Questions for the Author:

• Given your reputation in the realms of business and corporate culture, what caused you to shift your focus to the general public?
• What should the average reader take away from reading When You Grab a Cat…? What is it you hope to communicate?
• How did you come across the stories and anecdotes you’ve assembled for this collection?
• Why did you use that particular quote from Twain as the title? Does Twain’s style or voice have anything to do with what you’re trying to communicate?
• The book has been described as a constituting “American Zen”, offering wisdom and insight from tales that are commonplace and accessible. What sort of “wisdom” is so communicated? And, if the tales and situations are so easily relatable, why do they need to be collected and presented thusly ?
• Despite the much-heralded non-business nature of this book, there is a chapter entitled “Business Ethics—Do What’s Right”. Do you think that there is an overlap of ethics and morality between the realms of work and one’s personal life? Should there be?
• Returning to the idea of “American Zen”, is there a distinctly spiritual element to this book? (Would you like it to be perceived as such?)
• So much of the business world is caught up in the idea of hierarchies, and this certainly applies (perhaps carries over) into life in general; we act differently to a gas station attendant than we do to, say, a secretary or a doctor, and this difference is usually based on status. Yet a recurring theme in your body of work is the importance of communication across levels. Could you expand on that concept?
• Much of the material in Cat Tail can be read as almost Aesop-like, in the sense that the stories are essentially common-sense fables. Is there an element of common sense missing from the greater American public? In other words, have we as a modern nation lost touch with something essential, something basic?
• One of the more provocative claims made in your press materials is that Cat Tail can be a tool in fostering intergenerational communication. How so? And do you feel that there is a certain generational gap when it comes to perception of the truths and perspectives contained in your book? Is the current generation of parents less able to communicate a set of morals and beliefs to their kids? Are the kids less able to appreciate these ideas, or the way in which they are taught?