I do what I love in life and do my best to ruthlessly cut out what I don’t. Loving what you do means you will do more than if you don’t, so I’ve accomplished a few things to high levels while enjoying the process.

I’ve also made my life easy and fun. I think anyone can. In fact I think making life easy and fun is easy and fun, like me swimming across the Hudson River with a friend for fun in the picture above. This site shares how I do it so you can too — while accomplishing more than you thought you could.

Your values and mine differ so you’ll want to do different things than I, but if the magnitude of my successes is something you want while living an easy, fun life loving what you do, read my blog. If your successes dwarf mine and you love what you do, I’d love to meet you. Please contact me.

• Artist — solo shows in New York City and across the country, pieces in museums, several large public installations, etc.
• Entrepreneur — co-founded a couple start-ups, the big one now operating globally, in business over ten years, wrote several patents, etc.
• Astrophysicist — PhD from Columbia, helped build an X-ray observational satellite in high earth orbit right now, etc.
• Scholar — besides the PhD, an MBA from Columbia too, taught courses at NYU and Parsons, etc.
• Athlete — played Ultimate Frisbee at Nationals and Worlds level. Ran five marathons and countless half marathons.
• World traveler — lived a year+ in Paris, Ahmedabad (India), New York City, and Philadelphia; toured North Korea.

I don’t bother answering “So what do you do” anymore. What I do doesn’t fit any standard molds.

My background

While finishing a PhD in Astrophysics at Columbia, I had the idea for an invention that led to co-founding my first venture, Submedia. I led it as CEO as long as my limited business experience allowed. Since then I got an MBA, also from Columbia, and have taken a strong interest in leadership and personal development from a perspective combining my entrepreneurial and scientific background.

… more background on me …

… what I do …

About this blog

See the New? Start here page.

Brief bio

Joshua Spodek (PhD ’00, Physics, Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, MBA ’06 Columbia Business School), after helping assemble an x-ray observational satellite launched by the European Space Agency and researching supernova remnants, became an entrepreneur with several patents and start-ups doing business around the world.

He is an executive / personal coach working with Columbia Business School’s Program on Social Intelligence and has led leadership seminars at the New York Academy of Sciences and the business schools of NYU and Columbia. He also creates art, teaches or taught at Parsons School of Design and NYU-Tisch School of Art, has occasional gallery showings, and installs large public art.

He has been quoted and profiled in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, Fortune, CNN, and the major broadcast networks. Esquire Magazine named him “Best and Brightest” in its annual Genius issue.