As a longtime entrepreneur—having co-founded my first company in 1996—I like supporting new entrepreneurs. Few who contact me show genuineness and authenticity to match their aspirations. Occasionally one does. Miko Lau contacted me a few months ago with a challenge she gave herself to assemble 25 experts to teach a cohort including herself the best they knew. She contacted me about teaching the leadership part. While my schedule didn’t work[…] Keep reading →

“. . . but what I do doesn’t matter . . .” Regular listeners know I can’t stand this phrase. If you’re like most people, you want to act on the environment. You want to make sure you make a difference and fear wasting your time or doing pointless work. I felt that way before I started the path that led to this podcast. Taking initiative overcame it. I wrote[…] Keep reading →

EDIT: For some reason the webinar didn’t get recorded, but I gave similar webinars to Wharton and UChicago Business School alumni, which you can watch here. Free online, noon Eastern, Thursday, January 16. All are welcome to join tomorrow’s webinar I’m hosting with Columbia Business School on Initiative—based on my book. My similar talk at Google got rave reviews. Click to register I look forward to seeing you there. Click[…] Keep reading →

The Problem: restaurants, stores, and hotels give away a lot disposable stuff that ends up in landfills—napkins, plastic cutlery, shampoo, ketchup packets, plastic bags etc. They feel they can’t stop giving these things away out of fear they’ll look cheap. The Solution: an independent nonprofit led by people who don’t support those industries that creates signs to put in each place suggesting customers use no more than they need. The[…] Keep reading →

This month is the twenty year anniversary of the big month of November 1999. Long enough has passed that I may mis-remember, but in November 1999, I Defended my PhD thesis Bought the Greenwich Village apartment I still live in Secured, with my co-founder, my first company’s first investment of $200,000 In other words, I finished the top degree in one of the most challenging fields, severed my ties with[…] Keep reading →

Dr. Pelè is a bestselling author, musician, and host of the I GOT HAPPY Podcast, where he features the stories of highly successful executives, experts, and entrepreneurs. He is the Bestselling Author of Big-Ticket Clients: You Can’t Catch A Whale With A Worm. First, check out his page, listen to his music, read his story, and see how and why he’s spreading so much happiness. Next, see my episode, which[…] Keep reading →

Maybe you saw the headlines that Google and YouTube had to pay a fine, paltry for them, for collecting kids’ personal information. From the headline, I didn’t think it seemed like such a big deal, as much as I value privacy, as much as I avoid Google, and as much as I value protecting helpless people from predatory entities. But reading the article, I saw how much they used the[…] Keep reading →

20 years ago tomorrow, we filed the first patent for the technology that eventually became the basis for my first venture, Submedia. Entrepreneurship gave me an escape from the path academia laid out for me that I loved at first but no longer wanted. Working on an invention, a business plan, and so on reinvigorated me. I didn’t know it would help lead to my latest book, Initiative, hence “Over[…] Keep reading →

How to get rich in America in two easy steps: Find something that people like but suspect or know is unhealthy. Sell a product or service that makes them feel it’s healthy. Examples: High fat and keto diets: I’m not saying they’re unhealthy, but a lot of people think they are. They like the food. So selling the diet will make money. Supplements: As far as I know, none of[…] Keep reading →