© 2009 Brooke Allen brooke@brooketallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Originally published October, 2009, in International Family Magazine Republished in Folks Magazine on 10/24/09. When I was 16, my dad told me to get in the car – we were going for a ride. We drove to Bolek’s Foreign Car Service. My dad told Bolek that his son neededContinue reading “Things VS People”
Category Archives: Values
Crime Prevention
© 2009 Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Originally published September, 2009 in International Family Magazine A week after I moved to Manhattan, I went to a street fair and found there a policeman with a big sign: HELP US PREVENT CRIME I approached, “I’m game. How can I help you prevent crime?” He said, “By puttingContinue reading “Crime Prevention”
What am I?
© 2009 Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Originally published August, 2009, in International Family Magazine My friend in college, Debra, asked me, “What are you?” I did not understand the question. “What are you? How hard can that be? I’m Jewish, what are you?” I said I was not religious. “Neither am I. Just tell meContinue reading “What am I?”
Innocence and Responsibility
© 2009 Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Originally published in International Family Magazine My wife and I both feel that our society has gone overboard in making people afraid. One very destructive message inflicted upon children is that they should fear strangers. In a planet as overpopulated as ours, even extremely rare events provide plenty ofContinue reading “Innocence and Responsibility”
In the Best Interest
© 2009 Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Originally published in International Family Magazine Republished in Folks Magazine on 10/17/09. In 1981, I decided to create my own consulting company. It occurred to me that I must learn more about selling if I was to find clients and flourish. For this I took a short sales trainingContinue reading “In the Best Interest”
TV Fatality
© 2009 Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Originally published in International Family Magazine In 1960, when I was eight years old, my parents bought a television. It was a black and white console model and it cost my dad about a month’s take-home pay. It changed my life. I could now entertain myself without friends,Continue reading “TV Fatality”
Can You Afford It?
© 2009 Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Originally published in International Family Magazine It is important not to buy stuff you cannot afford. I attended a presentation by a professor who talked about how, as a child, his Dad drove their cars into the ground even though their less successful neighbors purchased new ones every fewContinue reading “Can You Afford It?”
Why? Why not?
© 2008 Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Originally published in International Family Magazine Someone said, “Mardi Gras starts today.” Six of us shared a table for dinner at the small engineering college in Indiana. I said, “Let’s go?” Four people said, “Why?” Roger said, “Why not?” Roger, who had grown up in Indiana, had only onceContinue reading “Why? Why not?”
Money
© 2008 Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Originally published in International Family Magazine My father told me two things about money that had a profound effect on my life. They were: “Money should buy freedom, not chains.” and, “It is easier to make money doing what makes you happy than to buy happiness with the moneyContinue reading “Money”
When Pigs Fly
© 2008 Brooke Allen brooke@brookeallen.com http://www.BrookeAllen.com Originally published in International Family Magazine In 1977, American Airlines offered me a job in Manhattan in their Operations Research group and I took it. One of our projects was to build a mathematical model to determine how much we should overbook each flight so as to maximize profit.Continue reading “When Pigs Fly”
