The Pressure to Perform After Achievement Imagine this: You've just achieved something monumental. Maybe you've won an Olympic gold medal, launched a successful startup, or finished that creative project you've been pouring your heart and soul into for years. You're riding high on the rush of accomplishment, basking in that sweet moment of victory, ready to take a creative pause and soak it all in… And then it happens. "So, what's next?" Those three little... read more ›
66 reads
Sep
09
Jul
29
I was so wrong about what success really means in the startup world. It took me years to learn the importance of redefining success rather than following someone else's rules. For years, I prided myself on being someone who didn't know how to lose. Give me a game, and I'd find a way to win. I did this with sports, school, and even work. I was always good at figuring out how to come out... read more ›
59 reads
Aug
21
A while back—having grown my business to somewhere around the $25 million in annual revenue mark and still growing at 40% year-over-year—an investor looked me straight in the face and said, with a head tilt and a shoulder shrug, that the business growth I was killing myself for “just wasn’t that interesting.” Wait, what? WTAF?! I swear this is true. This comment was so disjointed from my reality that it led me to a hot... read more ›
699 reads
Aug
07
I was recently reminded that the fastest way to succeed is to fail. Literally. And yet the only reason this sounds a little weird, is because we’re constantly falling into a trap. There's No Perfect Plan In fact, I fell into this trap myself not too long ago. I was trying to make this little project work out perfectly (installing a golf simulator at the studio) I was doing all the calcs on paper… Making... read more ›
670 reads
May
22
There’s a saying that goes: Plan for Success, Learn from Failure While I’d anticipated a demand for frequent updates of Best Camera if we succeeded—I’d baked it into the contract—what I had not anticipated was the possibility of such incredibly rapid success. I’d structured an agreement with the developers based on the idea that the app would take a while to achieve liftoff. The revenue split favored me once their initial investment was repaid. That... read more ›
700 reads
Apr
05
For Amanda Crew, art imitates life. While she is largely known for her role as Monica Hall on the HBO series Silicon Valley, she recently sat down with me to talk about the duality between her personal life and experience playing a woman who feels torn between the life she’s created and the life she really wants. It’s a thriller, Amanda tells me, but the underlying turmoil her character faces is something she can relate... read more ›
1K reads
Jan
11
Julia Cameron is a world-renowned, highly acclaimed artistic talent. She created a movement within the art scene in 1992 with the release of her book 'The Artist's Way', and has been inspiring creatives with further reads, songs, films, and plays ever since. Julia recently added another book to her collection with 'WRITE FOR LIFE: Creative Tools for Every Writer. As what she calls a 'love letter to writing, and to writers', it shares some of... read more ›
1.1K reads
Nov
16
The world of business is notoriously serious and results-driven. But what if we looked at work through a different lens? What if we focused on the creative, abstract side of innovation? This is a question that Mauro Porcini, Chief Design Officer at PepsiCo, strives to answer. With over 1100 design and innovation awards under his belt, Mauro is no stranger to the value of creativity in business. In fact, he's made it his life's work... read more ›
1K reads
Oct
26
I recently sat down with Joey Cofone, Co-Founder, and CEO of Baronfig. Joey is an award-winning graphic designer based in New York. Joey's work appeals to curious minds. He’s released his new book The Laws of Creativity where he helps us uncover the thinking and science behind the creative process and gets us thinking in a whole new way. How To Turn Skill Into Mastery How does skill turn to mastery? When we understand... read more ›
880 reads
Oct
10
We often start out thinking if we can just do the "right" work, we'll breakthrough. When in fact, it's not the what work we should focus on, but how much. We will do everything we can to convince ourselves that something other than volume is more important. Listen to the Podcast Smells like Procrastination We need a new lens to get the right shot. We need to switch to a different writing app with better... read more ›
853 reads