Creating Career Longevity Isn’t About Length of Years. “He’s switched jobs every three or four years…shouldn’t we disqualify him?” “Maybe he’s not good at stability.” “Maybe he’s not loyal.” The team was hesitating about a job candidate. As we hovered around our speakerphones in different geographies, our doubts grew. Spending a lot of time in [...]
Archive | Entrepreneurship
Putting the Power of Connection to Work
Through onlyness, we celebrate that which only we can bring to a situation. And while it is the starting point of how extraordinary value gets created, it is not the complete picture. To complete the picture, we must understand also that, today, value comes from connected individuals. The most central tenant of the Social Era [...]
Oprah. Oprah. Oprah.
I’ve been trying to act oh, so nonchalant about it, but my first column appeared over at Oprah.com … It’s on the idea of personal reinvention, and specifically how do you find and claim your Onlyness. I’ll excerpt a bit here, and let you wander over to Oprah (did I say Oprah? I did!).com to [...]
3 Ways To Fuel Your Own Growth
There are 3 things that change you: travel, the people you meet, and the books you read. A few weeks back, at the Foster School of Business Innovation conference, I heard Doug Plank, a VC, say that. To take in new ideas is to let yourself be changed. And, there’s probably as many techniques as [...]
Don’t Listen to Everything
Super loved this by Ann Friedman. For all of you trying to create change in the world either as entrepreneurs or writers or simply by choosing to be kickass instead of kiss ass, you’ve already discovered haters. In Ann’s quest for understanding haters, she created The Disapproval Matrix, which I found to be so perfect, [...]
Brain Tattoo
There’s an idea I’ve held inside my brain, like some kind of brain tattoo, indelibly stamped. It’s been there for some 30-years now. It goes something like this: “You’ll feel better when it quits hurting”. I’ve applied this to all sorts of things from business to personal. It came to mind as I was scaling [...]
What is it You Love So Much You’re Willing to Fight for It
Many scoff at Larry Lessig. They say he is an optimist, out of touch with reality. But what is it that is said about the people who ultimately change the world? “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”- Ghandi Larry Lessig, if you don’t already know [...]
Visible Through Onlyness
Last week, Ellen McGirt (of Fast Company fame) and Susan McPherson (exec at Fenton and expert in CSR) and I co-hosted a Salon to discuss Onlyness, key to #socialera. Onlyness is that thing that only YOU can bring to a situation. As you see yourself, others can see you and the value you bring.
Savor This Moment
It is so easy to keep push, push, pushing. Well, not easy, really. Maybe the better word is conditioned. Through each achievement (or like, or tweet), there’s a rush of dopamine in the human system, that signals, “things are good”. Which creates a biofeedback loop to keep doing more of the same. As in, as [...]
Having a Point of View
“Your writing is better than my writing, but your headlines … they suck.” That nugget of rather direct insight was delivered over a lunch conversation by a best-selling (and incredibly talented) author. At first, I thought what he was talking about was the media-related, buzz-generating kind of thing where the goal was to get someone [...]