Coco and Breezy Prince wore their sunglasses — from his album cover — on Saturday Night Live. Beyoncé showed them in her video. Vogue labeled them “fashion icons”. Rhianna, Serena Williams, and more wear their accessories, sold in twenty countries and growing, as well as at cocoandbreezy.com. Find out how these twins from Minnesota started their brand in their teens … with a thousand dollars between them. I didn’t mention[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on the Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity (SIDCHA). If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Here are two videos of people who learned to dance by doing it every day. So much more photogenic than burpees and writing here daily. I don’t know[…] Keep reading →

A reader responded to “Another genius business idea: Communities refurbishing their subway platforms” to describe the idea already in action in San Francisco: Hello Joshua, I want to share with you the concept of property and business improvement districts and how one in San Francisco beautified the plaza around the Castro Street subway station. I’m sharing this as a real-world example you might find interesting. The gist is that a[…] Keep reading →

“Which is more important as a leader, to work alone or to work in groups?” I heard that question asked of a panel of business leaders last week. The panelists all answered something like “in this day and age you have to be able to work in groups. That’s where you get everything done” with some acknowledgment that you had to be able to work solo too sometimes. As soon[…] Keep reading →

I think I do a lot of things well, at least the things I care about. I’ve been working on the prologue to a book proposal for months. An agent is working with me, encouraging me, and giving me advice and I’ve made some progress, but not as much I think I could. If you search for one of my posts on “show, don’t tell,” you’ll see how long I’ve[…] Keep reading →

Here’s another post in my Genius Business Idea series. My goal in this series is to show how entrepreneurial opportunities are everywhere, contrary to the common myth people who say they want to start a venture but don’t: that they haven’t found a great idea yet. This project is challenging, more for bureaucratic reasons than technical, but there is ample precedent of people overcoming similar challenges in New York. Read[…] Keep reading →

This clip wonderfully shows the effects of feeling understood about a passion—that is, a powerful emotion. You see how cathartic it feels for the person sharing the passion and how important it is for someone leading the person. Context: In a long interview, Dustin Hoffman is talking about the challenges of growing up under a stern father and how he escaped through movies, which evolved into acting. He starts to[…] Keep reading →

Do you watch TED talks? Many people seem to love them. Here’s why I don’t think much of them: When I ask people if they find TED talks inspirational, most people who watch them say yes. When I ask people to point out specific changes to their lives—that is, to describe what the talks inspired them to do—almost nobody can name action they’ve taken. Most changes people have taken have[…] Keep reading →

Post-event update: see a write-up and video of the event here — http://flavorwire.com/477424/history-begins-here-starting-a-legacy-in-nyc. Everybody who attended it seemed to love it. My event had a packed room with enthusiastic participants. I made several great connections at my event and the others I attended. I hope to see you next time. See me next weekend The event is free and there’s lots more than just me presenting on leadership. My part[…] Keep reading →