Herbert Lui

Blog on creativity, marketing, and the human condition.

  • About
  • Creative Doing
  • Newsletter
  • Your chance to change a life

    My good friend Faiz is a pro basketball coach. Yao Ming hired him to coach China’s national team. He has also personally coached NBA champion Lu Dort. You can see him briefly in Netflix’s doc Court of Gold.  He’s gotten a lot of other coaching experience too. You’d never guess: he’s been doing all of…

    Herbert Lui

    July 30, 2025
    Life
  • The facade of a lottery

    Seth Godin recently wrote about seeing lottery elements in schools, sports, and on social media. Actually seeing lotteries is actually more difficult than it sounds.  For starters, lotteries are well disguised. If you bluntly told an Olympian that they were effectively a lottery winner, they might think you’re telling them their efforts didn’t matter, and…

    Herbert Lui

    July 30, 2025
    Expectations
  • Three ways to understand winning

    Winning is everything. If you execute on your values, ideals, and principles, winning will happen. Success isn’t about winning and losing, it’s about being your best self. Three different characters—say, Kobe Bryant, Bill Walsh, and Ted Lasso—would tell you different things about winning. You might learn something about yourself after you imagine them—or other characters—discussing…

    Herbert Lui

    July 29, 2025
    Expectations, Turning Stories
  • Hell’s Kitchen

    A year ago, my partner and I watched a musical called Hell’s Kitchen. It was created by Alicia Keys, with a storyline loosely based on her life and anchored by her songs. The musical made a really strong impression on me. Even though I was already familiar with her music, the characters, the screenplay, and…

    Herbert Lui

    July 28, 2025
    Around the World, Creativity, Expectations
  • When a detour is the best route

    You are on a road trip. The fastest path to your destination has no fuel stations, and your car is running low. An alternate path has several fuel stations, and it requires a detour—taking you an extra hour or two.  Which path will you take? Sometimes, it’s most useful to go directly towards your goal.…

    Herbert Lui

    July 27, 2025
    A Matter of Time, Creativity, Creator Confidential, Life
  • Contemplation vs. observation

    Tension—which can also be described as strain, stress, and effort—is valued in our era. You and I have been conditioned to believe that these are leading indicators to success.  One saying goes, “A for effort,” which acknowledges dedication even with an unsuccessful outcome. A twist on is, “E for effort.” (I take it to mean…

    Herbert Lui

    July 26, 2025
    Creativity, Turning Stories
  • The path with the best odds

    You’re on a road trip. Your car is running low on fuel. You don’t think you’ll make it to your destination.  The closest fuel station is out of the way. Close enough that you’ll definitely make it, far enough that an alternate path would be best. It’ll take an extra hour. You give yourself a…

    Herbert Lui

    July 25, 2025
    A Matter of Time, Creator Confidential, Expectations, Turning Stories
  • Perpetual beginner

    This month, Grant Snider is writing one Haiku and making a drawing with it every day. He posts them at his website. At his Substack, he dives into the creative process, and shares the stories behind the scenes.  “Maybe when it comes to art, I’m not a master. I’m a perpetual beginner,” he writes.  This…

    Herbert Lui

    July 24, 2025
    A Matter of Time, Creativity, Creator Confidential, Expectations
  • No

    When you’re young, you say yes. “Accept everything, expect nothing,” the saying goes. As you refine your skills and gain experiences, new opportunities will come along.  Saying yes won’t work anymore. You will need to start to say no. The first time you do it, it might feel scary, but there’ll be clearly a good…

    Herbert Lui

    July 23, 2025
    Creativity, Creator Confidential, Life, Turning Stories
  • Defining Winning

    What does Winning mean to you? This sounds like a simple question—get a higher score than the other person, the highest score in the world, etc.—until it’s not. What’s the highest score? Depends on the game. Well, then what’s the game? If the game is music, is it hip-hop or opera? If it’s hip-hop, who…

    Herbert Lui

    July 22, 2025
    Expectations, Turning Stories
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