I’m ashamed to admit that I avoid talking about diversity because I worry that I will open my big mouth and commit some gross gaffe, causing extreme discomfort for everyone and and intense shame for myself. I worry I will reveal an “implicit bias” that unveils what an unconscious bigot I am and I will be rejected. By everyone. But, we are all biased. Our brains would self-combust if we […]
Sometimes I’ll be asked a question like this: “What is the one thing I can do today to change my network?” And the truth of the matter is that the answer is it depends on what you want to change, but since most people don’t like that one, I do know of one thing that has always: Led to more opportunities Gotten me more introductions Helped me think differently and […]
Many years ago, a wise friend gave me a crucial piece of wisdom. He said, “Incompletions sap your energy: but completions actually GIVE you energy.” A light bulb went off in my head. Because I’ve been one of those who sits around thinking of all the things I’ve got to – and not doing any. So what’s the problem with incompletions? On their own, nothing. But incompletions often tie up […]
Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster. —Sun Tzu, The Art of War I fight fuckery and build belonging for a living. If you’d like less of the former and more of the latter, read on. It doesn’t matter if you’re pitching a product or selling a service: fuckery divides. I used to trip over phrases like “trust-eroding behaviors.” One evaluation […]
“Where do you see yourself in five years?” This question is so common, it’s become an interview cliché. But the first time I was asked, I didn’t know about any of that, I was simply unprepared. I didn’t have a good answer, nor did I want to. Five years seemed like forever, and I hadn’t been living with any kind of long-term plans. I was 28 years old, supporting my […]
Don’t forget to add humanity to your marketing plan. I’ve seen too many marketing strategies which were proudly focused on numbers, trends and financials. They impressively calculated expansion, development, growth trajectories and a whole bunch of other objective and impersonal issues. But this approach lost sight of a critical perspective: Marketing at its core is about people – messy, confused, illogical, wonderful people whom we call consumers – and our […]
As I have continued making my way through Charles Duhigg’s excellent book The Power of Habit, I happened upon a very interesting anecdote about Rosa Parks. Most of us have heard that name and one specific story about the woman that is taught to us in our history books which is that she did not get up when asked to by a white passenger and was eventually arrested. BUT What […]
When you spend as much time as I have on studying relationships, you notice a lot of patterns and there is one pattern that I see time and again whenever a relationship goes south. Someone says something that does significant harm in a moment of passion. In some cases this has led to deals falling through, friendships crumbling, or just general frustration on both sides and in other cases it […]
Scaling is a funny thing. It’s almost a religion in the world of entrepreneurship. Scaling has its benefits, but has its shortcomings as well. Not every business needs to scale to a massive degree. Not every business needs to have world domination as their number one target at the expense of all else.First things first. Why do you want to scale? This is vitally important. This is what sets the […]
When I was raising money for Broadway shows, I was approached by a LOT of creatives who would ask me to consider raising money for their project. In many of these instances, these individuals would spend most of the meeting explaining to me how their show was a “surefire” hit and how if they just had more support they’d break through. Now in some cases, they really did have something […]