This past weekend, I was the final speaker at TEDx Salem(you can see the talk here). It was a hell of an experience: part exhilaration, part terror. I’d like to think that I nailed the talk; the feedback from the attendees (friends and strangers alike) seemed to mirror...

The new year is almost upon us, and with that comes the inevitable resolution. Whether or not this new “you” includes a more creative or eloquent self, becoming a better writer is an invaluable skill. 

So as a Christmas (or “holiday” if that works better) gift, I wanted...

Instead of being the compass of our lives, accountability has become the yoke around our necks. It’s more cattle brand than north star.

Because, look at how we talk about accountability:

• “You should be more accountable.”

• “You have to take accountability.”

• “...

We've all been there; enduring a meeting at work where someone is droning on about accounts payable, or data loads, or project specs. To everyone in the room you are still present (because you've mastered the art of "mmhmm" and "that's a good point"), but in reality yo...

Each of us has been told about our potential like it was an unused balloon and asked if we had any interest in filling it before we died.

Filling it, we were promised, would lead to things like “success” and “happiness.”

Or perhaps it was a mountain analogy. “Potential”...

Did you see Olivia Coleman’s acceptance speech at the Oscars? Watch it. It’s impossible not to love her. Why? Because there, onstage, in front of millions, she let us in. She trusted us with her unapologetic glee, and we, in return, couldn’t help but trust her for it.

I...

There is no civilization in the land of the lone wolf. That’s why people are wired to help one another. Reliability, relationships, providing value, watching each other's backs. That’s what community is. 

For most of human history, your whole world was within...

“How are you?”

An innocuous question that 99% of the time is answered with either: good, great, fine, ok, busy, or tired.

But really, “how are you” when no one’s asking? What are the daily returns in the business of being you? Are there things that hold too much weight i...

Recently, I heard an episode of the “How I Built This” podcast with Kevin Systrom, one of the co-founders of Instagram. The whole thing was gold, but the part that stuck with me was the following bit.

RAZ: How much of what happened to you guys, to Instagram and this who...

In 1953, when asked by a journalist “Why must you climb Mt. Everest?” George Mallory, the expedition leader of Sir Edmund Hillary's team, famously replied, “Because it’s there.” I would delve even deeper and suggest that George Mallory could just as easily have said, “...