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New Material
My friend Hamza and I started a show entitled New Material. We discuss creativity and productivity, through the lenses of business and art. It’s been a great opportunity for me to learn firsthand the intricacies of recording and publishing a podcast. I’m not entirely unfamiliar with it—I developed, managed, and launched the first season of…
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Work arrangements can be flexible
My friend was the perfect candidate for a job opportunity. He already had the respect of the CEO and the team, a depth of familiarity with the company’s product, and his skills were perfect for the role. He would have gotten the job already, except he was in a different country that the company couldn’t…
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One good reason
When something is important, one good reason is enough to make it worth a try even if there are a dozen bad reasons. When you don’t see a path to success, one good reason is enough to make something worth giving up even if there are a dozen good reasons.
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Suits and the backlist
Over a decade ago, early in my career, I worked at an office in the Canadian Pacific Heritage Building in Toronto. I would often come across a film set with several iconic yellow New York City cabs in a quiet street nearby. I later found out it was the set of Suits. The first season…
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Over and over
“Every novelist spends their life writing the same story over and over,” Danielle Chelosky says in an interview with The Creative Independent. “My subject matter doesn’t vary so much from book to book. Just the surface does. The settings, etc. I tend to write the same book over and over, or at least, I take…
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Ignorance premium and the idiot index
When you want to do something and don’t know how to get it done, you’re going to have to pay whoever can do it for you. Let’s call it the ignorance premium. For example, if you want to eat a specific dish and you don’t know how to cook it, you will have to order…
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Open up about your problems
When Ryan Leslie lost his million dollar court case in 2013, the government froze his bank accounts. He found this out when his payment for a breakfast sandwich at his local bodega was declined. In order for him to feel like he could retain control of his finances, he started doing business through a decentralized…
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Be somebody else’s good luck
My friend Peter recently wrote about the power of reaching out to two contacts—former clients, industry friends, other agencies, old friends, investors, etc.—per week. It’s clear to him that this is one of the most valuable things he could be doing for his businesses. He writes, “The network that brings us leads, talent, knowledge, and…
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Three ways of seeing reality
Coming to terms with reality, and working with it—not against it, or distorting it—is generally good advice. It’ll help you get to where you want to go. Here are three ways to discern between what’s real and what you are imagining (or desiring, stressing over, or overthinking): “Reality doesn’t need you to help operate it.”…
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The power of small updates
One way to make your work easier is to constantly share updates about it. Rituals like standups are built to facilitate and encourage this. You want to constantly get feedback from people and show them how you’re moving along—even if it’s just to make sure that the final work doesn’t deviate too far from the…