Carlos Samaniego

Field Notes

Stories, observations, and lessons.

Things I’m learning, noticing, questioning, and figuring out along the way.

Carlos Samaniego’s Field Notes notebook beside a cup of coffee.

I’ve always carried a notebook. Sometimes it’s for work. Sometimes it’s an idea I don’t want to lose. Sometimes it’s something I noticed sitting by a creek, drinking coffee, traveling, reading, or just thinking about life.

These are my field notes.

Some will be about business, taxes, and building something that lasts. Others will be about family, books, travel, creativity, resilience, and the things I’m still trying to understand.

They’re not meant to be polished essays. They’re observations from the field.

Latest

Field NoteFrom the archive

He paid $30,000 and got betrayed three times.

Let me tell you about Ray Calloway. Ray was 65 years old when the letter arrived. It had been forwarded from his old California address — the house he’d sold after his wife died, after the heart attack, after the doctors told him to slow down or else. $47,488.74. Tax year 2018. A year he…

March 31, 2026 · 2 min read

Field NoteFrom the archive

The EMT who skipped a step (and what it cost)

There’s a saying in emergency medicine that sounds obvious until you’re standing over someone who’s dying. “Treat what kills first.” Not what hurts most. Not what’s loudest. Not what the patient is asking you to fix. What kills first. I learned that in an ambulance. Eleven years of lights-and-sirens, crash scenes, cardiac arrests, and trauma…

March 25, 2026 · 2 min read

Field NoteFrom the archive

Six months ago I blocked this week on my calendar.

Last September I put this week on the calendar and locked it shut. No client calls. No strategy sessions. No notifications at midnight. Because my daughter Bella is a Coast Guard Academy cadet, her schedule belongs to the federal government now, and the windows to be together don’t appear on their own. You plan them…

March 11, 2026 · 1 min read

Archive

Field Notes from Carlos

Stories worth passing along.

Taxes. Business. Books. Travel. Dogs. People. Places. Mistakes. Lessons.