All in Careers
On July 25th, 1965, Bob Dylan went onstage at the Newport Folk Festival, plugged in his electric guitar and played the chords to "Maggie's Farm". The audience, who had come to see an acoustic poet, the folk voice of the generation, were caught by surprise.
I was at a conference recently and one of the speakers was sharing the story of how he built his firm - an organization he grew over a number of years, one that he ultimately sold for over a Billion dollars.
We put a lot of work into achieving our goals and getting ourselves to where we want to be, whether in our relationships, our ventures or our careers.
It's a crazy idea, one that's quite difficult, if not impossible, to implement. (And, many might argue, not desirable, either.) But like a lot of Tom Peters' ideas, it's provocative.
There are a number of writers and thinkers I look to on a regular basis for ideas, inspiration and insight, and Seth Godin is one of them. For many years, now, he has upended my view of what is important, what we should value and what we should focus on. It was his writing that got me started with my own blog.
Isn't that the truth?
Lets not lose our minds in the race to maturity, responsibility and so-called growth.
In my old firm, we had a mentorship system whereby every individual was assigned a mentor at least one, if not two, levels up from their position. The role of the mentor was not just to provide day to day counsel but also to help guide the development of their mentees, and represent them during the performance appraisal process.
I've never bought the premise that we "shouldn't take it personally, it's just business".
What it suggests is that we are detached from what we do. That we conduct our work devoid of any emotion. That, on any given day, we engage in our work dispassionately.
All too often, we're paralyzed by this delusion that is inspiration. We harbor grand ambitions, our dreams to 'be' what we aspire to be. But our movement towards those goals remains stalled, as we wait. For inspiration. For motivation. For some exogenous force to provide us with the impetus to change, act and transform.
I don't typically expect practical life advice from popular films but every once in a while, I'm surprised. I was watching "Ghost In The Shell" on a transatlantic flight yesterday and two of the main characters (Scarlett Johansson and Juliette Binoche) both said (at different points in the film) something profound.
We should argue.
Seriously.
We should argue.
So long as it's about the content. So long as our intent is positive. So long as we're...
Several years ago, I watched an interview with a world famous classical violinist. The host of the prime time talk show asked the violinist (and I'm paraphrasing), "Why aren't there any famous composers like Mozart and Beethoven these days? Why aren't there any great new pieces that we hear about these days?"
Today is the final day of my week long series featuring the works of Takashi Murakami.
I hope you've enjoyed this week long series.
Today is Day 3 of my week long series featuring the works of Takashi Murakami.
As I've mentioned, through September 24th, 2017, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago is holding an exhibition of the work of Takashi Murakami called "The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg".
Today is Day 2 of my week long series featuring the works of Takashi Murakami.
If you, like me, believe that there is an art to business, to our careers and to our lives, then I think you'll find this series (along with the quotes and excerpts I've included) especially interesting.
Welcome back to Part 2 of the Omerisms Podcast and my interview with Brian Slobodow.
In this episode, Brian and I continue our conversation around his experiences in the management consulting industry and where it is headed.
Welcome to Episode 4 of the Omerisms podcast, where I interview interesting people and discuss, explore and debate interesting business, career and personal development topics.
Where we are is a function of our choices, some we've consciously made, others implicitly, still others made for us (for better or for worse).
“The real world isn’t a place – it’s an excuse. It’s a justification for not trying.” (Rework, Jason Fried & David Heinenmeier Hansson)
What's your role?
