The easiest way to win a poll, rig a plebiscite or generally end up as number one is to have the competing votes split among many similar competitors. Bob Marley was a magical artist, but one reaso… | Continue reading
The eight-hour workday is precious and humane, and difficult to find in an era of always-on communication. But there are two kinds of 9 to 5 jobs. The first one is the industrialized cog. Protect y… | Continue reading
The best way to be in the room where it happens is to be the person who called the meeting. Things rarely happen on their own. Everyone is waiting for you to organize the next thing. | Continue reading
Small business is a resilient backbone of the modern world. Choosing to not simply be the day laborer or the gig worker, but someone who actually owns something. You might own a permission asset… | Continue reading
It’s possible (not easy, but possible) to be a dispassionate observer. To have a sense of what the market wants, of what’s likely to work, of what quality looks and feels like. But not … | Continue reading
Here it is, tested, effective and worthwhile: Stop chasing shortcuts. Personal finance, weight loss, marketing, careers, beating traffic, relationships, education–everything that matters to s… | Continue reading
Everyone else also thinks it’s about them. Everyone else is in a hurry. Everyone else is afraid. Everyone else wonders if they’re being left behind. Everyone else is tired. Everyone els… | Continue reading
Online marketing has become a messy mix of direct marketing, seo, tricks, tips, code and guesswork. It’s an always-moving target and it’s mostly focused on tactics, not strategy, becaus… | Continue reading
“It’s just politics.” No one ever says, “it’s just governance.” Politics is organized sparring about power, without much regard for efficacy or right or wrong. G… | Continue reading
Someone has to win the lottery, it might as well be you. Buying a lottery ticket is economically irrational and emotionally rewarding for some. Because while someone has to win, it’s probably… | Continue reading
Arithmetic is true. It’s true because 1. we accept the terms for what they mean 2. it’s timeless, past and present and future are the same 3. it’s testable In every fourth-grade classroom, th… | Continue reading
It's rampant. The big reason is that we're all impostors. You're not imagining that you're an impostor, it's likely that you are one. Everyone who is doing important work i… | Continue reading
How’d you perform on the sales call? It was great. How do you know? They bought. How did you play? Super. How do you know? We won. Actually, that’s selling your potential short. Even if… | Continue reading
Shun the people who have transgressed against cultural norms. And shun the people who have stood with those people. Shun the people who have a different solution to an urgent problem. Shun the peop… | Continue reading
Giving a talk to three people is easy. No sweat. Giving it to 100 costs you a night’s sleep. Sending an email to six colleagues is normal. Sending a note to a list of 400 is cause for concern… | Continue reading
I’m going to do a live QA and rant today at 10 am NY time. Topic: there’s a difference between reckless, fearless and generous, and once you see it, it’ll help you move forward. Y… | Continue reading
What does it sound like when you put something off? All of us have a catalog of voices in our head. We’ve got the one for feeling behind, the one for not feeling good enough, the one we use when we… | Continue reading
Short-term thinking repeated again and again doesn’t lead to long-term thinking. Rand Fishkin shares a thoughtful analysis about a trend that now affects just about everyone: Google is hoardi… | Continue reading
Short-term thinking repeated again and again doesn’t lead to long-term thinking. Rand Fishkin shares a thoughtful analysis about a trend that now affects just about everyone: Google is hoardi… | Continue reading
You might know one. The busy person has a bias for action, the ability to ship, and a willingness to contribute more than is required. The busy person is wrong more than most people (if you get up … | Continue reading
If you’re creating something where widespread inputs, usage and adoption lead to significant benefits, it’s worth considering who you’re excluding. The curb cut turned out not sim… | Continue reading
Guts, because it might not work. And generosity, because guts without seeking to make things better is merely hustle. The innovator shows up with something she knows might not work (pause for a sec… | Continue reading
For more than a decade, I’ve been working with the fine folks at 800 CEO READ (and yes, that’s their phone number, and yes, people have asked me how to reach them.) It’s where I e… | Continue reading
If you’re trying to help yourself (or those you serve), the most effective thing you can do is create long-term habits. They become unseen foundations of who we will become. The goal of runni… | Continue reading
