I am so glad that there are people like Michael Bungay Stanier working with people who choose to stay inside corporations by choice or convenience. Michael has been doing wonderful work at Box of Crayons for many years and has infectious enthusiasm.
His book Do More Great Work hits the streets today and has fantastic information for both working for yourself or working for someone else. It has guest essays from some of my favorite thinkers Seth Godin, Dave Ulrich, Michael Port, Penelope Trunk, Leo Babauta and Chris Guillebeau.
We had a fun 20-minute interview on Friday, which you can check out above.
My favorite parts of our interview:
His distinction of bad, good and great work.
For great work, you need courage, focus and resilience.
One definition of strategy is figuring out what to say no to
His use of the word “holy bollocks!”
He has a lot of fantastic supplemental interviews on his book website with all kinds of great thinkers here.
He and I did an interview a month or so ago – listen to it here.
I think you will get a lot of value from Do More Great Work — thanks for supporting Michael’s launch day!
My kids are sleeping and I felt inspired to share a few things on my mind.
This has been a very wonderful and busy first quarter. I have been creating and running at least four programs. Watching people learn, grow, get stuck, get unstuck and blast forward into new businesses has been really invigorating.
Each day I talk to really interesting people who are doing amazing things in the world. It is exceptionally stimuluating and fun.
There is a lot going on.
And in the back of my mind, amidst 32 urgent tasks a day to keep the machine rolling, I hear whispers of a strong voice telling me there is a new body of work waiting to be born.
My soul is craving quiet. I want to walk in nature, savoring long stretches of time without anything to do in order to listen to this voice.
And the ideas bubbling up are:
The distractions that Seth Godin talks about in his new book Linchpin. And how when we are so busy responding to messages and interacting and building relationships that our true work eludes us.
The deeper purpose and meaning of my life. What am I meant to do? Why am I here?
The concept of personal leadership I wrote about a few weeks ago. This feels big, like something that is rumbling deep in the consciousness of a lot of people. Many, many of us are scrambling to live up to an expectation designed for someone else.
Environment design, a concept both Andrea Lee and Charlie Gilkey talk about. How do I need to design everything in my life (systems, patterns, support, workflow) so that I have the time to create a new body of work?
How much easier it feels to focus on backward-looking metrics (how many people read that post? how many people joined that program?) instead of creating a new future.
I don’t have the any answers yet. I just felt like sharing my thoughts.
The LA Times ran a beautiful story this morning (covered in our local paper the Arizona Republic) about Elvie Lewis, a 94-year old barber in Los Angeles who is still cutting hair.
The article says:
His regulars travel from as far as Palmdale, Calif., to the three-chair shop on South Normandie Avenue in Los Angeles that Lewis [...]
One of the unspoken stressors for new entrepreneurs is convincing a partner or spouse that starting a business is a smart idea.
The rigors of start-up life require a whole new set of communication skills to ensure that you keep your relationship strong while you build your business.
In this 30 minute podcast interview (go here to [...]
Those of you who have followed this blog for the last few years know that I believe in structuring a business around what you love. You also know that it is not always easy to find the business in the passion.
What better way to explain the subtleties of this sweet dilemma than this lovely post [...]
I had a very interesting coaching conversation the other day with a bright young woman. We were talking about her desire to expand her business and play bigger in the world.
(And don’t worry, I asked her permission to tell this story. And no, that is not her picture, it is a stock photo [...]
I can always tell when new entrepreneurs are starting to crack under the pressure of decisions. They say things like:
“I know everyone tells me I have to choose a specific niche, but I really don’t want to limit myself to only working with one type of person!”
“What if I spend all this time [...]
I am really obsessed with the topic of test often and fail fast. I wrote a whole chapter about it in my book, and still feel like I barely scratched the surface.
By “test often and fail fast,” I mean the ability to create a very small prototype or sample of your product or service and [...]
I have never had a guest post on my blog before. Until now. Seth Godin wrote a special post for EfCN to celebrate the launch of his new book Linchpin. It comes out today — check it out here.
You are not a cog
If you have your own business, you’ve already taken a huge step, [...]
Good morning!
I am excited to give you the registration link for the program I told you about last week that I am co-teaching with Chris Guillebeau.
We will be working intensively with an inaugural group in a month-long program aimed to power-charge your micro business. See all the details here, and if you are interested, grab [...]
