Category: inspiration
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Do Not Stay in a Job you Dislike
What's the most important life lesson that older people feel you must know? Do not stay in a job you dislike. Eric Barker has summarised the work of Karl Pillemer from Cornell University, who interviewed almost 1500 people aged over 70 for his book 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans. Pillemer…
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On Empowerment and Creativity
I loved this talk by Ben Chestnut, co-founder of Mailchimp, on how he creates an environment for creativity and empowerment at his company. I love his point about time. So true about how that can be the biggest catalyst for breaking down barriers and silos. The idea about empowerment through autonomy (creating a culture that encourages people to be daring…
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The Million-Mile Porsche
I lost a good couple of hours yesterday watching the well-crafted short films in the Petrolicious YouTube channel featuring classic car owners talking about their machines. There's some wonderful quotes, like the Ferrari 250 Lusso owner who talks about how the process to start the car up is like a ritual that gets you re-acquainted with…
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Marketing For Good
Lots of brands and agencies have initiatives for social good. But what if you could really embed that premise into everything that you do? Last week I spoke at the Google Talent Revolution event in London. Also on the bill was social entrepreneur Sam Conniff, who is the Chairman of youth marketing and engagement agency Livity. Sam…
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The Myth of the Eureka Moment
An intriguing addendum to last week's Google Firestarters event on creativity. Eric Barker posts about a story featured in Keith Sawyer's book Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity. Researcher Vera John-Steiner interviewed over 70 living 'creative geniuses' and analysed the notebooks of a further 50 that were no longer alive (including people like…
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‘If You Have A Choice, Never Have a Job’
Since I left corporate world to run my own business, one of the hardest questions I have to answer is 'what do you do?'. My answer usually involves describing a portfolio of strategy and consultancy work, workshops, speaking, making, and writing that span the fields of marketing, planning, content, and even into journalism. It probably…
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Are You Creatively Satisfied?
What a great question. The short film above was made by the people at The Great Discontent ("a journal of interviews focusing on creativity, risk, and what connects us as artists") who set up a booth at the designer/developer gig Brooklyn Beta in NYC and filmed responses to the question from some of the attendees (including Tina…
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The Rebirth Of The Newsletter
We all get too much email. But like Colin Raney (MD, IDEO, Boston), I still subscribe to quite a variety and number of newsletters. There's the usual industry ones. And they're OK for keeping up with stuff. But if I think about the ones that I actually enjoy reading, or find particularly useful, it's those…
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The Atlas Of True Names
I hadn't seen the Atlas Of True Names before but was rather taken with it when I came across it this morning. Cartographers Stephan Hormes and Silke Peust have created a series of maps that feature the etymological roots (or original meanings) of places and references of countries across the world. The detail above is taken…
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Selling Value, Not Time
“Our clients don’t care about our costs. They care about the value we create for them, so that’s what we should be asking them to pay for.” This short e-book (it takes about an hour to read) is chock full of simple but powerful points about the benefits of a value-based approach to pricing. Whilst…