Pema Chodron’s story has stuck with me for a decade: At a meditation retreat, the guy sitting near her kept making an annoying clicking sound. Again and again, she was jolted from her practic… | Continue reading
The us/them mindset of most corporate customer service is simple: When you can, get it over with. If at all possible, evade responsibility. Which means that when things go wrong, you’ll likel… | Continue reading
Leaders create the conditions where people choose new actions. The choices are voluntary. They’re made by people who see a new landscape, new opportunities and new options. You can’t ma… | Continue reading
Find the right clients Earn their attention and trust Identify the problem Find their fear, embrace their objectives Prototype possible solutions Create an architecture that supports your solution … | Continue reading
It used to be that a well-tended lawn of 50 by 100 feet was wasteful indeed. Today, it’s in the by-laws of the local housing association. You could impress the neighbors with a new Cadillac, … | Continue reading
It used to be that a well-tended lawn of 50 by 100 feet was wasteful indeed. Today, it’s in the by-laws of the local housing association. You could impress the neighbors with a new Cadillac, … | Continue reading
In our culture, it’s easy to choose to live in deficit. To spend just a bit more than you make, so that you’re in debt. To need to drive just a bit faster than the prevailing traffic, s… | Continue reading
Guts, because it might not work. And generosity, because guts without seeking to make things better is merely hustle. The innovator shows up with something she knows might not work (pause for a sec… | Continue reading
Optimists are always a little disappointed. If you live with possibility, the idea that things can get better, that with consistent generous effort you can make a contribution, then you also end up… | Continue reading
Are you hesitant about this new idea because it’s a risky, problematic, defective idea… or because it’s simply different than you’re used to? If your current normal is exact… | Continue reading
Discipline, rigor, patience, self-control, dignity, respect, knowledge, curiosity, wisdom, ethics, honor, empathy, resilience, honesty, long-term, possibility, bravery, kindness and awareness. All … | Continue reading
In every era, traditional media channels will diminish, dismiss and ignore the new ones. They do this at the very same time that they are supplanted by the new ones. While they will occasionally sp… | Continue reading
Today’s the 11th year in a row of daily posts on this blog. Nearly 5,000,000 words since my first post twenty years ago, and I haven’t missed a day (given some time-zone wiggle room) si… | Continue reading
It’s essential that we make new mistakes. We don’t make nearly enough of them. Not enough original effort, not enough generous intent, not enough daring in search of something better. B… | Continue reading
This is the moment, right here and right now, to start your podcast. Not because it will make you rich. Hardly. There are too many other ways for people to spend their attention for you (or me) to … | Continue reading
Take it seriously. Of course. That’s required. But you don’t have to take it personally. In fact, if you want to be a professional, it’s impossible to do both at the same time. | Continue reading
Our days are filled with the path to future skills, tasks and commitments that we believe we can’t possibly take on. We’ve seduced ourselves into believing that we’re not born wit… | Continue reading
“Use your best judgment.” Bureaucracies have a very hard time saying this to their staff. They create an endless series of scripts and rules, procedures that force people to not care. &… | Continue reading
Leo's working hard to do something he's never done before. He's just turned one, and he doesn't know how to walk (yet). There are no really useful books or videos on how to walk… | Continue reading
In our culture, it’s easy to choose to live in deficit. To spend just a bit more than you make, so that you’re in debt. To need to drive just a bit faster than the prevailing traffic, s… | Continue reading
“Well, that was super helpful.” Was it? Or are you trying to be sarcastic? Because if it was helpful, you could simply write, “thank you, that was helpful.” On the other han… | Continue reading
“Well, that was super helpful.” Was it? Or are you trying to be sarcastic? Because if it was helpful, you could simply write, “thank you, that was helpful.” On the other han… | Continue reading
If you ask for mustard at a French bistro, you’ll get a strong Dijon, handmade in a little village three hundred kilometres away. If you ask for mustard at a game at Fenway, apparently you… | Continue reading
I was talking to someone dedicating his career to working in newspapers. I asked him what he thought of the work of Jeff Jarvis. He had no idea what I was talking about. I met a musician the other … | Continue reading