometimes shared a word or fact “of the day” while stretching at the start of practice. At my high school in California, when the baseball and football teams warmed-up, we...
