12/23/2016

Resilience In Hard Times





At the very darkest points of individual and national life, we need – more than ever – to practice the art of resilience

Resilience: The ability to cope with change. 

The ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like

12/20/2016

Top Entrepreneurs Don’t Just Engineer Success – They Reverse Engineer It




Amid all the powerhouse, brilliant minds Tim Ferriss has interviewed for his podcast and new book Tools of Titans, one idea kept springing up: creating empty space. A second concept, by contrast, came up only once, through conversations with Joshua Waitzkin, an American chess player who takes an ‘endgame’ approach to every pursuit he undertakes. Ferriss explains these two concepts in detail, why they’re so vital, and how they can be applied across many fields

12/15/2016

My philosophy for a happy life | Sam Berns







Sam Berns is a Junior at Foxboro High School in Foxboro, Massachusetts, where he has achieved highest honors and is currently a percussion section leader in the high school marching band. He recently achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. Sam was diagnosed with Progeria, a rare, rapid aging disease, at the age of 2. He is featured in the documentary Life According to Sam, which will premiere on HBO on October 21, 2013.


12/14/2016

The Psychology of Motivation: Build Purpose, Respect Contributions, Give Credit | Dan Ariely




We shouldn’t have to be told that people’s hearts and souls are not piñatas, and yet here we are. Duke psychology professor and behavioral economist Dan Ariely says when it comes to increasing motivation, there’s a precursor lesson many managers, teachers and parents miss: stop crushing spirits. Ariely's latest book is "Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations" 

12/13/2016

How to make a profit while making a difference






Can global capital markets become catalysts for social change? According to investment expert Audrey Choi, individuals own almost half of all global capital, giving them (us!) the power to make a difference by investing in companies that champion social values and sustainability. "We have more opportunity today than ever before to make choices," she says. "So change your perspective. Invest in the change you want to see in the world."


Why you should listen

Audrey Choi is CEO of Morgan Stanley's Institute for Sustainable Investing. She is also Managing Director and Head of Morgan Stanley's Global Sustainable Finance Group. In these roles, she oversees the firm's efforts to support resilient communities and promote economic opportunity and global sustainability through the capital markets.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Audrey held senior policy positions in the Clinton Administration, the Commerce Department and the Federal Communications Commission. While at the White House, she served as Chief of Staff of the Council of Economic Advisers and Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President. 
Previously, Audrey was a foreign correspondent and bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal. She is currently a member of President Obama's US Community Development Advisory Board and on the boards of several national nonprofits focused on education, conservation and impact investing. Audrey is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

12/12/2016

10 Mindsets of a True Winner




Thinking is just the beginning. Becoming successful over the long haul is just as much about listening to your gut than your ability to reason. It’s more about building relationships than understanding yourself. It’s more about experience and execution than ideas. And it’s more about doing than dreaming.

12/09/2016

5 tips to improve your critical thinking - Samantha Agoos






Every day, a sea of decisions stretches before us, and it’s impossible to make a perfect choice every time. But there are many ways to improve our chances — and one particularly effective technique is critical thinking. Samantha Agoos describes a 5-step process that may help you with any number of problems. 


12/08/2016

Angela Lee Duckworth: Grit: The power of passion and perseverance





Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn't the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of "grit" as a predictor of success.


12/07/2016

Bill Gross: The single biggest reason why startups succeed





Bill Gross has founded a lot of startups, and incubated many others — and he got curious about why some succeeded and others failed. So he gathered data from hundreds of companies, his own and other people's, and ranked each company on five key factors. He found one factor that stands out from the others — and surprised even him.



12/06/2016

9 Fun Businesses You Can Start for Under $2,000





If you're ready to start a business, but have little startup capital, there are still many good (and fun) ideas to pursue. Try these on for size.

12/05/2016

Barbara Corcoran: Build a Powerful Brand





Barbara Corcoran learned early the value of building a powerful brand. In this lesson she teaches you shortcuts for standing out amidst the noise in your industry. Her latest book is Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business (http://goo.gl/Y6YdVU). Barbara is Co-Founder of Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners

12/03/2016

13 Stupid Tips





Our brain can potentially memorize 2.5 petabytes of information, which is roughly the equivalent of 3 million hours of YouTube videos. In order to use some of that staggering capacity a little more effectively when you study, here are some tips that are based on widely accepted research by neuroscientists and learning experts.



12/02/2016

Kio Stark: Why you should talk to strangers





"When you talk to strangers, you're making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life — and theirs," says Kio Stark. In this delightful talk, Stark explores the overlooked benefits of pushing past our default discomfort when it comes to strangers and embracing those fleeting but profoundly beautiful moments of genuine connection.

Why you should listen

Kio Stark has always talked to strangers. She started documenting her experiences when she realized that not everyone shares this predilection. She's done extensive research into the emotional and political dimensions of stranger interactions and the complex dynamics how people relate to each other in public places.
Her novel Follow Me Down began as a series of true vignettes about strangers placed in the fictional context of a woman unraveling the eerie history of a lost letter misdelivered to her door.
Stark did doctoral work at Yale University’s American Studies program, where she thought a lot about the history of science and medicine, urban studies, art, and race -- and then dropped out. Because she also taught graduate courses at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, numberless people consulted her about whether or not to go back to school. Those conversations inspired Don't Go Back to School, a handbook for independent learners.
Stark is the author of the TED Book When Strangers Meet, in which she argues for the pleasures and transformative possibilities of talking to people you don’t know. 
Beyond strangers, Stark's abiding fixations include the invisibility of technology; how people learn; practices of generosity and mutual aid; the culture, infrastructure and ephemera of cities; mythology and fairy tales; and advocating for independent learning, data literacy, social justice and feminism. Fiction writers get to dive down wonderful rabbit holes, and some of her favorites have been the forging and stealing of art, secret societies, the daily lives of medical examiners, the physics of elementary particles, bridge design, the history of maps, the mechanisms of wrongful conviction and psychoanalysis.
When not writing books, Stark has worked in journalism, interactive advertising, community research and game design. She writes, teaches and speaks around the world about stranger interactions, independent learning and how people relate to technology. She also consults for startups and large companies helping them think about stranger interactions among their users and audiences.