Years ago someone told me the first meal after a three-day water-only fast tastes life-changingly good. I’d heard of fasting then, but 1) didn’t think much of it and 2) thought humans would die after a couple days, even with water. But he didn’t seem like he was lying and I liked the idea of a life-changing experience that cost no time or money, rather would save them. In May[…] Keep reading →

Read any editorial page or media on any major topic—the pandemic, the environment, race, police, the election, . . . anything—and people are calling for leadership. In the United States, they often refer to missing leadership from the government, especially the executive branch from local to federal, but I see leadership vacuums in business, education, sports, arts, culture, military, religion, media, . . . everywhere. As a leadership writer, professor,[…] Keep reading →

I remember helping General Austin co-lead some leadership workshops at West Point. He described a crisis West Point was experiencing that they all knew about—a recent graduate spoke poorly of the institution and community in a way that the media amplified. Then a former teacher—a Colonel—piled on the criticism, prompting questioning from alumni. He asked cadets how they would handle the situation. I read their expressions as caring and determined,[…] Keep reading →

Today saw the first mainstream media mention of Initiative. Dave Kerpen of Likeable Social Media wrote in Inc.: 3 Steps to Develop More Initiative. I hope he doesn’t mind my quoting the parts that referred to my book, which were in his second step: The problem with most books and courses for starting things is that they assume you already have a winning idea and a team. It’s great if[…] Keep reading →

Dave Asprey, Author: Changing the Game in Leadership and Life I saw Dave Asprey speak at a downtown Manhattan coworking space. You may think of Dave as the Bulletproof Coffee or bio-hacking man, but I was there for a different reason. I’d read his new book Game Changers: What Leaders, Innovators, and Mavericks Do to Win at Life. It’s a different turn for him. The book compiles leadership and life[…] Keep reading →

Have you noticed how many of today’s most successful people chose to leave our educational system–Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, Erin Brockovich, Elon Musk, Sean Combs, Lauren Hill, Michael Dell, Whoopi Goldberg, Larry Page, and Sergei Brin, to name a few. Ever wonder why people who chose to leave mainstream education became so successful? Why did breaking the once-standard advice “stay in school” not work[…] Keep reading →

Leaders: Seek This Outcome From Your Followers This simple feedback from your followers can tell you how you’re leading. By Joshua SpodekAuthor, ‘Leadership Step by Step’ @spodek One of the great joys and tragedies of leadership is that you’ll never exactly how well you led. An engineer can take a test. A baseball player can look at his stats. But leaders have no objective measure. Is that frustrating? It gets more[…] Keep reading →