I didn’t share about The five times I got mugged growing up most of my life because I thought everyone had similar experiences. I knew we spent a few years in a particularly economically depressed neighborhood. I sensed it was one of the highest-crime areas of Philadelphia. Still, most of the times happened after we moved from that neighborhood. The time I got sucker-punched by random kids waiting for a[…] Keep reading →

People tell me they prefer personal stories and stories of humility, not just success. Well, this morning I messed up my fig tree. I’m still learning about gardening. I felt like a brute. Plus you can hear about my morning holocaust of bugs.

Hear me share on Paul Smith’s Lead With a Story podcast how the company I co-founded, Submedia, locked me out of the office as the final nail of ousting me. More precisely, after ousting me from the CEO position, owing to Submedia’s running out of money — I won’t argue it being a fair reason to switch CEOs — the new team moved offices and didn’t give me a key[…] Keep reading →

Genevieve Kim invited me to participate in her Eye See You project, a global project to photograph 1,000 strangers as a practice of seeing and being seen, in collaboration with The Assemblage NoMad (where we met), Ubuntu Market, Melissa Galeria, Invisible Technologies, BURNT, The Munchies Table and photographers around the world. Self-taught in photography, Genevieve has had her work appear in the NY Times, AdWeek, MOZAIC, Business Insider, UN Habitats[…] Keep reading →

I’m pleased to appear on Dan Zehner’s Anthem of the Adventurer podcast. In a refreshing diversion from most of my recent podcast appearances, we talk about adventure, challenge, growth, and how to create them. Click to his site or listen below: His notes describe our conversation well: Episode Summary Today, we talk with Josh Spodek, who lives a life full of adventure while teaching at NYU. He’s got some amazing[…] Keep reading →

I’m posting an audio story about why my post today is short. Basically a crazy person broke my computer laptop keyboard so I’m posting without a keyboard. Rather, I’m typing this on an NYU computer but don’t know my complicated web page password so have to mail the text to myself so I can copy and paste it using only my mouse on my regular computer. It’s hard posting using[…] Keep reading →

My friend Marshall Goldsmith likes to hold his birthday parties at a piano bar called Don’t Tell Mama in midtown. I quoted the following from an email to him and couldn’t help sharing here. A moment broke out last night that I had to tell you about. I went to a park around the corner from my apartment to work on my laptop around 8 or 9pm. It’s a tiny[…] Keep reading →

You may have read the empty boat parable. I don’t much like it. I get its point, it sounds too contrived and fortune-cookie-like. The people who say it tend to sound new-agey, which is not a community I associate with. Yesterday morning, I experienced the point of the story without the contrivance. First I’ll share the original for those who haven’t read it. A young farmer laboriously paddled his boat[…] Keep reading →

Several TEDxNYU attendees agreed: “Nailed it!” My friend recorded it with her phone. It ran out of memory, but here are the first six minutes, followed by some stills. Word is that I have to wait 6 to 12 weeks for them to edit the video. I’ll link to the full, official one when I get it.