While in Kolkata, India, for this book, I stayed at the iconic Oberoi Grand. The concierge explained to me the hotel’s hiring philosophy: You can’t bend mature bamboo. But if you get it as a young sho...
Which would have advanced the most at the end of a month, he posited, the boy who had made his own jackknife from the ore which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary for this—o...
Whether it’s a morning routine, or a philosophy or training tip, or just motivation to get through your day, there isn’t a person on this planet who doesn’t benefit from a little outside help.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect. —Mark Twain.
When you’re the first in a new category, promote the category. In essence, you have no competition. DEC told its prospects why they ought to buy a minicomputer, not a DEC minicomputer. In
When you have the best and tastiest ingredients, you can cook very simply and the food will be extraordinary because it tastes like what it is.
When I hear stories of success and failure, I look for the little things that made a big difference. What conventional wisdom was shunned? …
What is the worst advice you see or hear given in your trade or area of expertise? ‘ Follow your dreams.’ It’s impossible to do without self-knowledge, which takes years. You discover your ‘dream’ (or...
What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer and D...
What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? Mastery by George Leonard. I first read this book 20 years ago,...
What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? Books that influenced me the most: The Transformed Cell by Stev...
What gets measured gets managed. —PETER DRUCKER, management theorist, author
What do people agree merely by convention, and what is the truth?’ There’s a consensus of things that people believe to be true. Maybe the conventions are right, and maybe they’re not. And we never wa...
What bullshit excuses do you have for not going after whatever it is that you want? Please,
What bullshit excuses do you have for not going after whatever it is that you want? Please, write in, tell us on social media why these are real excuses with #bullshit afterwards. Oh my God, man, that...
What are you putting off out of fear? Usually, what we most fear doing is what we most need to do. That phone call, that conversation, whatever the action might be—it is fear of unknown outcomes that...
What are the top-three activities that I use to fill time to feel as though I’ve been productive?
What advice would you give to a smart, driven college student about to enter the real world? Work harder than everyone else. Of course, that is easy when you love your job. But you might not love your...
What advice would you give to a smart, driven college student about to enter the real world? What advice should they ignore? Nobody really knows what the world and the job market will look like in 204...
We’d all be happier and more successful if we could learn to be chefs more often—which just takes some self-awareness of the times we’re being a cook and an epiphany that it’s not actually as scary as...