Entrepreneurship

RJ’s TEDx talk that began as homework from my course

Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

RJ’s TEDx talk that began as homework from my course

RJ Khalaf took my course at NYU, Fundamentals of Social Entrepreneurship, a few years ago. His class project evolved into LEAD Palestine, which led the Dalai Lama to name him a Dalai Lama fellow. He also appeared on the Leadership and the Environment podcast and was a panelist on our expert panel last week. Saturday he gave his first TEDx talk at TEDx NYU. All credit goes to him for his accomplishments, but I felt great pride seeing something that emerged from my course reach international acclaim and to see his skill in representing the project. https://youtu.be/Ig1W6M_-ka8 The beginning This is the beginning of what we'll hear from RJ and his project. Expect a lot.

April 9, 2018

038: RJ Khalaf, conversation 2: Making productive leaders from hopeless martyrs

Entrepreneurship / Freedom / Leadership / Podcast

038: RJ Khalaf, conversation 2: Making productive leaders from hopeless martyrs

RJ and I talk about the early success of LEAD Palestine, the organization he began to teach leadership to youths that most of the world abandoned in Palestine. Where their environment made it natural to respond with hopelessness and what comes from it---desperation to the point of aspiring to blow oneself up---RJ is bringing social and emotional development to create hope themselves. They happen to have been born into a world where leadership meant in politics authoritarianism and militarism, which bled into personal relationships. Nobody taught alternatives and those who acted on those models succeeded, however much at others' costs. RJ is teaching an effective style of leadership built on personal skill. I can't help but imagine a lot of it came from my class,…

March 28, 2018

Entrepreneur Magazine features me and Leadership Step by Step

Entrepreneur Magazine covers Joshua Spodek

Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Entrepreneur Magazine features me and Leadership Step by Step

Entrepreneur Magazine covered me for the first time, with a video no less, in Are People Born Leaders? The story begins Joshua Spodek, author ofÂ Leadership Step by Step: Becoming the Person Others Follow, talks about how people aren't born leaders but instead develop leadership skills throughout life as a result of the obstacles life throws at them. He states that every great leader has learned leadership, but "no one's born leading." Spodek also says he treats leadership as a performance-based field and that people have to practice being good, effective leaders -- much like one has to practice playing the piano or sports in order to get better. As an adjunct professor at New York University, Spodek says that academia teaches people about leadership, but…

February 16, 2018

Making Challenging Life Choices (Audio)

Saturday Morning Hudson River podcast with Joshua Spodek

Audio / Choosing/Decision-Making / Entrepreneurship / Stories

Making Challenging Life Choices (Audio)

You often have to choose between options without enough information. How do you choose? You can never know everything you want for all life choices, yet you can't avoid acting. Today I'm posting my answer by audio. I start with a story of a student with just such a challenge and show what we can learn from situations like them. I consider these lessons among the greatest one can learn.

January 23, 2018

A Contrarian View of Invention

A Contrarian View of Invention

Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / Nature

A Contrarian View of Invention

My latest Inc. article, "A Contrarian View of Invention," begins A Contrarian View of Invention We put innovation and invention on pedestals. Should we? I'll start by pointing out that I have several patents to my name. I conceived of the inventions andÂ wrote theÂ patents.Â I haveÂ advanced degrees in science. I started several ventures. I'm not writing to brag orÂ put patents or innovationÂ down, just thatÂ I think I hold my own on innovation and invention. Now that IÂ write aboutÂ andÂ teach leadership and entrepreneurship, I look more at relationships, emotions, and motivations. I look at culture, inside and outside companies. I recently combined two concepts to realize what our inventive culture says about us. Neediness First, speaking of relationships and emotions, consider neediness. Many people rank it among the most…

November 6, 2017

Education / Entrepreneurship / Events / Leadership

See me on Leadership, the Environment, and Navigating Your Business’s Greatest Challenges November 2 in Manhattan

