Back in 2001, Apple CEO Steve Jobs uttered his now legendary one line pitch for a new product his company were about to release. ‘1000 songs in your pocket’ It’s unlikely even he knew how rapidly things would evolve from that point on. From iPod Classic to iPhone X; Pioneer…
Browsing Category Career Fuel
The Circuit
The challenges — and the importance — of being out on the road, in the middle, on the circuit as a creative professional When I was a talent agent, something I didn’t do as much as I should have was developing a deeper understanding and empathy for the experiences of my clients. They all…
Back to business school: the new case study
Almost every form of school and education is getting questioned, queried, unbundled, and rethought. The same is happening in business – people are starting to as what is it for; what does purpose really mean; what’s sustainable; what’s right; what are the 2nd and 3rd order effects of what this…
Freelancer to Entrepreneur: The Forest, The Mountains, and the Water
Imagine a landscape. It has a forest on one side and a mountain range on the other. The two are separated by some water. The forest is made up of luscious shades of green, so dense it’s almost a jungle. This sea of green is punctuated by snaps of red,…
Labels In, Labels Out
We’ve always had labels in one way or another. First, the label tended to be the same as the job we did: hunter, blacksmith, doctor, cleaner, lawyer, CEO, intern. Over time the label became more nuanced, including a role descriptor, elevator pitch, or value proposition: PR executive overseeing the company’s…
Going Solo? You’re still in the Rat Race
Many of us strike out as consultants, freelancers, entrepreneurs, or artists to escape the rat race – to get away from the pressured, constrained, exhausting, repetitive life that is ‘regular’ work. Here’s the thing we don’t realise – we’re still in it. We may not be doing those same things…
Why we need to get rid of ideas
On this week’s episode of his Akimbo podcast, Seth Godin answers a listener question about focusing – more specifically, how to focus when there are so many ideas that appeal. One way is to to blog; not as a way to just share ideas, but also to get rid of…
Becoming a wizard
Regular readers may know two of my favourite podcasts are ’The Moment’ with Brian Koppelman, and Seth Godin’s ’Akimbo’. Every year or so, the two get together on ‘The Moment’ for a discussion revolving around the themes of showing up in the world and going out and doing creative work….
Overrated Mentors, Underrated Coaches
Mentoring and coaching often get thrown into one bucket. On the surface they sound pretty similar; practices that help people make progress. However, go down a layer or two and there are a host of differences (I wrote about these here). Broadly speaking, mentors are people who have trodden a…
The Rotation
Menlo Innovations is a software company based in Ann Arbor. They’ve become well known for staying true to their innovative title – not only in the work they produce but in the way they do the work. One example is in pair programming. This isn’t anything extraordinary on its own;…