Moving back into my apartment after renovations, I’ve been unpacking things packed for a year or two. I packed some of those things fourteen years ago when I moved here and it seems I packed some of those things before then. I’ve tried to come up with definitive conclusions on dealing with old things that connect with memories, but haven’t. I’m getting rid of stuff, but it’s harder than I[…] Keep reading →

Between coaching, teaching, and seminars, I give a lot of exercises. People want to make big transitions and grow. Time and again, the biggest advances come from very low-level instruction—things like say these words in this order to this person, avoid using these words, or take only cold showers for a month. The lower the level of instruction, the higher the level of insight my clients and students get. That[…] Keep reading →

The moderator at my recent group talks at NYU-Stern and Harvard started the question-and-answer period with an instruction to the audience I hadn’t heard before. I found it tremendously effective at making the questions useful and poignant. He asked that everyone ask only personal questions from their lives, not to ask about general points. Did you also first think, “Wait, if people only ask about personal issues to themselves, won’t[…] Keep reading →

“Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin were members of this organization!” I thought when I first spoke at the New York Academy of Sciences. So were Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Edison, I later found. To speak at the same organization isn’t that big a deal, but it feels like it counts for something. I’ve spoken there several more times, generally about leadership skills for scientists and geeky people like myself. Many[…] Keep reading →

An attendee from March’s seminar “How to Lead People So They Want You to Lead Them Again”, wrote about her experience using the techniques of the seminar at her job—that is, leading employees so they want you to lead them again. She also has an MBA from Columbia and works at a prestigious firm. Josh, you may be interested to know I took out an Associate who will be working[…] Keep reading →

As the faculty advisor to NYU’s special interest housing floor for entrepreneurship, I asked my residents what types of events they wanted. Among the responses was that they wanted exposure to women in entrepreneurship. I asked a friend if she would speak. She responded with several women who could speak. The entrepreneur in me seeing high demand and high supply knew there was opportunity in bringing them together. I followed[…] Keep reading →

‘Tis a gift to be simple, ’tis a gift to be free ‘Tis a gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, ‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained, To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed, To turn, turn will be our delight, Till by turning, turning we come ’round[…] Keep reading →

Someone who posted about my burpee discipline posted about someone else who does them too, a guy in England with a blog subtitled “The ramblings of a somewhat burpee-obsessed social misfit.” Among other things he did ladder-year of burpees, meaning one burpee on day one, two on day two, up to 365 on day 365—pushing 70,000 burpees in a year! How could I not love his blog? If you like[…] Keep reading →

Since December my life has had an out-of-control problem I thought I resolved twenty-five years ago. I have to describe a choice I made in Paris to explain it. To put it in context, on the scale of things people suffer, it’s small. The point isn’t the scale of the problem, but having something affecting you that you think you should be able to control but you can’t. It makes[…] Keep reading →