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Art is an ongoing process of unsilenting ourselves. If we want to make our name dear to history and give the future something to respect, we have to show the world our accumulated record, not just bits and pieces. Everyone we meet needs to know everything we’ve done. And if they don’t, it’s our job to demonstrate the firepower of our creative arsenal. To help them taste the full…

People buy what we aren’t. If having a brand means taking a stand, then our job is to make it abundantly clear to the marketplace what we are the antithesis of. Who we aren’t, what we don’t want, what we won’t do and what we refuse to stand for. This boundary, this stake in the ground, is the sweetest freedom available. It makes our brand simpler by reducing the…

The last American author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature was Toni Morrison, for her renowned novel, Beloved. That was twenty years ago. Since then, not a single winner has come from this country. I just discovered this during an interview with Alexander Nazaryan, a member of the New York Daily News editorial staff. “American writers are encouraged to write from their perspective, to write what they know….

All work is fundamentally human. And when we identify the universal experience of what we do, master the deeper humanity behind our work and embed that spirit into the whole of our job, we truly have the greatest impact. As a writer, publisher, performer and consultant, I’ve worked with hundreds of organizations worldwide, small and large, from lunch ladies to funeral directors to pharmacies to landscapers. And every time…

Having a history together isn’t reason enough to have a future together. For two people to thrive, there has to be more than just pile of memories. We have to know, in our hearts, that there is a rightness to the relationship. That’s a key word, rightness. I remember at friend’s wedding about three years back, the mother of the groom toasted to the “rightness” of the couple. Sadly,…

Passion is illusive. For years we’ve been told that if we find it, follow it, channel it, leverage it and stay committed to it, then eventually, with a lot of hard work, we can profit from it. How romantic. I fell for that fairytale when I started my company nearly a decade ago. And while I’m still a believer in passion and the profitability thereof, unfortunately, because of the…

Moving out is an emotionally charged experience. Especially when our personal identity is tied to our physical environment. As we box our things up, we box ourselves up too. We let go of the version of ourselves we’ve outgrown. And we stop hanging onto certain things, lest they hang onto us. But what’s weird is when we look back. When we take a break from schlepping furniture and taping…

The Bible is interesting. It’s the most popular, most printed, most published, most purchased, most read, most recognized, most translated, most demanded, most donated, most circulated, most owned and most influential book in the world. But it’s also the most stolen. And yet, people rarely put up a fuss. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. Every time another copy is stolen, the people who love the book the most…

Everybody is somebody’s somebody. It all depends on what we see when we see people. When we sit down on a bus next to a complete stranger, we have a choice. We can take the easy way out, crack open a book, put in our ear buds and disappear into ourselves. Or we can say hello. We can notice people. We can create an act of connection in a…

The best way to have a good idea is to have a hundred bad ones. It’s a painful process, especially if we’ve gotten accustomed to being good. But any seed to imagination, any ignition of pure creation, is not just healthy and safe, but practical and necessary. First, it gives us perspective. It humbles our creative spirit. Second, bad ideas come in handy for other problems later. Nothing is…