I recently had a conversation with my 8-year-old son about how to deal with failure – and then had an almost identical conversation with a 37-year-old friend about the same thing. It made me realize that, for many of us, our attitude toward failure doesn’t change much as we get older – we don’t like…
Everyone everywhere is interested in innovation. Of the various keynote addresses that I’ve created over the years, my Uncrapify Your Future! keynote on innovation is easily the most popular. And I understand why. Coming up with solutions to problems, or taking advantage of possible opportunities, is one of the key drivers of success, both professionally…
One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about my job is the opportunity to meet people living in places I would otherwise probably never go, doing things I know almost nothing about. It’s given me a chance to see a much broader cross-section of the world than I think most jobs allow for, and my…
Recently my wife and I were in Barcelona, visiting her family and 87 of their closest friends. (Not quite, but there were a lot of people.) We were outside, it was a beautiful day, and it was time to decide where to have dinner. The only thing everyone agreed on was that we wanted to…
Last month I wrote an article about what to do when you have nothing to do. It was designed for individuals who were starting to get tired of walks around the neighborhood and board games and all the things we’ve spent five months doing waaaaay more of than usual. It was a great article, possibly…
I don’t know you very well, but I’m confident that something soon will annoy you. Annoying things are everywhere – obnoxious family members, slow traffic, stupid rules, pointless meetings, and at least 4 billion other things that collectively make all of us occasionally wonder why we don’t just go find an island somewhere and live…
There are hundreds of arguments that divide us. Soda vs. pop, potato vs. potato – that one makes more sense when you can hear it – red state vs. blue state, and I could go on. I myself have been involved in endless arguments with people about exactly which animal is the cutest one alive…
I’m experimenting with those annoying headlines they run on news sites now. “Kid eats pancakes, and then this happens…” What do you think? Anyway, there are an absurd number of people billing themselves as ‘innovation experts.’ Many of them have worked for successful companies, and so what they’re really doing is going around and telling…
You have the best idea ever! It came to you in a flash while you were swerving to avoid a deer in the road, or perhaps it came to you slowly while you waited for a tow truck to come because you failed to swerve in time. But how the idea came doesn’t matter –…
You’re probably reading this while doing something else. You might be eating, or pretending to listen to a conference call you don’t care very much about – or maybe you’re driving, in which case LOOK OUT!!! Most of us spent a lot of time trying to do multiple things at once, if for no other…