At a meeting to promote the teaching of leadership a couple months ago, I saw several proposals to support women pursuing leadership but none for men. I sensed that others there felt that since men held nearly all corporate and government positions of authority that men had greater access to positions of leadership. I didn’t feel comfortable bringing it up, but I found a few perspectives missing. Advantages existing for[…] Keep reading →
It sucks when you’re playing a team sport and you get shut down trying to cut to get open, the other team scores on you, you throw into an interception or some mistake like that. Few of us enjoy admitting to faults, so we often make excuses that the problem was with your team mates, the sun, the equipment, or something out of your control. When you run drills or[…] Keep reading →
Join me at Princeton’s tech meetup, July 16, 6:45pm! The title of my talk is “8 Steps from No Idea to Funding.” I hope to see you there. From the announcement: Topic: 8 Steps from No Idea to Funding Speaker: Joshua Spodek 6:45 – Arrival – Snacks, Pizza and Networking. 7:15 – Introduction / Announcements by the organizers. 7:20 – 7:30 Apply for Startup Demo / Pitches (ONE MINUTE each) 7:30 - 8 Steps[…] Keep reading →
Once in high school some of the popular kids picked on me. It humiliated me. That evening I talked to a friend on the phone who told me that many people in the school felt for me and looked down on them. On the phone, I felt I had their support and started developing an idea: I would confront the kids who picked on me in a public venue, like[…] Keep reading →
If you’ve talked to me about teaching in the past year, you know how much the students at Science Leadership Academy have inspired me to teach in the style of that school—that is, what they call inquiry-driven project-based learning. The first student I interacted with when she showed me around the school showed as much leadership skills as many people with MBAs I’ve met. I’ve participated and led talks at[…] Keep reading →
My professor cursed: “You’re too fucking cheap to buy my book?!” This was an Ivy League business school. I was stunned. Class just ended and I was asking him a question, as students do. Other students probably heard as they packed their bags and left the room. He had assigned his own book for the class. A couple weeks before, the bookstore clerk told me the book would come out[…] Keep reading →
I asked the students from my leadership class for undergraduates at NYU last semester for the three top things they learned, the three things they valued most, and the three things they’d improve. The responses were all anonymous. I collected the information to know what to keep and what to improve for next year. Some parts might not make sense if you weren’t in the class, but I thought I’d[…] Keep reading →