Musings
Change When Things are Good
I was watching the first episode of Abstract: The Art of Design, a new series on Netflix, with my son. It has been a fantastic show so far. The featured designer in this episode was an illustrator named Christoph Niemann. During the conversation he was having with us, the audience, Niemann made a statement that…
Read MoreSet Fire to Your Mind, Not Books
I find it sadly interesting that most of the futures we imagine are dystopian. Really, I challenge you to think of a movie or a book about a distant future where the general sense is that things are better, people are more fulfilled, and overall we are happier. Many of these dystopian futures involve a…
Read MoreWhy Worry
Schopenhauer wrote: “If you accustom yourself to this view of life you will regulate your expectations accordingly, and cease to look upon all its disagreeable incidents, great and small, its sufferings, its worries, its misery, as anything unusual or irregular; nay, you will find that everything is as it should be, in a world where…
Read MorePower Does Not Equal Leadership
I received an email this weekend from my assistant, Robert Greenlaw, that I’d like to share with you: I’ve been mulling over this since Friday and decided to write. I watched a couple hours of inaugural ceremonies with my kids on Friday. It was fun to see and talk about the historic monuments and try…
Read MoreDream
Less than six months before I was born, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963, and delivered one of the most famous speeches of all time. Many know the “I have a dream…” portion of his speech, but that was the finale. Long…
Read MoreThe Problem with People
I was having a conversation with someone I value. We were discussing an issue in his business regarding someone who had been creative and productive in the past but had since stopped creating value. My friend told me about all the things his company did to try to get the person back on track, including…
Read MoreFinding Joy
I am reminded every day by my own responses and emotions that I am far too reliant on my circumstances for my serenity and joy. I let trivial things derail my day. I allow thieves of expectation and entitlement to break in and take what is truly valuable. I exist when I should be living.…
Read MoreManaging
As we get ready to start a new year, I thought I would remind myself of my job. What is it that I am supposed to do? We often use terms like “leader” and “manager,” and we all have fancy titles like “Chief This” and “Chief That” or “Vice President of This and That.” We…
Read MoreBees
Over dinner one night this week, one of my sons told me he was interested in keeping bees. Funny that we say we “keep” bees. More on that later. The reason he brought this up, he said, was because he knew I kept bees when I was younger. I did. I love bees. However, they…
Read MoreEquals
In the movie Equals, we find ourselves in a dystopian future devoid of human emotion. Everyone is the same. Everyone is equal. Except there is a problem. Some people are experiencing emotions. They are “diagnosed” with SOS (Switched On Syndrome) and quarantined until they kill themselves from despair. In this future, equality is actualized as…
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