Category: Turning Stories
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A market fueled by purpose
There are a lot of dedicated entrepreneurs who have set up their own dog rescue agencies in South Korea. Each one has, effectively, created their own market. They rescue dogs in troubled circumstances, and match them up with people who want to have a dog in their life. It sounds simple enough, but logistics can…
Herbert Lui
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Creative contribution
Awards and sales performance are the easiest ways to measure creative work. They also frame the creative process as a competition. There are winners and losers in both, and it focuses on results. This isn’t a useful frame for actually making something you want to make, which is what being a creative person actually means.…
Herbert Lui
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Ownership requires energy and storage
A few years ago, my wife and I owned roughly over 500 books in paperback and hardcover. Here they were, in a condo in Toronto: When my wife and I moved to Hong Kong, I figured I’d be back in six months and we packed these books up. They were, by far, the most difficult…
Herbert Lui
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Developing a clearer business strategy helped unblock my writing
A few months ago, I wrote about my return to business writing as well as one way of framing the service. However, I still felt a block about promoting it to my friends and peers at LinkedIn: should I write about the Consistency Journal, or should I write about my business writing services? The immediate…
Herbert Lui
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Top 40,000,000 under 40
Every year, all sorts of organizations publish a list of upcoming leaders, called the Top 40 Under 40. Part of what makes it special is scarcity: it excludes everyone except 40 people. In Canada, where I live, there are just over 40 million people. 10 million of them are between 20 to 40 (let’s assume…
Herbert Lui
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Be the best in the world, for a few real people
There’s a local car service that specializes at taking customers to and from the airport. They serve customers based in a couple of local suburbs that don’t speak English. As far as I know, you can only call them by phone. They charge a consistent, flat rate and only accept cash when you get to…
Herbert Lui
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Against reality distortion
One of the most intriguing qualities about Steve Jobs is described as his “reality distortion field.” It seemed like he was able to bend reality to his will. For example, with its influence, he occasionally made unrealistic deadlines happen like the original Apple Macintosh computer, or going public with the Pixar IPO right after Toy…
Herbert Lui
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Modest shapes
Whenever I come across an interesting idea, I hear my mind’s chatter, “This would be a great book.” I can envision the book cover with a big, bold, title. The feeling is captivating, almost euphoric; I call it a creative fever. A few moments, or perhaps days, later, I realize that I’m not going to…
Herbert Lui
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Choicefulness
This year marked Apple’s 50th year in business. It came awfully close to closing shop in its second decade, largely because it lost direction. The company failed to release hit products, was losing a lot of money, and scrambling to survive. In 1993, Apple released nearly 40 products, maintaining over 70 total. (For the Apple…
Herbert Lui
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Take your practice seriously
In the 1950s, decades before he became a well-renowned composer, Philip Glass was a young man who recently moved to New York City to start his education at a prestigious art school, the Juilliard School. His first home was in a room on the fourth floor of a brownstone in the Upper West Side of…
Herbert Lui