BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT The Hardest Thing Is To See What's In Front of You A lesson from Lincoln on dealing with moments of opportunity and danger. One of my favorite movies is Lincoln, the Steven Spielberg masterpiece which was based largely on the book Team Of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Having read a number of Lincoln biographies, I like to think it’s the most accurate portrayal of a president in popular media and appropriately garnered a Best Actor Oscar for Daniel Day Lewis. In...
10 days ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Why Your "Ecosystem" Matters as Much as Your Talent Who you surround yourself with and how you nurture community is a key element of long-term success. So... how's your ecosystem? Ever notice the lone genius is mostly a Hollywood myth? This week on Daily Creative, I talked with Daniel Coyle about his new book Flourish, and we got into something that’s been on my mind for a while: the myth of the lone creative genius. You know the story. The solitary artist or...
23 days ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Treat AI Like Your "Alien Brain" Some thoughts in the wake of this week's episode about AI, creative work, and the future of productivity. This week on the Daily Creative podcast, I had an incredible conversation with Vasant Dhar , Christopher Mims, Aden Bahadori, and Brett Granstaff about AI and creativity. We dug into the big questions, such as what does it mean to create when machines can think, and how do we keep the soul in our work while using these powerful...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT How Beats By Dre Became Iconic Designer Robert Brunner shares how he turned an idea into a legendary product, and Neri Karra Sillaman shares insights into how to build brands that last. No one sits down at once to create an iconic product. They're crafted in small moments over time that layer up into something great. But that process requires one critical quality: intuition. Where does it come from? Is it innate, or can it be developed? How do we learn to see the...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT 20 Years of the Podcast! This week marks the 20th anniversary of the first episode of the podcast. Here are some things I've learned over the past few decades. It feels more like 20 days, but here we are. This week’s Daily Creative episode (technically episode 88 of the re-branded show, but actually something like episode 1,398 of the podcast) is a little different. I'm in the hot seat reflecting on the past twenty years and the unpredictable journey of turning...
2 months ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT What Are Your "Escape Hatches"? When you're responsible for creating value in the face of uncertainty, it's easy to find ways of escaping doing the work. You need to close your escape hatches. Ever notice how the “smart thing to do” often sounds suspiciously like an excuse? In this week's episode of Daily Creative, I dove into a phenomenon I see all too often among talented, ambitious people: the subtle art of building “escape hatches” that keep us from committing...
3 months ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT 5 Questions Every Creative Pro Should Be Asking We're in an era of unprecedented change and uncertainty. Here are five questions that every leader should be asking to ensure they're not falling prey to "uncertainty drift." Ever wondered if you could be running full speed in the wrong direction—and still win a trophy for it? On this week's episode of Daily Creative, I shared five questions that I think we all should be asking right now. These questions aren’t just...
3 months ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT The Making of a "Dirtbag Billionaire" The founder of Patagonia made a fortune, and now he's giving it all away. Here's what we can learn as leaders and creative pros from his experience. What if your "calling" is less a needle in a haystack and more like noticing that the hay is starting to itch? In this week’s Daily Creative episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing David Gelles, NY Times journalist and author of Dirtbag Billionaire, to explore the paradoxical...
4 months ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Super Chickens vs. Super Coops Why team intelligence out-performs superstar performers nearly every time. In the 1990s, evolutionary biologist William Muir ran an experiment with egg-laying hens. He bred the most productive chickens together, the “super chickens”, expecting a new generation of record-breakers. Initially they did, but eventually they pecked each other to death out of competition. Only a few survived. Meanwhile, a control group of average chickens,...
4 months ago • 4 min read