There are two kinds of people you can look up to. The first are the all-encompassing mentors. The people whose careers are ahead of yours, who have businesses with ten times your revenues, with fancier titles and more impressive accomplishments on their resume. These kinds of mentors are great: they inspire, motivate and can offer […]
New YouTube Videos and Podcast Episodes
I’ve been experimenting with recording videos as companion pieces to my regular articles. You may have noticed some of them embedded at the bottom of my most recent articles. If you’re interested in getting my videos on YouTube, please subscribe to my channel. I’m still early in this experiment, but the more views/subscribers, the more […]
Bored with Your Job? The Recipe for Enjoying Your Work
Endlessly boring meetings. Frustrating clients. Work that seems to pile up endlessly and never get done. There’s plenty of reasons to dislike work, but the state of stressful, near-constant distraction tops the list for many. Compare that to the state of flow, described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The state when the outside world fades away […]
Is Ambition a Good Thing? Thoughts on Striving Without Selfishness
Ambition is a concept that gets mixed reactions. Some people see it as the essence of progress, virtue and character. Those with ambition take action, set goals and build meaningful things. Without ambition, nothing would get done. In this sense, ambition is synonymous with vision, the opposite of laziness. Other people view it as the […]
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.