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Seth Godin wrote an interesting blog today pondering whether there will ever be a time when being uninformed is cause for shame. It’s a good question, particularly in a culture that seems to equate “uninformed” with “real.” A culture that thinks having an “elite education” is a bad thing (and it’s especially galling when ...
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That’s my mandate/order/request/challenge to you today. Branch out.
Let’s face it, most of us live our lives on autopilot. We get up at the same time every day, we eat the same things for breakfast, drive the same route to work, listen to the same radio stations, read the same books, talk to the same people. And the sad thing is that we seem fine with that.
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What will your one thing be today?
Back when I was producing my sketch comedy TV show, Almost Live!, I had one cardinal rule that I followed, for each and every show, during the entire 15-year run. That rule was this:
Continue Reading →For each show, there had to be at least one element that would make the audience think, at ...
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Back in my Seattle TV days, I used to hang out occasionally with a guy named Dave Grohl, who was the drummer for a little trio called Nirvana. Last night, he and his current band, Foo Fighters, picked up five Grammy awards. While accepting the award for Best Rock Album, Dave said something that really struck a chord (pun intended, ...
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I was recently talking to a fellow speaker about marketing. She was complaining (whining, really) because she had to put together a new marketing campaign for her services, and she wasn’t enjoying the process. She said she didn’t want to do any marketing. I asked her what she did want, and she said:
“I just want people to hire me.”
Well, ...
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At a recent convention where I was speaking, I ran into my good friend and science wizard Steve Spangler. As always, I was astounded by just how successful this guy is. He runs a multi-million dollar company, he’s an Emmy winner, and he’s appeared numerous times on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. And if you ask him what he does for a living, he’ll tell you the truth. He’s a science teacher.
So how does a science ...
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Our business lesson today, boys and girls, comes from a spider (and not in one of those hokey “Charlotte’s Web” kind of ways). A spider, whom I’ll call “Henry” because that’s what my girlfriend and I named him, has built a web just outside my front door, right by the porch light. Now, given that most other flying insects (and ...
So there was this band from England. Not London. Somewhere up north—a place called Liverpool. They were a hit in their hometown, but hadn’t really made much of a splash anywhere else (except for a few clubs in Hamburg). They had gotten a recording contract, and even put out a record—a simplistic little song called Love Me Do. It ...
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What if, on the day John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met, Lennon (who was the leader of his own band, The Quarrymen) had said, “You know, this McCartney fellow is pretty good—but I’ll bet if I look around I can find somebody cheaper.”
If that had happened, there’s a very good chance that you and I would never have heard of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, or ...
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Yesterday I gave a keynote speech at a resort and spa nestled in the Colorado Rockies. (Hey, sometimes you get a resort; sometimes you get a Motel 3.) This resort had signs posted throughout the facility touting a luxury pedicure available in the spa. This was the last line of the sign:
Continue Reading →“A pedicure from [name of spa] will be ...