Essays

It is much easier to view (and comment on) something from afar. This is not nearly the same as experiencing something first hand, making real decisions, and contemplating the consequences of your actions. It’s easy to be a sideline spectator, but quite hard to be the man in the arena. But being in the arena […]

It’s never too late to completely transform your career. You can quit today and start over, regardless of your goals and dreams. First, you have to be sure you’re ready to start over. You’ve seen enough of your current field to know you chose wrong. It’s not failure, it’s learning. Second, you have to believe […]

Bad inputs beget bad outputs, especially in the long run. Likewise, quality inputs beget quality outputs, especially in the long run. Yes, you might be able to get by in the short term on four hours of sleep per night, a diet of processed foods, and a lack of exercise. But eventually, you’ll wake up […]

I’m intrigued by the organizations that were the early adopters; many are now the recognized leaders in corporate sustainability. Some have moved towards integrated reporting, which involves a combined corporate responsibility and annual report. – Molly Cartmill, Sempra Energy After taking a moment to work through the corporate speak, I realized what Molly Cartmill was […]

Sometimes, we fall just short of a goal. We make $950 from a product launch when we hoped to make $1,000. We run that mile in 6:05 when we wanted to run it under 6:00. Or we read 50 books instead of the 52 we hoped to read this year. That’s what scientists would define […]

Tell me if this is familiar: you hear about a hot new tech/entrepreneurship/marketing/business conference being promoted around the web. You click through to check out the marketing site and see if it might be the kind of event you’d be interested in attending. The overall message resonates, so you head to the speakers page. Thirteen […]

When I’ve never been to your website before, and you display a popup subscription box in the first 30 seconds, how does that affect my perception of you? How about when you make me click a button that says, “No thanks, I don’t want to improve my life,” just to avoid having to enter my […]

What’s the marginal value of that next article you’re about to schedule in Buffer? Will it matter to the people who care enough to listen to what you have to say? Did you even read it? Here’s the truth: I don’t trust you more because you tweet article links every 42 minutes. There’s no scoreboard. […]

Even if you think you’ll never be an entrepreneur, every single person should build some kind of side project. And it should happen sooner than later (later’s never promised). Maybe it’s showing your art at a friend’s gallery on an unbooked Tuesday evening. Maybe it’s a novel you write and print 25 copies to give […]

The most effective way to get people to take action is to appeal to their emotional side – their heart – and create urgency at the same time. As The Atlantic so poignantly reveals, all too often, we’re convinced to give to a cause that does not make the most effective use of our next […]