The Day I Turned Down Breakfast with Julia Child (and What It Taught Me About Leadership)

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Photo by James Trenda on Unsplash

So there was this time when Julia Child cooked breakfast for me—and I turned it down.

I’d become friends with Graham Kerr, who rose to fame as The Galloping Gourmet, one of TV’s original celebrity chefs.

By the mid-’90s, Graham and his wife Treena had moved to Seattle and were producing a new cooking show in the same studio where I produced my ...

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How My Sister Ate Corn (and What It Taught Me About Innovation)

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My sister ate corn weird.

Corn on the cob.

Growing up in Lancaster County, PA, we ate a lot of corn on the cob during the summer.

And, inexplicably, each person in my family ate it differently.

My dad—for reasons that I’ll never understand—would grab both ends of the corncob in his hands and, with cinematic effort, break it in half.

My mom ate hers ...

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You Can’t Train a Crocodile from 20 Feet Away

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If you wanted to become a crocodile trainer, I think the first rule would probably be: Avoid the mouth.

That seems logical, doesn’t it?

But here’s the problem: you can’t actually train a crocodile from 20 feet away.

At some point, you have to get close enough to risk getting bit.

(I’m just guessing at all of this, by the way. I have no idea how to train a crocodile…or if they’re ...

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When Doing Less Led to #1

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After Season 5, I really wanted them to cancel the show.

I mean, it wasn’t working. We had a new host, and the fit wasn’t great. We weren’t attracting any (or many, at least) “name” guests. We were losing in the ratings to—of all things—a public affairs talk show on the ABC affiliate.

And I didn’t know how to fix it.

The big problem was the interview segments. The caliber of the guests ...

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Trust the Instruments

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I was going to crash the airplane.

I was sure of it. Every sensation in my body confirmed it. My instructor and I were going to die.

Then I heard his calm voice:

“Trust the instruments.”

I was not yet a licensed pilot, and during this training session I was flying “under the hood.” This means I was wearing a weird plastic device that blocked me from seeing outside the ...

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The Brilliant Idea That Never Happened

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Salman Rushdie said yes! Sadly, it was five years too late.

A little history: From roughly 1989 to 1998, author Salman Rushdie was actively in hiding because of an Iranian fatwa against him. During that time, he occasionally gave interviews—but always in secret, with no public notice.

Which is how, one Tuesday in 1998, I found out that Salman Rushdie had done an interview with a KING-TV news reporter two ...

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Are You Causing The Buzz, Or Just Reacting To It?

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Imagine this scenario:

You and your team walk into your industry’s annual convention, like you have many times before. But this time, something’s different.

There’s a buzz.

People are looking at you in a way they haven’t before.

They’re elbowing their neighbor, pointing at your team, and whispering, “There they are! That’s them!”

This year, the buzz is about you.

People are saying things about you. Things like:

  • “Have you heard about what they’re doing?”
  • “They’re really changing the game!”
  • “We’re really going to have to raise the bar ...
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How You Feel About Disruption Depends On This

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People don’t like disruption.

People don’t like change.

If you’re like most people (and most people are), you’re nodding your head and saying, “Boy, you got that right, Bill! That’s so true!”

Is it, though?

I think it depends on which side of the equation you’re on.

Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter wrote, “Change is a threat when done to me, but an opportunity when done by me.”

The same thing can be said for disruption.

We only dislike disruption when we’re on the receiving ...

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