It sounds good, right? According to most dictionaries, to be fulfilled is to feel satisfied or happy. You don’t want to be fulfilled. You want to be intermittently fulfilled. You have to make it a part-time job or it becomes a full-time problem. To feel fulfilled, when predicated on hard work and achievement, is a […]
THE TRUTH ABOUT DIVERSITY
(Excerpt from my new book Live Hard) “Take the topic of privilege – white privilege to be exact. Is it real? Yes. Is it important? Yes. Is it easy for people, especially white people, to understand? Not always. The challenge is that while all white people have experienced privilege, they don’t know it. They think […]
INNOVATE LIKE YOU MEAN IT
A lot of organizations talk about learning and innovation, but it’s just hot air. They like the ideas, but not the inherent risk and hard work. We all fawn over the maverick of the month in the business press, but are we really walking the innovation talk? Highly effective organizations get past the rhetoric and […]
YOUR CALLING
When you feel called to do something, you really don’t have a choice, do you? It’s an overwhelming feeling. It’s when an activity or vocation suddenly becomes an imperative – something you simply must do. It’s positive, powerful, and invigorating. It provides you with clarity. It pushes you forward with purpose and passion. That’s amazing. […]
MIRROR, MIRROR
(an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Live Hard) Self-improvement isn’t difficult to understand. You just have to ask the right questions and seek answers honestly. You must be genuinely open to feedback – a terribly useful and sometimes painful catalyst for change. Feedback comes from many sources: self-reflection, observation, task performance, comments from others, opportunities […]
BUSINESS DONE BETTER
There is a growing movement of people who are anti-business. They dwell on the damage, both real and perceived, done by businesses to individuals, communities, and the planet. They are wrong. Well, kinda. They make many immensely important observations about less than productive behaviors. It’s their conclusion that is wrong. Business is the only real […]
THE CURIOUS NATURE OF SUCCESS
There are two main phases of success: before you’re successful and after you’re successful. Before you make it, you’re successful in spite of what you don’t have. That’s the defining characteristic of life before success. You fake it until you make it. You stretch resources and get creative. You clock major hours. You take risks. […]
BE MORE
[I was thinking about my two boys yesterday. They are amazing, and also normal and sometimes lazy – hey, they’re teenagers. It amazes me how much time they spend doing nothing (i.e., gaming, watching videos). I fight to remind myself that I too did a lot of nothing at their age. Then my inner pontificator […]
A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Sometimes, when I watch people engage self-improvement efforts, it reminds me of dieting. You have the crazies who are super self-motivated and never seem to stop trying things, always improving a little, reading, thinking, measuring, and striving. They are inspirational, and possibly even annoying (as all superstars can be from time to time). Then you […]
CHANGE IS DANGEROUS
We often make heroes out of our innovators. They are activists, change agents, and provocateurs. Following their big wins, they are celebrated. But how accurate is our portrait? Not very. They always experience strife we forget. It’s true in business as it is in society. When a new gadget comes out, a fancy piece of […]
