From Self-Help Addiction to Self-Mastery Podcaster Daniel Gefen’s book shares how to transition from compulsion and perfectionism to mastery and joy I heard of Daniel Gefen through his podcast, Can I Pick Your Brain?. I found his interviews engaging, open, vulnerable, and funny (especially his interview of me). His guests range from billionaires to mixed martial art champions to world-class marketers to celebrities. Somehow he gets them to be vulnerable, open, and engaging. The[…] Keep reading →

Meeting with Frances Hesselbein means talking about service. Her touchstone phrase is “to serve is to live.” All the men in her life served in the military. She taught at West Point and led me to my co-teaching for three days last fall. By contrast, when I grew up, I associated the military with the draft, whose compulsory nature seemed unconstitutional. My sense of community has changed—I would say matured.[…] Keep reading →

Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Who Are Your Peers, and What Are Your Sidchas? Want success? Compare yourself to historical greats and make them your peers, not the average. 18 years ago today, January 4, 2000, the New York Times reported: Today is the first day, after nearly half a century, that the daily comic strip ”Peanuts” will not appear. Just why it would be funny to see a young boy lean his[…] Keep reading →

The hero’s journey In conversation 1, Jim shared his values and committed to live by one. In conversation 1.5, he shared problems with the challenge and how he overcame them. In this conversation he shares how it worked. Listen to hear how persevering through challenges to live by your values leads to a better life. Listen to the conversation Judge for yourself what you find from his experience. I heard:[…] Keep reading →

Influencive‘s Surya Prakash Singh posted an interview of me, “Nurturing Millennial Leaders,” of how to start leading, especially if your traditional education didn’t help. The article begins Nurturing Millennial Leaders I get the chance to speak with author and leadership specialist Joshua Spodek. According to a survey, each day approximately 10,000 baby boomers retire. By 2020, 48% of the workforce will be made of millennials. Because of this scenario, 84%[…] Keep reading →

The Missing Element in Protecting the Environment We have the science and technology. We’re missing effective leadership. Let’s learn from past success. Who would expect an insight on how to protect the environment to come from hookworms? I recently saw Zia Khan, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Vice President of Initiatives and Strategy, speak at the New York Academy of Science‘s Summit on United Nations Strategic Goals. That’s a high-level group of organizations and people. He didn’t speak on[…] Keep reading →

Have you thought about who is leading in the area of climate research? I don’t mean who is doing the most research or the best research or publishing the most. I mean from a leadership perspective: who is leading people, setting direction, creating a vision, and motivating others to act toward a goal? What is the goal of climate research if not to figure out how to set policy for[…] Keep reading →

Enron Environmentalism Enron looked profitable when it compartmentalized and hid its losses. Do you compartmentalize and hide your pollution? I just had lunch with a man who described himself as fanatical about the environment–in particular, about water bottles. He illustrated by describing how fastidiously he handled them. As he started his story, I expected him to describe how he never used water bottles. Americans have such clean and drinkable water that water made unclean makes front page[…] Keep reading →

Remember the Single-Tear Anti-Litter Ads From the 70s? You’ll Cry Too at Our Pollution Levels Today The chart below puts Keep America Beautiful’s “Crying Indian” public service announcement in today’s deplorable context A headline in The Guardian two days ago, “$180bn investment in plastic factories feeds global packaging binge” led me to some statistics about plastic production. Plastic Production Then The chart I saw, reproduced below, showed dramatic increase around[…] Keep reading →