I seem to come across a lot of contemporary thinking along the lines of “good ideas are a dime a dozen.” The corollary to that being that “execution” is the only thing that matters. For what it’s worth, I don’t buy that at all. Try telling that to someone facing the reality that the market doesn’t want to buy the product they worked so hard to bring to market.

You should always be on the hunt for the best information you can get. No, ideas aren’t enough. But they DO matter. And contrary to the “dime a dozen” mantra, it is really hard to come up with breakthrough ideas. You need all the help you can get.

I remember getting lots of advice on my first day in orientation at my first job after college, but one thing that stuck out to me among everything else was the directive “Run toward feedback!” My new company stressed this point several times throughout the first few days. It sounds reasonable on the surface: successful people are eager for guidance on how to be more effective. But over time, I realized that just “running to feedback” doesn’t tell you what to do after you get it.

After its share of delays and author procrastination, my book finally went live on Amazon yesterday. Since it’s not every day that I get to cross off a bucket list item, I want to tell you a little bit about what’s in it and why...

After watching Tony Robbins’ TED Talk, I watched a few other clips of him speaking. One thing you notice quickly about Robbins, which Guy Raz also brought up in the TED Radio Hour on NPR, is how frequently he relies on numbered lists to break out a concept. He rapidly introduces topics like the “four kinds of love”, or “six human needs”, or “five steps to financial independence” before breaking out each sub-category. It’s kind of an unusual structured way of talking to an audience, especially compared with how politicians and comedians meander across topics and dive into stories when they address big groups...