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The seven most important words any creative person can say to himself.  Oh my god, you can do that?  Consider the amount of permission and inspiration and liberation built into that moment. Once a person asks themselves that question, there’s no stopping them. They’re off to the creative races. And what’s exciting about these seven words is, they’re not just for beginners. At every stage of a career, these…

Covey once said that if the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take just gets you to the wrong place faster. No matter how intensely and intelligently you scale those rungs.  I remember interviewing for gig as a curriculum developer at tech startup. I could have sworn I was perfect for the project, but then the hiring manager said something I’ll never forget.  Your skills and personality and background and commitment…

Aristotle was the first philosopher to observe that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Little did he know, his philosophy would have broad implications in systems theory, science, art and even career management.  Physicists call this theory emergence, whereby things come alive when their elements are integrated into one another.  Human beings are the perfect example. Our talents in isolation don’t necessarily have much value. Only through…

Most people got the memo about the profitability of remarkability. Create something work talking about. Got it.  But here’s the catch. Uniqueness is an important starting point, but it can’t be the only point. It has to be the polishing cloth atop a foundation of value. Style supported by substance. Shtick sustained by significance. Otherwise it’s just a patchwork of weirdness.  I learned this the hard way. When I first…

Branding is a shortcut.  It’s what helps your business execute smarter, helps your prospects buy faster, and helps your clients return sooner. When you know who you are, everything is easier.  That’s the single best defense for investing significant time and money and energy into building your brand. Because once you do, branding becomes the great catchall. The stone that kills all the organizational birds. The lead domino that…

I once spent a summer trying to work for somebody else. It was a fascinating experience in identity, communication and career management.  And what’s interesting is, the very first job interview I went on, they offered me the position on the spot. For a lot of money. To do work that would have been stimulating and challenging and enlightening. But I decided to turn the offer down. Partly because I was…

All creativity begins with the moment of conception. That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here. Based on my books in The Prolific Series, I’m going…

Healthy boundaries define who we are, free us to be who we are and help people take us more seriously. That’s why we should never feel guilty about setting and reinforcing them.  Quite the opposite, in fact. We should rejoice that there is something in this world that we will not bargain with. It’s a victory of the self. Anytime we are able to hold a courageous conversation with…

I think of myself as a deeply caring and thoughtful and passionate person. But I also know that I can’t care about everything. My heart has limits. That’s the way the economy of effort works. It runs on the fuel of selective indifference. Efficiency is about being discerning enough not to dwell on meaningless matters, conserving your best energies for your creative efforts and outsourcing all the heavy lifting…

Maisel’s research on anxiety identifies a phenomenon called prethinking activity, which includes researching, brainstorming, making lists, interviewing, organizing, going to workshops and the like.  These activities, while enjoyable and meaningful, shouldn’t be our primary focus. They may serve our thinking needs, but they may also be dodges that we use to avoid our actual thinking tasks and their attendant anxieties.  We think we’re being useful, but in reality we’re just maintaining our…