TIBS: This I Believe–why do I write them? To carry on my stepfather’s tradition.
My stepfather, Bill Caudill, coined the phrase TIBs and wrote them from 1964 until his death in 1984.
He began his career with a modest two-man architectural practice which grew into a significant international corporation. His firm, CRSS, was included in the “The 100 Best Companies to work for in America”.
Bill wrote them to pinpoint things he really believed in as well as for paper therapy. He wanted to improve his thinking by expressing himself regularly in clear, simple thoughts. He believed that “most of us need to write/think,” he said. To know Bill was to have hope and enthusiasm for the future. His sense of humor and gratitude for the present was contagious. He used to say the past and the future are fine, but I like the present.
“It’s not the sweet by-and-by,
it’s the nasty now-and now.”

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