The series of posts below covers creativity, mainly exploring counterproductive mainstream myths about it. I used to view “creativity” as vague, but a few sources dramatically and convincingly changed my perspective. One was a class at Columbia Business School called Systematic Creativity in Business, by Jacob Goldenberg. Creativity being systematic was designed to appear in the course name as a contradiction, but isn’t when you understand the material. His book[…] Keep reading →

If you don’t know Coco & Breezy, they are two rising stars with their own fashion line. Check out their page here. They started their company in their teens, moving to New York City from Minneapolis and have been growing since. Here’s an overview from the event announcement for their engagement Monday at NYU: The Entrepreneurship Special Interest Housing Floor invite entrepreneurs and fashion-minded alike to attend an evening with[…] Keep reading →

You’ve probably heard or read about the experimental discovery of gravity waves, a major and historic discovery in science with widespread implications, in the news lately. Understanding those implications is difficult. So is understanding the experiment. What’s not hard to understand is the effect of hearing about the experimental results on someone who does understand its meaning and who explored this part of nature for decades. This video shows the[…] Keep reading →

Sorry no big insight today, but I couldn’t help note that in attending a talk by Joseph Stiglitz and participating in the question and answer afterward, I got to interact with my fourth Nobel Prize winner. I met more of them when I studied physics, in particular studying with one. I also got to be friends with a Professor who had been hired by one of the other laureates in[…] Keep reading →

Pyragraph Magazine just published a piece I wrote, “The Value of Entrepreneurial Skills for Artists,” on how I hustled (a term that for me in entrepreneurship means only positive things) my way into a prestigious teaching gig at NYU while creating a big public art work. I loved and benefited from each. Neither opportunity could stand on its own, but both together worked. And the city, the school, and the[…] Keep reading →

I don’t often find myself at a loss for words, but my mind was racing too fast to pick anything to come out. I looked out the cafe window at the people bundled in their coats, Spring still weeks away. In front of an agent I had recently started working with on the early draft of a few chapters the book I’d hurried to finish in the last few days[…] Keep reading →

The reason we on the Distinguished Leaders Committee of Columbia Business School’s alumni club booked a director for this evening’s talk was something one of last year’s speakers, Rita McGrath, said. If you’re near New York City, I recommend you come (click here for details of location and how to sign up, you don’t have to have graduated from Columbia to join). She pointed out that as people work at[…] Keep reading →

I will be presenting Golden Lion Cannes Award-winning Director Corydon Wagner February 27, 6-8pm. As a successful entrepreneur who leads projects with billions of dollars at play, he will present what business leaders can learn from directing and producing film. Sign up here. Below is the announcement text with a link to Wagner’s page. Business today forces leaders to form and lead teams under difficult conditions, even where few team[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on people who succeed despite adversity. 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.] Continuing my series on people who succeeded adversity, I’ll start with deaf football player in today’s Superbowl, as shown in these two videos. and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQvB7FMkIWg Person Achievement Adversity Derrick Coleman[…] Keep reading →