Ideas are free, execution is priceless.

I’ve launched dozens of projects in my career, and never once did I even consider the possibility of crowdfunding. Now, I personally think it’s wonderful that crowdfunding exists as a standard business practice. The fact that over a hundred billion dollars is raised each year through these platforms is extraordinary. In fact, I have contributed to a handful of campaigns for friends and strangers alike, and I enjoyed both…

I am just like anyone, in that I love the familiar smell of my own bullshit. That smell has adaptive value, insofar as it protects my esteem, prevents negative consequences of adverse events, and helps in deceiving others. Reminds me of my friend, who is a highly respected and successful physician. His favorite mantra to share with patients, specifically those who insist on doing their own research, so to…

Maturity is the growing awareness of our own limitations. We acknowledge that we may not have possessed the necessary knowledge, experience or perspective in the past. And we accept that we might have missed something that was there all along, but our perceptions weren’t sophisticated enough at the time. We simply didn’t have the eyes to see what was staring us right in the face. I frequently experience this…

When somebody acts in a critical, difficult, unreasonable, judgmental or angry way, our immediate reaction might be to step back and think, whoa, what’s their problem? But the more empathetic response would be to lean in and wonder, hmm, what’s their unmet need? See, for most humans, the order of operations works the same. Experience, observation, feeling and need. There’s some event that the person observes, which makes them…

When I first started my publishing business, a reader from a small island nation across the world bought one of my books. This was long before ebooks had gone mainstream, so my digital delivery options were limited at the time. When I arrived at the post office, they said it would cost forty dollars to ship. Forty dollars. For a fifteen dollar book. Insane. The worst part was, there…