Today on Inc., my fellow columnist, Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likable Media, followed up on my recent article about sending gratitude emails. He pointed out how the practice works beyond what we expected, since he promotes gratitude exercises too. Read the article to see how the practice led us to meet and immediately and easily connect because of it. In particular, we found ourselves in the middle of a tighter[…] Keep reading →

My 2,192 Days of Burpees post and Inc. article got a lot of responses, including questions how to start from people who felt inspired by this free, zero-equipment, zero-cost, low-risk, healthy, and so on practice. One reader asked if I could recommend an app. I wrote back Glad to hear from you and that you’re inspired. I prefer not to use an app. Like brushing my teeth, I just know[…] Keep reading →

People generally have more motivations than you can sense from their behavior. The more you can sense their underlying motivations, which tend to be their stronger ones, the more you can connect with them as well as to lead them. The skill of sensing others’ emotions is called empathy, loosely speaking. I view empathy as a skill you can learn, like riding a bike. I came to view it that[…] Keep reading →

I started to browse The Power Broker, Robert Caro’s colossal work on city political power and Robert Moses, and couldn’t put it down. The book is huge. It used to be a fixture in New York City apartments. You couldn’t miss its big bold lettering on the big white spine on people’s book shelves. I don’t know how many people started or finished it, but I loved reading it. Caro[…] Keep reading →

Listen to the podcast The Power of Experiential Learning with Joshua Spodek The Unmistakable Creative podcast just released its interviews of me. The interview covered leadership, entrepreneurship, education, and a bunch of my life and growth. Their lead quote from the interview: “No one who is learning to play a musical instrument, no one who wants to learn a musical instrument would ever take a class where they would lecture[…] Keep reading →

I got a few short clips from my presentation on entrepreneurship when I spoke at Princeton’s Elab recently. I described a student’s success contacting a valuable person in her field. The call got hairy, but she Benefited from the interaction Learned about how to talk to valuable people Learned about herself Would do it again Inspired her classmates If you want similar experiences, take my entrepreneurship course. It develops you[…] Keep reading →

I write about self-imposed daily challenging healthy activities (sidchas) a lot. Why is the sidcha different from the countless recommendations to do other things daily? The difference is subtle but important. It will give you more time, structure, and discipline. Some examples: People who meditate regularly tell me that I should meditate daily for the full benefit. Yoga people say the same thing about yoga, at least that I should[…] Keep reading →

You know how valuable I consider sidchas. If you don’t have one, I recommend you create one or two for yourself. I’m working on sidcha.com so stay tuned. In the meantime, I thought about an app for sidchas. Here is my main thought. When you do something daily, you don’t have to keep track of it. You don’t have to compare your performance with your friends’. You don’t have to[…] Keep reading →

I used to like sport for winning. I still do, but no sport compares with ultimate, which I’m too old to compete in. Or rather, I know I’ll get worse every year so investing effort for the future has less payoff. Now sport is about discipline, dedication, discovery, self-awareness, and things like that—switching to the second meaning of competition from the first. I’ve had a rowing machine for years. They[…] Keep reading →