Category Archives: Entrepreneurship

The Life-Changing, Inner-You-Revealing, Passion-Unleashing Magic of Initiative

on March 15, 2024 in Creativity, Education, Entrepreneurship, Exercises, Stories

I’ve shared Eugene’s public postings of his experience doing the exercises in my book Initiative. At each stage, he learns more about himself and making his world work for him. Taking initiative forces you to learn your values, not in some abstract way, but: How do I want to spend my time, money, energy, and resources? How long do I want to follow other people’s values, or the worn path[…] Keep reading →

“Josh, You Can Grieve Your Loss Too”

on September 11, 2023 in Entrepreneurship, Stories

I’ve posted about my September 11, 2001: We called the company I co-founded Submedia. We filed the patent in 1998. Our first investment came in 1999, enabling us to pay ourselves salaries and hire people to develop prototypes and create partnerships with subway systems. Atlanta’s system signed first, followed by the PATH system connecting New York City and New Jersey. Coca-Cola signed in 2001 as our debut advertiser, beating Nike[…] Keep reading →

Another Million-Dollar Idea: A browser add-on to channel impulse buys to donations

on August 26, 2022 in Entrepreneurship

I can tell by how much people throw out and how many Amazon.com boxes litter the streets that people buy a lot that they don’t want. I presume Amazon’s people have found how to control people to buy junk. People like the act of buying things. Maybe also receiving packages and opening them. They probably regret many of the things they buy, but they liked that feeling and the site[…] Keep reading →

How we kill innovation around sustainability

on August 4, 2022 in Entrepreneurship, Nature

An anecdote reveals how we stifle innovation and entrepreneurship. Regular readers know I lowered my ecological footprint over 90 percent in under three years, improving my life. Governments and corporations can do what I did—once they choose longer to profit from hurting other people by polluting, even if legal. A reporter profiling me said she wanted to pollute less too but couldn’t figure out what to do about disposable Keurig[…] Keep reading →

Have we lost the imagination to improve life without fossil fuels?

on March 9, 2022 in Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Nature

I’ve asked people lately to come up with examples they consider major advances in life in their lifetime not requiring extracting more fossil fuels. Or even the last century. People come up with antibiotics, but they started long before; solar energy, but it requires fossil fuels; nuclear energy, but it requires fossil fuels; and then start giving up. I can’t think of much either. The Green Revolution fundamentally burns fossil[…] Keep reading →

How I started coaching professionally: a “free coaching” offer on Craigslist

on December 15, 2021 in Entrepreneurship, Leadership

Anyone can do it. It cost me nothing. Cleaning my backup hard drive, I found a file with the text of how I started coaching professionally: by offering free coaching on Craigslist. Below is the text. It led to a few clients. One eventually told me he found it valuable enough he insisted on paying me. I insisted on staying with free, as that’s what I offered, but he said[…] Keep reading →

How to reform taxes: A chess model

on December 5, 2021 in Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Tips, Visualization

People are proposing wealth taxes People are talking about taxing wealth. Everyone relies on society so if you own more, you use more and benefited more, they say, so should pay more. Besides, they add, the wealthy can structure what anyone would call income so it doesn’t look like income on taxes so avoid paying any taxes. Moreover, they further add, there’s no “natural” law that makes wealth untaxable, so[…] Keep reading →

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