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I recently heard an interview with a man who holds the world record as the youngest disc jockey in history.  Stevens built his own working transmitter in the attic of his home by using a souped up wireless broadcasting kit with a hundred foot antenna. And once his remarkable story blipped on the radar of the local radio station, the program director offered him a job as a weekend…

Our reluctance to ask for help often stems from the childhood need for individuation, agency, efficacy and power.  Somewhere inside of us, there’s still that petulant little toddler trying to prove to himself and to the world that he’s big and strong and can sit at the big boy table and play with the grownups and build a giant sand castle all by himself.  As if to pout and…

The principle of caveat venditor, aka, let the seller beware, cautions the businessperson to be responsible for any problem that the buyer might encounter with a service or product.  But let’s not ignore the problems that occur before the sale is made.  Because as a seller, it’s easy to allow our ego needs get in the way of good judgment.  Think back to various projects and jobs and gigs and…

Camus notably wrote that peace was the only battle worth waging.  This profound thought first appeared in an essay about the savagery of the atomic bomb.  But keep in mind, the guy was also an absurdist philosopher.  And so, perhaps there’s a deeper layer to his message about the battles we wage inside of our own heads. A forewarning to people that the fight for the inner landscape is equally…

Toshi’s rock club has the greatest mission statement on the planet.  The plaque on the wall says: Our raison d’être is to produce rapture for all those who come, moments where you’re happy to be alive and wanting to live forever. Sounds crazy. We know. But it’s what we want to do.  Can you imagine what the world would look like if more companies took a stand for joy? …

When sadness descends like a heavy fog, our first instinct is to stop giving ourselves privileges.  To deny ourselves healthy experiences and emotions. To feel virtuous for depriving ourselves. And to contract our lives and become small, because that will keep things predictable and safe.  Our sweet little routine will protect us. Even though joy has left the building.  But’s a completely false solution. To punish ourselves for deviating…

Camouflaged with such mad intentions Fool I’m just trying to fight your attention It’s the only way we’re gonna last forever If we find a way to stand broken together It’s the war of the wills It’s the war of the wills Gratefulness for the oxygen junkies Fool your circus must meet my monkies It’s the only way we’re gonna last forever If we find a way to stand…

I have a curious constitution.  I am vitalized by the world of ideas and turned on by brilliance. I am hungry for insight into the nature of things. I am obsessed with finding wisdom from unexpected sources. I love the thrill of finding a pattern beneath life’s complexities. I relish the process of interrogating information and sniffing for kernels.  I enjoy using curiosity to disrupt my own point of…

When companies are sinking into the financial mire, consultants pull them out.  But only if they allow them to.  That’s the astonishing part. Because the founders of these organizations, who are typically wealthy, successful, high achieving white males over the age of fifty, are rarely willing to admit the company has a problem.  That’s why they pay consultants handsomely to build up the facade of an enterprise that deep down, they…

If our greatest asset is the willingness to acknowledge what isn’t working, then our greatest action is to seek help, in whatever necessary form, to keep moving the story forward.  Regardless of how uncomfortable it might be to hold out our hands and receive it, regardless how stubborn we are about succeeding on our own steam without help, and regardless of how secure self reliance seems when the only…