I didn’t know Dolly Parton well. I did an event with her in 2020 and met her backstage briefly. She spent hours taking photos before she put on her show. The line out of her dressing room was massive but she made sure every single person got a picture. I wasn’t expecting one. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. (I can be pretty pessimistic sometimes.) I stood in the hall getting ready for my speech and overhearing her dote on each person that met her. Two hours later, when the line was gone, my friend said, “Do you want to meet Dolly?” I have to imagine she was exhausted. Even introverts get tired from so many micro conversations with so many strangers. She was 75, about to do a long concert (for charity) and probably ready to be done with that part of her night. Instead, she took one more photo and I got a memory that made me look like a cool dad to my kids. She even complimented my kin, Roy Acuff, who she knew through the Grand Ole Opry. God bless Dolly Parton and the impact she made on millions. She was 1 of 1.

You’re still going to get letters asking you to pay for those CDs.

I didn’t watch @thechosentv at first because I had a chip on my shoulder like, “It’s probably terrible like a fake $100 bill that’s a tract.” I grew up in an age where Christian meant “poorly made art.” I was wrong about this. It’s fantastic.

One of the reasons that this very reasonable question gets asked is that culture ran a decades long psyop to convince us kids were impediments to the best life possible. I didn’t move to the suburbs for dull Friday nights, I signed up for the adventure known as family and 22 years later wouldn’t change a single thing.

It’s always a real joy when your friends read your book! Thanks Greg!

I don’t know why we keep acting like Kobe didn’t force the trade to the Lakers. Do you honestly think he wanted to play in Charlotte or LA? “In “Sole Man,” Vaccaro, who signed Bryant to an endorsement deal with Adidas and was instrumental in Kobe’s jump to the pros, acknowledges that they wanted Kobe to play for the Lakers. He says they even created a rumor that Kobe would go play pro ball in Italy to dissuade teams from drafting him.”

I grew up in Massachusetts in the 1980s and I swear we used to say the word “mint” as a way to say “cool.” My wife has never heard of that. Did you say mint?

We’re debt free. Lived off my salary so wife could stay home with kids. ($50k) Camped for vacation ($11 per night.) Got cheapest house in worst school district. Freelanced on top of full time job. Moved to Nashville. Wrote 12 books. Hit NYT. Tithed 1st, bills 2nd, invested 3rd.

Me: Your sister texted me Happy Father's Day ... My oldest kid: That's cause she's at camp. I told you IRL, right to your face. Next you'll want me to do an Instagram post. Me: A carousel with some of the best photos of me & a long caption would be nice. My oldest kid: Oh jeez.

Thanks Jim! (And I've watched that clip of your game 100 times!)

Raise your “Acceptable Success Line.” The ceiling you think is the amount of success you deserve is an arbitrary number you inherited from your parents, hometown and 5 closest friends. No one is afraid of success. They're afraid of disobeying their Acceptable Success Line.

I made $24,500 at my first job as Gen X. The same job today would pay $52,500. Every generation is difficult. I wish it got easier but life doesn’t. You learn to adapt or learn to blame.

Again, where’s the link to the data? “The latest bank data was released” is a meaningless clickbait sentence unless you can share a study that shows the numbers you’re talking about.

A simple X lesson. Whenever someone says “new study” and doesn’t link to that study, they are either lying or lazy or both. Never trust anyone who says “new study” and doesn’t show receipts.

If you never made $1b, commenting about what it feels like to make $1b is like me commenting about what it feels like to dunk. I don’t know. I’ve barely touched the net. Alex hasn’t made $500 million or $250 million or $100 million. We don’t know.

Say this the next time your flight is delayed. Last night after waiting 52 minutes at a restaurant in Black Mountain, NC we abandoned ship and walked to another one to start the waiting process all over. The restaurant was understaffed and a collection of people began piling up on the sidewalk. At minute 45, the hostess came out the front door and yelled for a party who had already given up and left. She then hit herself in the head with a stack of menus. “I hate my job! This is the worst job ever!” She shouted into the cool mountain air. How do you weather moments like that? The never ending restaurant wait, the delayed flight, the DMV? Often, you can’t say, “They’re doing their best” because they’re not. They’re doing their medium-est, as people who are underled and underpaid are often understandably prone to be. How did I keep my Joe Cool last night? Scott Allen, a professor from SMU who I did a few Lexus events with taught me a trick. All I do is imagine I’ve just been invited to an impromptu lesson in Emotional Intelligence. I’ve just been given a golden opportunity to recognize, understand and manage my emotions. I take a deep breath and say the soundtrack “Session is in.” It’s one thing to read about empathy, kindness or patience. It’s another thing to practice it when your pilot just timed out in DFW and you’ve got an airport La Quinta in your near future. That’s what I did last night. I made it even easier on myself by texting Scott and thanking him for the technique. After a fruitless hour of waiting, we walked to the nearby Thai Basil restaurant and ended up having a wonderful meal. Crisis averted. “Session is in” is powerful soundtrack. Say it the next time you’re tempted to lose your cool. Question: What moments in your day challenge your patience the most?

However bad your day is going it could be worse.

This is a quick reminder that the last time you felt nauseous, you thought, "I should have appreciated all the days when I didn't feel sick. I was so ungrateful! I had no idea how good I had it." If you don't feel sick today, be thankful! #HappyNotThrowingUpTuesday

This birthday keeps getting better and better!