See me next Thursday, November 2 at the NY Public Library Science, Industry, and Business branch in midtown Manhattan. I'm honored to present at such a prestigious and storied institution. As I'm approaching launching my podcast, Leadership and the Environment, I'll speak on our sore need for leadership in the environment, as well as how it applies to the greatest challenge most leaders face: leading people without using authority. Whether your greatest concern is your business, your personal or professional development, or the environment, you will enjoy the event and gain skills you can use that day. The event is free and open to the public. From the library's page: REGISTER HERE. Josh Spodek is the bestselling author of Leadership Step by Step: Become the…

October 23, 2017

A belief to replace worrying about jobs

Education / Entrepreneurship

A belief to replace worrying about jobs

Changes in technology and markets may shift job needs from one field to another, but not that people will always have needs that if you help fill them, they will compensate you. If you have skills to communicate and behave to make people feel comfortable sharing their problems with you, and to help solve their problems, you can create jobs for yourself. The work may not be what you trained for, but if anyone learned to do that work, you probably can too. The only way there couldn't be need to help people is if everyone had all they needed, but then you wouldn't need anything either. I guess it's possible that the rich would have everything they needed and the poor didn't. Then the…

October 6, 2017

Videos and a short history of my invention and Submedia, the company I co-founded in 1999

Submedia's logo

Entrepreneurship / Leadership / My Favorite Posts / Stories

Videos and a short history of my invention and Submedia, the company I co-founded in 1999

Ten or fifteen years ago most people knew me through Submedia, the company I co-founded to market I technology I conceived of in 1996. My invention The technology was a display we'd install on subway tunnel walls that looked to riders between stations like a movie screen outside the subway car windows. From a business perspective, we were a billboard company: we installed the displays at our cost, sold media to advertisers who wanted large audiences, and shared revenue with our landlords---transit agencies. From a technological perspective we created a new medium that reached people where no one had before, in places with a lot of people. I wrote the patent and we filed it in 1998. The company I co-founded We got our first…

October 3, 2017

Using Emotions As a Leadership Essential

The Prosperity Place interview

Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Using Emotions As a Leadership Essential

Joan Sotkin hosts The Prosperity Show podcast and today posted "Using Emotions As a Leadership Essential," her conversation with me. The show's subtitle is A holistic approach to business and financial success, which is what we covered: business from a holistic perspective---about emotions, motivations, learning, and more. It's what she covers in general, without getting ethereal or too theoretical. As a bonus you get to hear birds chirping in the background since I was at in the yard. Listen to the conversation. Here are the show notes: Joshua Spodek, bestselling author of Leadership Step by Step, is an Adjunct Professor at NYU, leadership coach and workshop leader for Columbia Business School, columnist for Inc., and founder of SpodekAcademy.com. Josh also has a background as an…

September 8, 2017

Last chance to improve your coaching with free admission to the premier online coaching summit for two readers!

Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Last chance to improve your coaching with free admission to the premier online coaching summit for two readers!

Yesterday I announced that I'm offering two free passes to my readers for the premier online coaching summit---World Business and Executive Coach Summit (WBECS) online summit---which starts TOMORROW. If you're interested in one of those passes, email me how it will help you help others. Please make the subject "Spodek WBECS". I'll pick two people at random today who are subscribed to my newsletter (my page has subscription forms). A random drawing seems the most fair way to me. Click here to learn why WBECS is so awesome (hint: it's mostly the speakers, both quality and quantity). About WBECS: With more than 20,000 attendees from 150 Countries in 2016, WBECS is the world's largest online gathering of business and executive coaches. Our aim and mission…

