Who Has The Guts To Change The World?
I saw this coming clearly. Five years ago I attempted to raise venture capital to start a free University. The opportunity was huge. You know a market is ripe for disruption when the price of something becomes outrageous in relationships to its value. Welcome to the cost of college. It’s not a secret that college […]
How Lucky People Get Lucky
I was having a coaching session with an executive yesterday who told me an interesting story about luck and leadership. He said that when he was a young man he had lunch with a very successful business leader who gave him advice that changed his career and his life. The business leader said he always […]
When More is Less, or Don’t Leave a Horse Alone
I grew up on a ranch. Dad always taught me to never leave a horse alone in the hay barn. The reason, he explained, was that horses would eat themselves to death. That’s right, if horses can get access to a lot of easy to eat feed they will quit eating only when their bloated […]
What’s Your Promise?
When I was in eight grade, I read 25 biographies of great leaders. They ranged from Alexander the Great to Benjamin Franklin. One thing I noticed even at that age is that they all had one thing in common. They accomplished something significant, in some cases, world changing, because they had the will to do […]
Take the Personal Leadership Quiz
Whether you run a company, a consulting practice or just your own life, you are a leader. We all are. The work of leadership consists of three things. First, you must have a clear direction… a vision of what you want to accomplish. Second, you must be able to engage and motivate others. There are […]
Are You A Dandelion or An Orchid?
About 80% of us are resilient to stress. We can find ways to survive, cope, and even thrive no matter what life throws at us. Science writer David Dobbs calls us “dandelions.” We can grow in a crack in the cement. We are considered normal. We make sure the lights go on, planes don’t crash, and […]
Outrageous Generosity
Last night I got a note from Charlie Kim, the amazing CEO of Next Jump. He told me that he had given 10,000 square ft. of Manhattan office space in his building to a nonprofit called Summer Search. This nonprofit has 14 full-time employees who help find mentors and jobs for inner-city youth. These high […]
The One Talent That Makes All Others Bigger
Most of us think of talent as a special ability to excel at something we learned in school. We might think of talent as being great at mastering math or science or writing… or we might consider useful skills such as selling, organizing or project managing as a talent. Of course, we think of singing, […]
The Only Rule You’ll Ever Need
There really is only one rule that matters. We could pretty much eliminate all our laws, end regulations, rules and every constraint on human behavior if we would all just do one thing. It’s a simple rule. It’s not hard to understand or even comply with. But… we don’t. At least not often. As a […]
Have You Met Yourself?
Do you know what you are especially good at? Do you know why people especially value your work or your personality? Do you know that whatever secret faults you have they are not secrets to anyone else? It’s no surprise that findings of a recent study by the Hay group on differences between male and […]
