Letters from Sunday Morning
One letter every Sunday about how founders lead, decide, and sometimes get in their own way. Something worth noticing. Usually something worth trying.
“Victor's Sunday Morning letters overflow with courage and the love.”
Robbie Swale — Executive Coach, Author— The Power to Choose
Four questions keep showing up in what I write. Every letter answers at least one of them.
The Toll
What success quietly asks us to pay.
The Origin
What home taught us that no boardroom could.
The Autopilot
What we keep doing after it stops serving us.
The Inheritance
What we were given, and what we pass on.
I Think We're Going to Need a Bigger Box
I went to the DMV last week.
It was surprisingly calm, efficient, even digital—everything we’ve been promised about modern systems. They showed their practiced smiles from behind the bulletproof glass and told me I had brought the wrong kind of identification. And I had to come back twice. Not be...
by Victor Rivera —
Sep 01, 2026
the autopilot
Who's Frank?
Hey, it's Sunday Morning,
A few weeks ago, while prepping the house for a visit, my youngest daughter stopped me in my tracks.
“Papa, what’s going on tomorrow?” she asked.
“My friend Frank is coming over for coffee,” I told her.
“Who’s Frank?”
“You know, the Columbia professor, the gentle guy, my...
by Victor Rivera —
Sep 01, 2026
the inheritance
Everyone has an accent.
Hey, it's Sunday Morning.
Have you ever tried to fix something about yourself just to feel more normal?
I did.
I thought that if I could smooth out the edges—change how I sounded, carried myself, or showed up—I’d finally belong. I thought that playing the part would make me feel complete.
For ye...
by Victor Rivera —
Sep 01, 2026
the origin
In American, we don’t do that.
Hey, it’s Sunday Morning,
I had just started my first job in New York. Young and unfamiliar with everything, including how people said hello.
My first client was Michelle. She walked in, and I stood up to greet her the way I would back home—with a kiss on the cheek. It wasn’t romantic or dramatic...
by Victor Rivera —
Aug 30, 2026
the origin
Sound check,
dfsdfs
Hey, it’s Sunday Morning,
“It takes a long time to sound like yourself.” —Miles Davis
Miles Davis didn’t come out of the gate with his sound fully formed. He played with giants—Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie—absorbing, experimenting, and stretching the limits of what jazz could be.
From t...
by Victor Rivera —
Aug 30, 2026
the inheritance
How I learned to be seen.
The story behind the praise—and the boy underneath it.
Hey, it's Sunday Morning.
"Terrific."
I heard that word so many times early in my career it made me blush. Strange, isn’t it? A word that once meant terror has come to mean excellence.
But I wasn’t always “terrific.”
In elementary school, lea...
by Victor Rivera —
Aug 30, 2026
the inheritance
The edges with clip
Hey, it's Sunday Morning.
There’s this weird thing we all have in common.
From the start, we’re given a complete script: Here’s how to behave. Here's what to wear. This is success. This is happiness. Here’s the right way to feel about it all.
And… fine. We try.
We learn how to trim ourselves down...
by Victor Rivera —
Aug 30, 2026
the autopilot
Golden child.
Hey, it’s Sunday Morning.
Here’s to you—the Golden child.
You did everything they never had to say out loud. You met the moment, time and time again. You ticked every box and checked every item on the list. You became the one they could count on, the one who wouldn’t let them down.
It looked tidy...
by Victor Rivera —
Aug 30, 2026
the toll
The silent cost of looking strong.
Why holding it all together might be the very thing holding you back.
Hello again, it's Sunday Morning.
Â
“Big boys don’t cry.”
“Kick some ass.”
“Ooh, you're so sensitive.”
For a certain generation, beyond jabs, these were instructions. A survival manual passed down from father to son, coach ...
by Victor Rivera —
Aug 30, 2026
the autopilot
Tied to the mast.
Hey, it's Sunday Morning,
I didn’t grow up playing organized sports—unless you count the chaotic street games of childhood. My kids, however, participated in cross-country and track. They experienced that wholesome, sweaty slice of Americana I missed. And watching them made me feel as if I had sk...
by Victor Rivera —
Aug 30, 2026
the toll
No, You’re right.
It’s Sunday Morning,
I had my very first performance review back when I measured my life in Picas and Points. It was memorable—and not in a good way.
They said, “You’re always so reliable,” and it landed like praise wrapped around a warning. I wasn’t being seen—I was being measured for how quietl...
by Victor Rivera —
Aug 30, 2026
the autopilot
Annuar’s room.
From Buddha to the desert dervish, stories have long revealed the truth about men with nothing and wisdom worth everything. This is one of those stories. Or maybe, just the one I needed.
Hey, it’s Sunday Morning,
The king descended from the castle on the hill to see if the stories were true. A ma...
by Victor Rivera —
Aug 30, 2026
the origin