August 30, 2017

Want Ambition? Advice From 5 Achievers

Joshua Spodek's Inc. story on ambition

Entrepreneurship / Inc.com

Want Ambition? Advice From 5 Achievers

My Inc. story today, "Want Ambition? Advice From 5 Achievers," begins Want Ambition? Advice From 5 Achievers The ambitious secrets of a TED resident, a Broadway star, a Marvel artist, a MakerBot executive, and the entrepreneur bringing them together Ambition. It gets things done. Most Inc. readers have it. Some wish they had more. Many hide theirs. Too many, if you ask me. LikeÂ determination, resilience,Â self-awareness, andÂ grit, among other properties, successful people have it and unsuccessful ones make excuses for lacking it. A panel of experts I recently attended a panel the Harlem WeWorks on ambition of successful, ambitious people who have accomplished a lot early in their careers. They include a TED resident, an award-winning Broadway dancer and actor, a Marvel artist, MakerBot's General Cousel,…

August 7, 2017

NYU Students Speak About Joshua Spodek’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership Courses

Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / My Favorite Posts

NYU Students Speak About Joshua Spodek’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership Courses

I recently met with two groups of students who took my leadership and entrepreneurship courses at NYU, Charlie Rose-style. I believe the 9 students represent the experiences of the majority of students who took my courses and did the exercises conscientiously. They included undergraduates who took my courses as freshmen and adult professionals founding or running successful businesses they founded and ran for decades. These videos are the first of more to come from these conversations. Two are mostly edited. The third is still in progress. I think they speak for themselves so here they are: Six entrepreneurship students https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLsrEwaJ94g Focus on one entrepreneurship student: RJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0QUJBcEG2A Three leadership students (editing in progress) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpOl6aGholM

July 15, 2017

Entrepreneurship / Leadership

I’m not a total failure

My passion lately has been my talk and other work on leadership and the environment. I've progressed a lot by the measure of my talk going farther without triggering automatic responses to push back. But by the important measure of someone agreeing to change behavior to pollute less, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, consume less resources, or the like, as of this morning, I couldn't think of anyone who took on a challenge. In other words, I felt I failed. Despite working hard for months to develop my talk, giving it many times to many audiences, framing the challenge as improving your life, illustrating with changes I made to my life that improved it tremendously, and focusing on how much living by your values improves everything…

July 14, 2017

Happy 200th Birthday to Henry David Thoreau

My Inc.com article on Henry David Thoreau's 200th birthday

Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / Leadership / Nature

Happy 200th Birthday to Henry David Thoreau

My post on Inc.com today, "Happy 200th Birthday to Henry David Thoreau," (the editors changed the headline) began Happy Birthday to Henry David Thoreau, a True Family Businessman The entrepreneur and supporter of self-reliance, simplicity, and small government was born 200 years ago. 200 years ago today, Henry David Thoreau was born. July is a big Thoreau month. On July 4, 1845 he moved to live by Walden Pond, pictured above, for 2 years. He spent a night in jail, July 24 or 25, 1846, to avoid supporting slavery, inspiring generations. Most periodicals reporting on his birthday talk about nature, his love for it, and his legacy of protecting it. He inspired John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt, for example. Many describe his legacy in inspiring…

July 12, 2017

Entrepreneur Magazine quoted me on Nelson Mandela

Entrepreneur.com's article quoting Joshua Spodek on Nelson Mandela

Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Entrepreneur Magazine quoted me on Nelson Mandela

Joshua Steimle quoted me today in Entrepreneur's "11 Modern Leadership Lessons from History's Masters: Helen Keller. Theodore Roosevelt. Ann Bradstreet. Nelson Mandela: Who inspired you?" I'm honored to be a member of an ensemble cast of authors, gurus, and influencers including Simon Sinek, Robert Cialdini, Marshall Goldsmith, Geoff Smart, Gretchen Rubin, Ryan Holiday, Leonard Kim, and more. I had recently finished reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography when Joshua interviewed me, so he wasn't a hard choice. Since you should read the whole article, I don't think I'm giving anything away by quoting the part including me: Nelson Mandela No one likes to be bullied, but even top-tier business professionals push one other around all the time.Â "Many clients come to me because of how their managers treat…

