Blog

Nobody has complete integrity all of the time.  Life is messy, complicated and unpredictable. No matter how honorable and authentic we purport to be, the reality is, everyone does what they have to do to survive and be happy.  We all work out our own brand of compromise. We all find compartments to put things in that make them okay.  Sometimes we even sell our soul if times are…

Being picky isn’t the problem, it’s the symptom.  The problem is, we have expectations. The problem is, we are afraid of taking risks, being wrong, looking foolish and getting hurt. The problem is, we are addicted to the identity of a person of heroic integrity who holds impossibly high standards for themselves and others. The problem is, we romanticize the fairytale of finding the ideal partner or the perfect…

People love bragging to themselves and others about how they’re really doing the work.  It just sounds so ambitious and blue collar and honest. Doing the work.  The only problem with that phrase is, it presupposes that people have a productive definition of what work is.  Because if their initial assumption is flawed, then any subsequent ambition is wasted.  Like the person who has been unemployed for two years, but…

Rodriguez’s memoir about the twenty something kid who became a major player in the film world reminds young artists of something important: No matter how many people you drag in with you to create that safety in numbers feeling you’re going for, at some it’s going to be all up to you, and you need to be prepared for that.  And not that teamwork and collaboration aren’t important and necessary for doing…

Anytime we believe that we are broken, sinful and full of mistakes, we are operating from a core belief of unworthiness.  And it’s simply not true. Because contrary to popular conditioning, we are not broken, and we do not need fixing. There is nothing wrong with us because there is nothing wrong. Wrongness and rightness, goodness and badness, these are all stories other people have sold to us.  And…

Most of us are highly impatient and don’t trust the natural rhythm of change.  And so, we sometimes attempt to change too many things at once. Because that seems faster more efficient.  Unfortunately, that amount of change can overwhelm us and backfire. Which leads to frustration, which leads to beating ourselves up for falling short, which leaves us worse than when we started off.  It’s like the passionate but…

In the modern workplace, there is nothing wrong with wanting to receive validation in exchange for talent.  What team member doesn’t want to be told that they’re doing a great job?  But there’s a balance. If we show up at the office each day with the expectation that our bosses will endow us with boundless reassurance and infinite hope, then a tsunami of disappointment is on the horizon.  Ellis…

Steal Scott’s Ideas, is my new product development and innovation card game. First it was a spreadsheet. Then some blog posts. Soon a series of corporate workshops. Later came the podcast. And now there is a home edition.   This box was designed with a few questions in mind.  First, how can we create shelf value?  Let’s design this small box in a way that creates joy and intrigue for…

Cynics and skeptics have an insidious way of crippling the noblest intentions in even the strongest of minds.  It’s this toxic thing that negative people do. Out of fear, they start scrambling. Infecting everyone around them with their soul stank. And if you’re not fully equipped with air tight boundaries, they can suck you down into their vortex of despair where you will be slowly digested over a thousand…

Creative people choose projects with the potential to galvanize them, but true innovators choose projects with the potential to galvanize others around them. That’s the kind of person every organization wants to hire. Someone they can build something around. Someone who can be a rallying point for others. Someone who can cast a compelling vision that the rest of the team eagerly runs towards.  My experience working at a…