BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT How To Stay Optimistic Optimism isn't "wishful thinking." It's a practical, necessary, forward-looking element of doing brilliant, brave work. And if you lead others, it's a critical part of getting others to follow you. In my most recent book The Brave Habit, I wrote about the two qualities that tend to be present when brave decisions are made: Perceived Agency, and Optimistic Vision. It can be difficult to maintain optimistic vision in the midst of uncertain...
25 days ago • 3 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Why You Get Stuck: Definition, Motivation, Systems Getting stuck when doing difficult, creative work is normal. However, staying stuck is a choice. There are three common, though not intuitive, places where you might be digging yourself into a rut. “Stuckness” is just a part of doing hard things. However, simply plowing through the work is not necessarily the answer. Creative paralysis, or “creative block”, is often the result of inattention to a few key areas....
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Don’t Be a Collector, Be a Curator Simply collecting interesting sparks is useless if you fail to deploy those insights in your leadership and creating. Here is a simple method for turning ephemera into creative gold. In the digital age, we’ve become expert collectors of information. Devices overflow with saved articles, bookmarked websites, screenshots of inspiring quotes, and countless other digital ephemera. We hoard information at an unprecedented rate, saving...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT How To Thrive In Uncertain Times In uncertain times, the temptation is to seek certainty. Instead, you should focus on building rituals that help you find clarity. In the depths of the 2009 recession, a San Francisco based publishing company called Chronicle Books made a decision that seemed counterintuitive at the time. While other publishers were slashing budgets and playing it safe with celebrity memoirs, Chronicle doubled down on innovative design and...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT The Magical Power of Strategic Indifference Why choosing not to care can become your superpower. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he faced a crucial leadership challenge that would become a masterclass in strategic focus. The company was struggling, spread thin across numerous product lines, and losing both market share and identity. In his first year back, Jobs made what many considered a ruthless decision: slashing Apple’s product lineup by 70%. Seventy...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
BRAVE • FOCUSED • BRILLIANT Stop Focusing On Projects – Obsess Over Solutions Many leaders and creative pros fall into the “deliverables” trap. Here’s how to maintain focus on what really moves the work forward. At its heart, creativity is problem solving. If you get paid to solve problems for a living, you’re a creative professional. But typically, our work is presented to us in the form of “projects”. We are tasked with accomplishing some defined objective (like developing a strategy,...
2 months ago • 3 min read
The Trust Seesaw Trust is the essential element of high functioning teams. Here’s how to build mutual confidence in creative organizations. Trust isn’t just a nice-to-have in creative organizations – it’s the foundation that makes meaningful work possible. When team members lose faith in their leadership, peers, or organizational structure, the creative process suffers. You’ll see it in the hesitation, the second-guessing, and the constant worry about whether they’ll get the support and...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Happy 2025! I don't know about you, but I usually charge into a new year with all of the energy of a 20-year-retired prize fighter trying to get back into the ring after decades of too much rest and too many churros. I am awed by those who jolt from the starting blocks with unbridled enthusiasm. But if that's you, congrats! So this week, here are three ideas to help you get your year off to a good start. Brave: The Objective-less Life Over holiday, I read a book called Why Greatness Cannot Be...
5 months ago • 4 min read
As we near the end of the year, I hope you are finding pockets of time to review what's happened in 2024, and to begin to think ahead to 2025. Even as you rush to wrap your tasks and projects for the year, make sure you take some "space between" to be alone with your thoughts and allow dots to connect. The True Nature of Talent I'm reading Scott Galloway's book The Algebra of Wealth, which—surprisingly—isn't about getting rich. Rather, it explores how to strategically invest your time and...
5 months ago • 3 min read