July 11, 2017

SIDCHAs, self awareness, and “Doing,” are the path to entrepreneurship: The Tribe of Entrepreneurs podcast

Tribe Of Entrepreneurs podcast with Joshua Spodek

Audio / Entrepreneurship

SIDCHAs, self awareness, and “Doing,” are the path to entrepreneurship: The Tribe of Entrepreneurs podcast

Soren Skovdahl Hansen hosts the Tribe of Entrepreneurs podcast. Soren asked thoughtful questions and got me to share about things I don't always. I enjoyed the interview a lot. Listen to the podcast! Listen to the podcast! He is also thorough about posting resources we talked about. The show notes: Joshua helps put an end to shiny object syndrome and becoming who you want to be, but it requires that you start "doing" as you say you will. SIDCHA: The Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity Leadership and Entrepreneurship Requires Getting in the Trenches and Doing, Not Just Learning. - Joshua Spodek co-founded several companies, coaches leadership for Columbia Business School's Program on Social Intelligence, and is a professor at NYU. Joshua is also a bestselling…

July 7, 2017

Patagonia founder acting on his values, even at the company’s expense. Still works out.

Choosing/Decision-Making / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Nature

Patagonia founder acting on his values, even at the company’s expense. Still works out.

I rarely simply post someone else just talking, but my focus lately on motivating people to act on their values against comfort and convenience has resulted in such a desert that the video below was too refreshing not to share. No one I talk to considers avoiding one flight. No one who visits can stop bringing garbage. Yet this man keeps choosing actions that would appear to hurt his company, yet he's become a billionaire and they haven't. For example (at 38:18 in the second video below), he had his company research the toxicity of materials his company used. When he learned how toxic and dangerous the cotton was---even getting sprayed with toxins from a plane when he visited the fields---he put his company on…

June 26, 2017

Entrepreneurship

A simple, brazen way to make money in America that works

Here is a simple, brazen way to make money in America that works. Find something that makes people feel good but is unhealthy or makes their life worse and market it as healthy. It works: Candies marketed as health food Sugary things in general Restaurants in general Olive oil Things marked "recyclable" Self-indulgent things Shopping unnecessarily Supplements SUVs Things like that. It makes us complacent and entitled.

June 16, 2017

Entrepreneurship

Can you use my frequent flyer miles?

I want to cancel my credit card. If I do, my frequent flyer miles will expire in 30 days. I want to cancel this month to avoid paying an annual fee (they waived it in the past and are only willing to waive half this year). I don't plan to travel, so I can't use them. They said I can't redeem them for cash. They're called Avios and work with the consortium of airlines on this page. I could pay half the annual fee to give myself a year to figure out what to do with them, but they said I can use the Avios to buy tickets for other people so I'd rather help someone else and take care of things faster. I have…

June 13, 2017

The Conscious Millionaire: How to Develop Effective Leadership Skills

J V Crum III interviews Joshua Spodek on the Conscious Millionaire podcast

Audio / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Podcast

The Conscious Millionaire: How to Develop Effective Leadership Skills

J V Crum III hosts a podcast called the Conscious Millionaire. He helps purpose-driven entrepreneurs succeed. He also interviewed me and posted our conversation today. He and I have talked before and since and I like his mission and approach, which I've learned from. For example, he's inspired me to include him in my Leadership and the Environment slide show for his using a diabetes diagnosis and vastly improve his life. We spoke about the shortcomings of traditional education and our common experiences learning more effectively through experience, which develops authenticity, genuineness, integrity, etc. I walked through exercises from my course. We talked about mindsets for success, helping people, and more. Listen to the conversation! Listen to the conversation! Here are the show notes: 781:…

