I can’t tell you how good it feels to have your own book in your hands. I’ve been meaning to write that for a while — since I got my first printed book from Book Patch. A short book costs less than ten dollars to print. From then on you’ll always have a book you wrote. You can hold it, thumb the pages, show it to friends, get more copies[…] Keep reading →

Martha Graham’s words on discipline, conformity, and freedom influenced me enough that I quoted her in several posts. She quotes T. S. Eliot describing “complete simplicity (costing not less than everything).” Two of my posts on her are “A master speaks on creative expression” and “A model on the foundation of personal freedom.” I had to look up the T. S. Eliot reference, so, in case you would too, I’ll[…] Keep reading →

Many people make the mistake of thinking that some things they think are beliefs and others are not beliefs but facts. Or that they are just right. For example, if you ask them who they think might be the next President, they might say it could be Hillary Clinton. They’d say that was a belief because they can’t prAove who will become the next President. They just have to wait[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I wrote about how leadership creates community, which, if you persevere, leads to living freely and by your values and experiencing deep emotional reward. Your life improves by doing so. It creates effects I can only call problems, but they are problems you want to have because they help you learn and grow even more. The “problem” with knowing how to make your dreams come true — in making[…] Keep reading →

Remember when I wrote “You can’t “create your world” but you can do better“? I’ve been meaning to expand on this aspect of leading your community. The more you learn to lead, the more you can make your community how you want it. The more you do so, the more your behavior, thoughts, and beliefs take on two properties. You behave, think, and believe more freely and more by your[…] Keep reading →

I read a story with a lesson for anyone who creates anything too helpful not to copy. As much as I didn’t want to copy something you can find elsewhere, I couldn’t stop myself. I hadn’t read it before so I hope it’s new to you. It’s from a book called Art and Fear on creating art, but you’ll find it useful for creating anything — products, beliefs, rules to[…] Keep reading →

Here’s an anecdote from a woman named Elle Luna: I was using Uber all the time in San Francisco, even though I hated the design. And then I went to the Crunchies awards ceremony and at a post-ceremony event, where I was in a ball gown, I saw the CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, sitting at the bar. I was three whiskeys deep at this point and I walked up[…] Keep reading →

Pick any great historical figure. We often regard them as unparalleled geniuses the likes of which we may never see again. On the other hand, they were human beings like us. They performed in some areas well beyond average. What if their abilities or traits weren’t once ever but once in a generation? It’s interesting to see what you conclude, as I’ll show. Then we’d expect to see others of[…] Keep reading →

People are emailing about my awesome new book everyone should read, ReModel: Create mental models to improve your life and lead simply and effectively. Several people said they found a concept in the Introduction particularly meaningful, creating enthusiasm to read the rest of the book. I communicated that concept twice, first writing: I’d rather you learned to create your own beliefs and forgot mine than didn’t learn the skill and[…] Keep reading →