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Rand wasn’t only a brilliant writer, but a brilliant reader.  She believed that every new idea we read should represent the beginning, not the end, of a thought process. And that if the ideas sound good, we should give them not merely a nod of approval, but hours of assiduous mental work.  Proving, that writing and reading aren’t mutually exclusive activities. They’re part of the same creative continuum.  The…

Failure is a beautiful thing. It’s what makes life a story.  And if we’re willing to embrace it as a learning opportunity rather than treating it as a source of shame, success will not be far behind.  But let’s not fetishize it. Let’s not dwell on our failures and beat ourselves up and become prisoners of our own mythologies. Because at some point, we have to let the past…

What do you say when you don’t know what to say?  Nothing. You say nothing. Because there’s nothing you can say. When somebody you love is bursting at the seams with pain and sadness and confusion and disappointment, there are no healing words to pave them like an avalanche of light.  The best thing you can do is create a world of action.  I have a friend who went through a…

I read an intriguing news story about the diamond of the century.  It was the largest stone found in the past hundred years, and the second largest stone found in history.  But according to gemologists, the diamond was too big to value. Weighing in at over a thousand carats, the stone was so large that it didn’t fit into conventional scanners used to evaluate a stone’s potential worth.  And…

We live in a world that fetishizes interestingness.  The story we’re sold by the experts is, if we can just make ourselves and our work different and quirky and weird and unique enough, eventually, people will take notice and reward us with an avalanche of money, sex and happiness.  Which, in some cases might be true. But most of the time, being interesting doesn’t guarantee anyone will be interested…

The challenge with joy is, it comes wrapped in a bow of guilt.  Thanks to our puritanical origins, entire generations of people have been reticent to embrace joy when it comes. Because they’re terrified of feeling shameful or indulgent or depraved. After all, those who take uninhibited pleasure from what they’re engaged in at the moment have been historically viewed as sinful and immoral.  And besides, who are we…

Success never comes unassisted.  There are people in the world who will gladly take you under their wing and help you fly to the stars.  Of course, that kind of relationship can only commence under a few conditions.  Internally, you have to let it be okay that you need other people. You have to humble yourself at the feet of those who have already walked the path. You have…

Woody’s latest film reminds us that the world may not be without purpose, but it’s not without magic.  That’s a deeply comforting thought. One that can help inform and ennoble our existential priorities.  Because no matter how many times we fatalistically wonder to ourselves, what the hell is the point of all this, there is always an asterisk at the bottom of the page, pointing to the moments when the magic…

Michelangelo said that every block of stone has a statue inside of it, and that it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.  The operative word, of course, is discover.  Not create or build or invent or make from scratch, but discover.  To chip away and allow that which is already present to reveal itself.  It’s a counterintuitive approach that takes some getting used to, but once you…

Some things cycle into your life for a season for a reason.  And that’s okay. In fact, each of us must build our capacity to recognize the point when relationships, cities, jobs and other life phases no longer have anything original or important to teach us.  It’s like a sixth sense. A spiritual law of diminishing returns. And it requires a rare combination of gratitude and detachment that allows us…