June 9, 2017

My first guest “host” on a podcast: The Hidden Why, by Leigh Martinuzzi

Joshua Spodek on Leigh Martinuzzi's The Hidden Why podcast

Audio / Choosing/Decision-Making / Entrepreneurship / Freedom

My first guest “host” on a podcast: The Hidden Why, by Leigh Martinuzzi

Leigh Martinuzzi hosts the podcast The Hidden Why. He posted my first solo audio recording. Listen to the recording! Listen to the recording! We met online, which led to speaking, learning each other's work and interests, and talking about collaborating. I thought he might interview me. Instead he suggested me recording something for his blog by myself, which I consider harder. More than harder, I find it scarier to record something from scratch by myself. I describe in the recording how I viewed the chance as an opportunity, but not how scary I found it. Even so, I took on the challenge and am grateful to Leigh for giving me the chance and motivation, and then to share the recording with his audience. Listen to…

June 3, 2017

Audio / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Nature

The Leadership and the Environment Podcast: The First Recording

When I get the podcast up and running, I'll interview guests. I already have audio content, so I'll post it now. In particular, I'm speaking on leadership and the environment Tuesday at NYU-Stern, 6pm-8pm. Register here to attend! I recorded myself practicing, so I will post that practice recording as my first podcast post. This page doesn't look glamorous, but it's a start. I'm also publicly showing it so you can see it's development. I expect the podcast to become important and I think transparency will help motivate people to see that they can do things that become important. Click the media player above to listen to my practice keynote talk, "Leadership and the Environment." Then register here to attend Tuesday's talk!

May 28, 2017

The Leadership and the Environment Podcast: It Starts Here and Now

Leadership And The Environment DuckDuckGo search results

Audio / Choosing/Decision-Making / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Nature

The Leadership and the Environment Podcast: It Starts Here and Now

Everyone wants a cleaner environment and recognizes human behavior is trashing it. We can't stop ourselves because of the systems we created that make it convenient, comfortable, fun, and in nearly every way emotionally rewarding to pollute except that it's against our values of leaving the world better than we found it. Only you know your values and what better means to you, but I've never met anyone who didn't consider cleaner air and water better. We don't want to pollute, yet our systems make us. So few people act to reduce their pollution, forcing us to rationalize why it's okay for each of us to do things we know hurt others. Things we want laws for organizations like governments and large corporations---such as to…

May 28, 2017

What will you fix the toilet for?

"What will you fix the toilet for?" -- Joshua Spodek's Inc. post today

Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / Leadership

What will you fix the toilet for?

My Inc. post today, "What will you fix the toilet for?," begins What Will You Fix the Toilet For? How much do you love your work? This simple question can tell you. White-collar workers Consider the banker, consultant, or other multinational corporate worker. He or she demands high compensation, business class travel arrangements, and so on. No one would think of asking them to do manual labor, let alone janitorial tasks. They're above all that. That's because their jobs are so valuable and meaningful, right? Think again. Entrepreneurs and founders Consider the entrepreneur or founder--someone who feels ownership of the project. He or she will do what it takes to get the job done. How do you know? Imagine an important person--a client, a potential…

May 25, 2017

Science: This Remote Paradise Is Most Trashed Spot on Earth

Awareness / Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / Leadership / Nature

Science: This Remote Paradise Is Most Trashed Spot on Earth

My Inc. post today, "Science: This Remote Paradise Is Most Trashed Spot on Earth," begins serious but connects it to entrepreneurship and leadership. It starts: Science: This Remote Paradise Is Most Trashed Spot on Earth Two scientists report that this once-pristine paradise on Earth, now covered with plastic junk. Leaders and entrepreneurs can act. If you haven't heard, you must have been hiding under a rock. Or maybe a piece of useless plastic junk: A pristine paradise is covered with the greatest density of garbage measured, mostly plastic trinkets whose existence improved the life of no one, according to a paper, "Exceptional and rapid accumulation of anthropogenic debris on one of the world's most remote and pristine islands," in the Proceedings of the National Academy…

May 24, 2017

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