Over lunch Frances described to me her background. I had wondered how she got started, why when the CEO of Ford, Alan Mulaly, gave her a car, she picked it up near Pittsburgh. She told me about growing up near there and going to the University of Pittsburgh. If I remember right, she didn’t finish. It struck me because she is yet another prominent leader who didn’t graduate college. She’s[…] Keep reading →
The college course catalog fascinated me—hundreds of courses in dozens of subjects from amazing teachers. I wanted to take them all! Choosing four or five course from them was wonderful torture. Choosing which to take wasn’t nearly as hard as choosing which not to. I used to think, “I’ll take these two courses … which will set me up for this major … which will set me up for this[…] Keep reading →
Everyone outside large corporations believes they pay their CEOs more than necessary for their performance, or at least a huge majority. In the latest of a million articles on the topic, “How Much Is a C.E.O. Worth? America’s Confused Approach to Pay,” the New York Times continues to ask ineffective questions about changing anything. Like most articles, it asks “Do corporate chief executives make too much money, or too little?”[…] Keep reading →
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 →
[This post is part of a series on Communication Skills Exercises for Business and Life. 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.] I just got off the phone with a client who was preparing for a call with someone important to help her. She was nervous because of his status[…] Keep reading →
Entrepreneurs want to improve the world. They want to solve your problem so much that you prefer their solution to your money so that you give it to them. If every entrepreneur is trying to improve things, why doesn’t entrepreneurship finish? The same could be asked for business in general. As times change, solutions become problems. We may have collectively created more material prosperity, but in terms of happiness and[…] Keep reading →
People often ask me if I use my physics education today. You face similar questions from others, I’m sure. You probably ask them of yourself. Nobody’s life follows a straight path from birth to where they are. I loved the field, but I don’t publish or do physics experiments. I still love the field and can’t believe everyone doesn’t study it more in school. But I teach and coach leadership[…] Keep reading →