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I’m a big proponent of productive selfishness. Scratching your own itches, making the art you want to see in the world and creating products that you, yourself, would actually use.  Years ago I realized that my creative inventory, that is, my database of sentences and notes and phrases and fragments, needed a serious upgrade. I wondered if there was a way to convert my files into an online application….

I was listening a fascinating interview with the best poker player in the world.  Phil admitted that the biggest mistakes he made in his career occurred in those moments when he didn’t keep his head down. When he carelessly took a look around and locked himself into the ego vortex of approval, criticism and public opinion. Those mistakes cost him millions upon millions of dollars. And he vowed never…

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. And so, in this blog series, I’m going to…

The reason I write every day is because I can’t afford not to.  In my experience, when I stop creating, my mind turns on itself. Its power inverts. It uses the excess energy to creatively sabotage me from within, busying itself weaving a web of inner fears, doubts and excuses. And it traps me in an infinite regression of meaninglessness, procrastination and lethargy.  That’s the thing about imagination, it’s…

Godin’s new audiobook isn’t an audiobook at all, it’s an audio only live recording, recorded during a weeklong seminar in his office. It’s organized into short essays, and it’s exactly the kind of resource I needed to kick first quarter into high gear. Although I took pages and pages of great notes, one theme in particular resonated with me: “We’re fooling ourselves into thinking we need really nice tools to make…

How do you stay inspired when your job is to inspire others?  When your work demands a consistent volume of idea creation, originality of voice is difficult to sustain over time.  But what if you could create a unique inspiration pool that nobody else could replicate? What if you could build a system of rituals, practices and environments so new ideas flow as a natural consequence of your life?…

As I outlined in my book, writing is the basis of all wealth.  But when I say that, I mean it literally. Because as a writer, publisher, performer and strategist, words are my currency. Sentences are the foundation of everything I do.  Consider the following value chain. Sentences create my inventory of ideas. That body of ideas leads to new patterns, insights and perspective. Which helps me to accumulate…

I despise meetings, but I love writing.  And so, when I’m stuck sitting around a table for two hours, I always take copious notes of all the insights people don’t realize they have. Because writing is my currency. That’s a layer of meaning.  Something else I dread is lifting weights. On the other hand, I love listening to interesting conversations. And so, when I’m trapped in a hotel fitness center…

I’ve always been a fiercely independent person.  I love connecting and conversing and communing and cocreating with people. I cherish the centers of belonging in my life. But from an organizationally sanctioned standpoint, I’m just not a joiner. Niches and scenes and cliques and teams and tribes and unions and circles and industries and clubs and associations, these groups just aren’t appealing to me.  I prefer to answer to myself….

Doctorow once made a brilliant parallel between dandelion reproduction and art.  He said that almost every seed a dandelion tosses into the wind is going to die without taking root, but that’s not what matters to the dandelion. They don’t care that every seed survives, they care that every opportunity to take root is exploited. A successful dandelion is one that colonizes every crack in the sidewalk, not one…