On December 10, 2004 I decided to apply to business school. I had written no essays, taken no GMAT, reviewed no school’s web site or application process, and asked no one for a recommendation. On January 2, 2005, 23 days later, I began orientation at Columbia Business School (ranked #5 by Forbes, Economist, and Financial Times). I got my MBA the following May, less than eighteen months from deciding to[…] Keep reading →
A client asked me about doing exercises to develop leadership and social skills. He pointed out most people don’t do them. Some people do them differently. He’s been doing them a while and has seen some progress, but knows he has a long way to go. He asked my thoughts on how much he should do. I wrote the following. I look at leadership and social skills, leadership, and self-awareness[…] Keep reading →
Society values originality and creativity in problem solving instead of getting the job done. I’ll illustrate how. Imagine you have a problem you need solved. For concreteness let’s say you need plumbing work done in your house, but it could apply to any problem, personal, professional, or otherwise. Say you ask two plumbers how they would fix the problem to decide whom to hire. The first plumber says “I have[…] Keep reading →
I think of a certain piece of advice almost daily in maintaining my daily routine. I find it invaluable. When I started this page I asked a friend with a successful blog how often he wrote — only weekdays, daily, now and then? He said words that stuck with me well. If you skip one day you can skip two. Once you skip two days it’s over. Conclusion: don’t skip[…] Keep reading →
Many people who dream of starting businesses tell me their greatest obstacle is having a great idea to start with. I call this belief my number one entrepreneurship myth and wrote about it and productive beliefs that can help more than the myth. Besides the productive alternative belief that a good idea plus listening to your market succeeds more than trying to make an idea perfect, another counter to this[…] Keep reading →
Acceptance, tolerance, and hope — among the top virtues can you have, right? I disagree. Disagreeing with what the mainstream considers virtues may sound bizarre, but I’ll show you their shortcomings and how you can do better. While I prefer them to nonstop rejection, intolerance, and hopelessness, and agree they help society remain civil, these practices show gaping holes in your life if you hold them as high ideals. Each[…] Keep reading →
A client asked how to find your passion (in the context of relationships, as you’ll see). I wrote the following (slightly edited). ——————————– You don’t find some single latent passion within you, if only you can find it. You create it. What is passion? It’s powerful emotion. Emotion doesn’t come from out there. It comes from in here. How do you create something in here? Not by looking out there.[…] Keep reading →
Having written daily for a while I’ve found out great ways to generate lots of hits and to generate online discussion. I don’t do them on this page, despite how well they work. The tactics attract people to any media — press, tv, etc. Title Start with a title with a provocative question the answer is usually no to. Is Obama secretly working with the GOP? Can you make millions[…] Keep reading →
Between my talks and seminars and the university courses I’ve taught, I get to speak in public a fair amount. We all know one of the main challenges of public speaking is keeping the audience engaged — a bigger one being how to recapture an audience’s attention if you lose it. Here’s a trick that works every time. Although doing it can challenge you more than you think you can[…] Keep reading →