At SXSW last month, I attended several presentations that were well practiced but dull. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with…
“A website is not just a self-promotion machine. It’s a self-invention machine.” – Austin Kleon, in an interview by Debbie…
The brightest minds of our generation are all saying the same thing in different ways. They’re teaching us how to…
(I just unearthed this essay from an old blog of mine. It’s worth reposting here, even though SXSW ended a…
I’ve attended hundreds of panels over the years. I’ve also watched hundreds of solo and dual presentations. In this time,…
Management consulting is a difficult business model. It’s not clear when a management consulting project is done nor if a…
“We find peace when we stop trying to defend the main character [of our stories].” – Don Miguel Ruiz and…
We are in a conference bubble. There are too many conferences, and not enough value being offered. New conferences are…
Last night I had a dream that I was watching a water strider bug with only four legs. Two legs…
Everything is always always optimizing for something. That is, getting as close to the maximum or minimum for at least…
Prominence, influence, and celebrity are products of place. Frank Sinatra knew this, which is why he sang of New York,…
Geniuses aren’t genius on every topic. Many people forget this and think that because they have an audience and some…
In Ryan Holiday’s latest book, Conspiracy, he says that conspiracy is neutral, but how we do it is not. Conspiracy…
In Esther Perel’s new book, The State of Affairs, she says that the quality of our relationships determines the quality…
Tenacity is ineffective failure. That is, if we keep pushing and working hard on our projects until we’re successful, paradoxically…
We teach others how to treat us. We do this by what behaviors we allow, what we reinforce, and how…
Understanding is not binary, yes or no, understood or not understood. Understanding exists on a spectrum with many shades of…
When presenting at a conference like SXSW, make business cards with your session info on them, including the session title…
Natalie Portman recently gave an inspiring speech in which she said: Many men are behaving like we live in a…
Never be duped into thinking that working for another person is a good, reliable, long-term option. We’ll never be that…