Blog

It’s not a nametag, it’s a magic trick. Think about it. In the past thirteen years, I built a successful publishing and consulting enterprise out of nothing. Nothing. I authored dozens of books, did hundreds of interviews, published thousands of articles and got paid big money by big companies to travel around the world and share my story with millions of people, despite having no job experience, no resume,…

Let’s travel back in time. Fifty years ago, everyday activities like landing on the runway, shopping for clothes, taking bread out of the oven or receiving a package from a friend, were just ordinary, fleeting experiences. And then the world flipped. Now, thanks to the beauty of technology, thanks to the connection economy and thanks to the new social norm of digital sharing, the concept of the moment hasn’t…

The product is only the beginning. What’s evolved is the ecosystem around the product. Now, it’s not just the product. It’s joining the community that the product is a badge for. It’s redefining the industry the product is part of. It’s shaping the generation the product is a symbol of. It’s building the tribe the product is the symbol for. It’s listening to the voice the product is an…

What image would you rather project: Charisma or authenticity? Charisma comes from the Greek word kharisma, which means “gift” or “divine favor.” According to Wikipedia, is often used to describe the ability to charm or influence people. It also refers to a quality in certain individuals who easily draw the attention and admiration of others due to a “magnetic” quality of personality and/or appearance. Big deal. This is 2013….

The Islands is a hole in the wall you hope no one else discovers. Not just because the portions are huge, the dishes are amazing and the prices are affordable, but with only five tables, an alarmingly low ceiling and a dining room the size of your grandma’s attic, you’re basically on top of each other the whole time. And with only two ladies doing the all ordering, cooking,…

Everyone needs an interesting way of interacting with the world. Some creative lens, personal filter, permanent fixture or unique coefficient, that we carry with us at all times, that affords us the opportunity to navigate and meet and understand the world with a slightly skewed perspective on just about everything. Think of it as your ongoing micro experiment. For me, it’s the nametag. Wearing one all day, everyday for…

People will always value a brand if the experience of it adds something to their lives. The problem is, too many companies fail to actually consider people’s lives when they make decisions. And as a result, their marketing is tolerated at best and loathed at worst. Turns outs, it’s not about starting with the customer in mind, it’s about actually starting with the customer. It’s not about how they…

Motion organizes and creates order. Once you start moving, creating and poking around at the problem, all things tend to their equilibrium, find their perfect place in the universe and conspire towards some unifying geometrical situation. Or so says the quantum physics theory of gravitational order. Innovators have no choice but to make up everything, because most of what they’re doing has never been done before. So they jolt…

Living life on spec corrodes your spirit. Low and erratic income, sporadic employment, feast or famine cycles, fear of the work drying up, lack of job security, essentially, tossing coins in the wishing well and hoping bills float to the surface. It’s murder out there. But that’s the brutal truth about working for yourself. You’re always trying to resolve the economic problem of livelihood. Having to live and die…

People are yearning for texture. When we deliver things that are tactile and usable in the everyday world, they’re satisfying in a way that pure pixels are not. And in the battle of bits versus atoms, in our hyper accelerated culture where we all hunger for life beyond the screen, anything we can do to promise people a moment of slowing down is worthwhile. Firecracker is the master of…