A handful of sand contains one million grains. How many ideas does that number of grains represent? How much untapped potential? The conflicts of the 21st century will more pointedly focus on the conflict between potential and potential neither realized, nor accessed. Real wisdom and leadership will come, not from Read more…
Post Secret. Whisper. Secret. Yik Yak. The Right to be Forgotten. In 2014, it seems that the conflict between having everything known to anyone and the idea that there must be boundaries and things that are private, has escalated to new heights. Yes, Edward Snowden’s activities have raised a lot Read more…
As the media market continues to fracture and as consumers are allowed more and more opportunities to create their own entertainment, subscription (and micro-subscription) services for content delivery will be all the rage. I don’t think that 260 million people will be creating their own micro-subscription services anytime soon; there Read more…
Brands and corporations assume that consumers are either always listening to their bullhorn and noise, or are never listening at all to anything and thus must be shouted at via a bullhorn. However, if that doesn’t work, then brands get depressed, defensive or melancholy and stop trying. And ultimately disappear. Or Read more…
Narcissism is the great modern diagnoses. From philosophers to social scientists to political theorists, the erudite thought leaders have spilled rivers of ink (or created tons of bytes) by critiquing the rise of everything from social media to the “selfie” and positing that such developments spell the end of Western Read more…
The human brain seeks order out of chaos. It can’t help itself. We create systems, cultures, organizations, traditions and stories to be able to make sense out of a world that seems inexplicable, where things seem to happen without reason or logic. This ingrained need to create order has led Read more…
MBTI, DiSC, Strengthsquest and multiple other personality assessments and sorters have appeared on the market after World War II, proposing to provide people insight into themselves. But, when a person attains insight into themselves, what they do with that insight—how they change—is at least as important as the insight itself. Read more…
…what difference does it make? This is a question that lies at the midpoint between successfully realized failure and rationally justified escape in any conflict. We ask ourselves this primarily because we believe that we will fail to resolve a conflict in our favor (or in a way that reconfirms Read more…
I always tell the Steve Martin, San Francisco coffee house story before I begin speaking in front of groups of ten or less. At some point in my career, I will be speaking before an empty room. What matters is not the empty room, but how I handle what happens Read more…
There is a bad idea floating around out here. It is an idea based off of get rich quick, short-term thinking. It permeates the atmosphere of media reporting around start-up culture. It has moved from the realm of the late night infomercial to the realm of the internet with astonishing Read more…