Can a monologue can stop a bullet?
Depends on how you look at the world.You can take the cynical stance and point out how ineffective Tony was, fancy feet aside, in preventing the Jets and Sharks from rumbling. Riff and Bernardo are...
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Want to create brilliant ideas? Go away.
Imagine living in a place where nothing exists except for what immediately surrounds you.Your property is on a dirt road, with neighbors pockmarked every half-mile or so. In winter, you have to plow...
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Why Labor Day could be the best and most meaningful holiday of the year (or...
Anyone out there know why we celebrate Labor Day?According to the United State Department of Labor website, it’s “…a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic...
View Article5 Ways to Make Writing Easier …Before You Even Start Writing
Today the Twist Blog can be found at this blog! Orbit Media is a web design and development company made up of very nice and very smart people who were kind enough to ask me to guest blog for them....
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Creativity, Collaboration, and Coffeehouses
This is starting to become familiar...Please check out another guest post, and this time, on not one but two terrific blogs: Groupon Grassroots, and Chicago Ideas Week.Not many places will you find...
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Everything I needed to know about product development, I learned from a...
Her name is Lily and her dad’s name is Joe Born. Melissa Harris wrote about them in the Chicago Tribune over the weekend. Joe is a successful lifelong inventor, which helps explain why Lily invents...
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Innovation in TV programming from the folks who brought you whammies and zonks
As our two Presidential hopefuls go toe to toe, most recently touting their own pro-female credentials, another gender-inequality barrier has been smashed, and none too soon:The Price is Right has...
View ArticleConsider your point of view as temporary
Not the advice Barack and Mitt are getting from their advisors as they prepare for tonight’s debate. But great advice Jeff Bezos gave to the folks at 37signals yesterday in a 90 minute visit.Jeff said...
View ArticleHow do you get to Trust? Drink your clients' Kool-Aid
In Forbes today a survey conducted by a marketing consulting firm tells us that advertisers continue to be frustrated with their agencies.A client of ours asked me today what I think the cause is.It...
View ArticleSix things to fear once the FOMO meme goes away
I’m assuming that by now you’ve heard of FOMO. FOMO, of course, stands for “Fear Of Missing Out,” a term coined by entrepreneur and blogger Caterina Fake last year, and was initially defined, in her...
View Article10 things Idea Creators can be thankful for
1. Aggregators. Impossible to overexpress my appreciation for people who collect and then redistribute wonderful things. Like Dave Pell and Maria Popova. The former collects 10 stories a day and...
View ArticleWelcome to SighBrrr™ Monday
Such a nice long holiday break.Sigh.Have to put on the down coats all week.Brrr.Back at work after extended amounts of time with the family.Sigh.It’s getting darker and colder earlier.Brrr.A week full...
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The virtues of going both ways
Manti Te’o and Charles Woodson have nothing in common.Actually, they both had spectacular college football careers, for two of the most storied football programs (and finest universities) in the world....
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What SHOWING UP looks like
Some people SHOW UP.Other people just show up.If you were born with a physical attribute that makes you clearly stand out, like tremendous height or size or beauty, or a halo hanging over your head at...
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Audacious creativity 101
Two items converged for me this week in a flash of audacious creativity.One: I went to see the Book of Mormon. Don’t see it if the sanctity of Mormonism is even remotely important to you or if you’d...
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Being duped by the doper: Why I still support Lance
He lied. And he lied again. And then some more.He lied over and over.All with the intended result of helping people who were unable to help themselves.He lifted them up. Infused them with pride and...
View ArticleWhere there’s craft, there’s loyalty
In the city in which I grew up, there was a two-block downtown strip with a bakery, shoe store, drug store, sport shop, bookstore, and clothes store. Everyone who owned and worked at those stores knew...
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Camp Innovation
For every time someone has said, “There’s got to be a better way,” someone else has said, “I’ve got an idea…” With that tirelessly optimistic perspective, we’ll be featuring new ideas on this blog for...
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"Cheap" is not a good story
I saw this sign on a recent visit to New York City. Haven’t been back since so I don’t know if the $1 pizza store opened up. I loved the idea because new ideas that help products become more...
View ArticleOne day you’ll find out you’re no longer good
Listening to sports radio one day recently I was struck by callers talking about a pro basketball player. “Bob from Berwyn” and others like him were savaging the player, ranting about what a waste of...
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Turning a hot dog stand into an entertainment complex
The basketball stadium at the University of Michigan was called Crisler Arena for 44 years, from the time it was built until last year. That’s when they added more goodies for fans and players, like a...
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The case for unbridled, uncontained, unassailable, joyful passion, in life...
Even though it ended after 10:30 PM, I needed a nap after watching the NCAA Men’s basketball semifinals over the weekend. I was that stressed out and exhausted. As a University of Michigan Alum (and...
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Wine not?
A funny thing happened when we went to Napa Valley last week to celebrate my birthday. We drank some wine.Not so unusual, you say? We drank wine in the airport.Still not so unusual. Especially for...
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Confidence = Generosity (Part 2)
“Six months into the business, we got one of those Starbucks coffee machines here in the office. If I had realized the morale boost that would come from having a free coffee machine in the office, I...
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Curiosity = Innovation
Why is innovation important?Because people are curious.Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone’s (empty) vault in 1986. Millions tune in (and a career is launched).27 years after the first season of The Real...
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