One Long Corridor or Beautiful Design, Uniqueness, Perseverance, and User Engagement
Beautiful Design, Uniqueness, Perseverance, and User EngagementHave you ever been in a building with long halls that stretch and then turn. It always seems to be well lit where you’re standing and dim where the turn is. And when you reach the turn the new corridor looks the exact same? The exact same. And these are the times when no one [...]
Defining the Future for the Class of 2011
Congratulations to the class of 2011. You’ve earned the gratification of moving your tassel from one side of the cap to the other. What does the future hold? What is out there? You’ll be told to find yourself, follow your passion, and chase your goals. And many of you will wonder what those are. There’s [...]
Moved to an Emotional Brink?
I try to include a human element to my posts. I like people; I like to know what makes them tick. I love someone who is so passionate that they make themselves heartbreakingly vulnerable. You see it most often in sports with the defeated, whether it’s a tennis player or a basketball player slouched over [...]
How Pleasure Works – A Book Review
Quick Take: This book goes into the depths of the mind and looks for what feeds the source or core of happiness. There are stories of art theft, belching contests, bed pans, and cannibalism and I bet none of these you’d put on par with a birthday cake. And that is the point of the [...]
Creative Expressions – 3D Sidewalk Chalk
I’m late on this one, but impressed all the same. I have a couple of young children who play with sidewalk chalk and when they draw smiley faces I consider it good. Two guys from Europe are best known for this work – U.K. artist Julian Beever and German artist Edgar Mueller.
Track Your Pizza and Say Thank You
Today I was pleasantly surprised by two companies. One company is being innovative and the other is just being classy.
I ordered a pizza online. The deal was two topping, two mediums pizzas. Supposedly, this company has a new recipe for it’s pizza. Anyway, I ordered and when I completed my order I was presented with
a process timeline with updates. It’s very simple, but it allowed me to know when to expect the delivery man to show up. It also had little blurbs like “Jason is hand tossing your custom order now”
below it.
A Time of Year to Ask “What could I have done better?”
It’s a fun time of year. The NCAA Tournament is going on which is the ultimate pass/fail test in sports. There are no second chances. As the saying goes “survive and advance.” This year there are several higher seeds that won two games and are part of the Sweet 16. One of those schools is [...]
“EL GRANDE BIGOTE” Victory
It has been too long since I’ve mentioned one of my favorite charity organizations – Donorschoose.org. I’m sure giving is down with the economic conditions – I know I’m guilty – but Donorschoose has such a great business model and their people are so creative. Below is an email from a friend of mine: Mike “EL GRANDE BIGOTE” Szarowicz. As you can tell he has a lot of fun with the drive and students benefit. I especially love the mustache logo.
Here’s how I like to think about it though – $50 is not memorable, but I won’t forget Mike’s costume and I know that kids, who have a trailer as a classroom, just got four bean bag chairs to read in.
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To my loyal mustache aficionados:
Another tremendously successful Mustaches for Kids campaign is in the books! Our Charlotte Chapter raised over $58,000 and impacted the lives of over 26,000 students. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your support. Every year I’m amazed by the generosity of my friends and colleagues (and by the power of the MUSTACHE)!
All of your help also allowed me to retain my “Top Fundraiser” crown with $5,516 raised. Here’s the series of pictures we all hoped to see:
Three-peat!!!
Ask Yourself “What if…”
There are signs out there that the US economy is healing. The Jobs Report looks relatively OK, GDP is going gang busters, and the PMI is showing a rebounding manufacturing sector. Plus home sales are coming off lows. There is certainly weakness too – foreclosures are still on the rise. What if we are at [...]
What Motivates Conan O’Brien?
Everyone has a different sense of humor. I’m a combination of witty and silly. Well Conan O’Brien is that. He often makes fun of himself in a novel way and it is both fun to laugh at him and endearing.
Yesterday I posted a review of the book Drive by Dan Pink. Pink wants people to understand that as work becomes more demanding of the mind, such as being creative, the motivation to do that work changes and becomes more intrinsic based. As an example of that is Conan O’Brien. Despite the repudiation he has million$ of reasons to stay at NBC, but what motivates him is the personal sense of what the comedian’s job is in the role of The Tonight Show host. It gives him Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.