Normally being stranded in gridlock traffic during torrential rain sucks. The only time it doesn’t, is when you’re stuck with one of your favorite authors. This is the backdrop for my interview with Tim Urban, author of Wait But Why. We covered many topics that he writes about in his blog and also delved into his in-person experiences with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg & Elon Musk. Tim was engaging, funny & forthcoming in this one-of-a-kind experience.
For the last sixteen years (16! years!), Theresa & her husband Calvin have not only survived the grind but have come out of the other side with a smile. They embody the practice of yoga and carry a positive demeanor with them everywhere. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit with Theresa in the studio they own and chat about customer feedback, bubbliness, 7-day work weeks & all things CPY.
People incorrectly use the word “irony” all the time. They usually use it to mean the same thing as “coincidence” but the word actually should be used to describe an instance where something is the opposite of reality. I want to share with you an ironic example and how it relates to our worldview we walk around with at work, business and out in the wild …
Every once in a while I hear people confuse profit & ethics. Let me clarify, there is nothing unethical about making a profit! I have been thinking deeply about this. Let me share with you …
So then I asked Seth, “What is something about you that is totally true, but most people wouldn’t believe?” He immediately replied, “I don’t work very hard.” There was a very long pause as we both stared at each other. I was sizing up his answer and trying to sense if there was any sarcasm in it. There wasn’t. How can the man that is seemingly everywhere not work very hard? He then explained …
Is ‘Shea’ like an eccentric X-Men comic character that floats around like a ball of energy infusing superpowers to everyone she comes in contact with? Well actually ‘YES’ that’s pretty much right! We recently sat down to talk about innovation, entrepreneurship, feminism, kool-aid & a host of fun topics.
When Paul developed writer’s block he would resort to a trick Hunter S. Thompson had talked about using to break through. He’d rewrite ‘The Great Gatsby’ cover to cover. Wait a minute, what! Who does that? There is a special mix of commitment & lunacy in this and I had to know more.
Labels are helpful for other people so that they can put us in a convenient box. It’s up to us to not let it define our limitations and what we can become.
We started asking the question “why doesn’t the market already have this solution?” I think that’s when we stumbled upon this idea that there are a lot of under-serviced markets out there and that if you can identify them and align your company to deliver value to them, there’s a lot of opportunity there.
If your goal is to maintain the status quo you will stop growing. Adopting a ‘Ground Floor’ mentality encourages risk taking & productive conversations about the future.