Ancient Greek philosophers characterize persuasion as displaying three primary qualities.
The first quality is that of trust.
This is typified by an earned reputation based on past experience and performance.  A modern analogy is that you would prefer a heart surgeon who has completed hundreds of operations much more than you would trust a heart surgeon that [...]

Elevating one’s work to the next plateau is a struggle for those with aspirations of doing great work. The roadmap towards doing great work is driven by three ingredients: focus, courage, and resilience.
Starting with the need to focus, when you think about it the number one barrier to great work is our own inability to [...]

It is interesting how frequently the concept of being creative is thought of as an abstract moment in time. As if this process is a tap that can be turned on and off at will by the legions of creative-types whose sole responsibility is to daydream the next big idea.
The act of generating creative [...]

Technology has super-charged our communications through a multitude of channels but it has also resulted in a worrying deterioration in the very purpose of human interaction and productivity.
We demand instant responses from each other with a definite focus, volume, and velocity.  If one doesn’t respond to the next email, text or instant message with a [...]

Business development and marketing is most often tied towards the end result which is getting the sale.  But in keeping with human nature, we default to crossing the finish line  and getting the sale in the shortest possible way with the minimal of effort.
So our marketing becomes like a bad pick-up artist in a bar.  [...]

At Starshot, we have long held the idea that creative is not a department in our business.  We are also on a quest to vanquish unnecessary bureaucracy with a particular focus on the time killing consequences of corporate meeting culture.
So where does the brainstorm fit between this?
Brainstorms can be highly valuable or an utter waste of [...]

Let me start by telling a quick story from Turkey in the time of the great statesman, Mustafa Ataturk.  During his period as President of Turkey in the early 1900’s, Ataturk established a series of policy reforms so that Turkey could transform into a modern, westernized and secular nation-state.
To accelerate the separation of state and [...]

The Spanish word Ole! is used when a bull fighter reaches perfection in his mastery of the bull ring. But this word has a long and rich history stretching back to the Moors of Africa. The word Ole is a transmutation of the word “Allah” that was used by the Moors to describe the [...]