Plastics. The famous line from The Graduate in which Mr. McGuire counsels our young graduate, Benjamin Braddock, to wrap himself (pun very much intended) in plastic. Prescient counsel for a young man graduating in the 1960s, as the boom in plastics was about to hit. I wonder how many Mr. McGuires counseled how many young [...]
The breaking point for me was the last venture capitalist reality show I watched. I could bear only a half-hour and I honestly don't remember the name of the show. What I do remember is an entrepreneur who had devoted two years of his life's work and sold 50% of a potentially million-dollar idea for [...]
There is little doubt that we have entered into the Questionless Age. It's a scary time, one where it is more acceptable to move forward without enough information than it is to ask the right questions. Perhaps part of the reason for this reluctance is the fact that the amount of information available to us [...]
"Art & Copy" is a superb documentary - one that I would strongly commend to anyone interested in exploring the core of brand identity. The essence of a brand, to me, comes through the process of creation and can't be separated from it. An integral part of that creation is the work of the people [...]
I will write this entire piece in chunks not to exceed 140 characters. Twitter didn't start the Brevity Revolution - they simply brought it to the masses, made it relevant and compelling. In the past three years, leading thinkers and doers have torn away at the calcified surface of the status quo. We now recognize [...]
I am currently advising a couple of colleagues in situations where each party has leverage going into a serious negotiation. And in so doing, I always think back to the classic Seinfeld episode where George wants to break up with his girlfriend. It's a new position for him to have, as he so eloquently describe [...]
People who know me and my work habits well know that my motto is "ABC - Always Be Charging." I travel over 150,000 miles a year and what this means, in practical terms, is that if I weren't so organized (some prefer "retentive") I'd need AC/DC's (hey - fortuitous unintended electricity pun) roadies to carry [...]
I have just passed a million miles of business travel over the past six years. A million miles. People who know my jet-set lifestyle (I always laugh - a lot - when people say this because it's so not glamourous) ask "What have you learned," and, when it's particularly well-worded, "What have you learned that [...]
The world needs more misfits. A friend told me recently, "I think that one of the characteristics of a good misfit is that she can camouflage herself in many different places and blend in. But she never really buys into the status quo." I've been a proud misfit my entire life. I've been able to [...]
I have often been called a “dreamseller,” almost always in a negative context. The fact that “dreamseller” is pretty exclusively used as an insult perplexes me on a variety of levels. I like having dreams sold to me. How do you know what you want to dream if you can’t first see the array of [...]
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