Last week I started using the program Evernote to share weekly status updates with each member of my work team.  The whole thing started after I picked up David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done.’  Reading about Allen’s intoxicatingly thorough system of personal organization sort of set me on an organization kick. I borrowed the Evernote idea from a prominent VP at my company.  Every week, each of my [...]

Over the past few weeks I’ve been reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs.  In short, the book is phenomenal.  Isaacson gives an intentionally evenhanded overview of Jobs’ successes, struggles, and bizarre personality quirks.  From working in his garage with Steve Wozniak, to helping Apple ascend to the most valuable company in the world – [...]

The lilacs had just begun to bloom under the warm spring sun.  It was my sophomore year of high school and lacrosse season was about to begin.  Unlike prior years, my small high school was finally able to field both varsity and junior varsity lacrosse teams for the upcoming season.  One of the reasons we [...]

Giving an effective presentation is one of the skills I value most.  In fact, I would argue that being able to clearly and concisely communicate your thoughts to other people is the number one most important skill in business and in life. Like many skills, I learned how to give an effective presentation from my [...]

Whether it’s reading articles, books or magazines or listening to audio books (at 2x speed), I try very hard to absorb as much information as possible.  It’s my intention to cover a wide swath of literature – but in actuality, the majority of what I read tends to be quite focused on non-fiction business-type books.  [...]

It was very popular in the early 2000’s to talk poorly about Walmart.  Between putting local “mom and pop” stores out of business and underpaying their female employees – Walmart had developed quite a bad reputation.  However, amid this negative press, Walmart was actually doing quite well.  They rose to become one of the top [...]

My definition of “Sales”: The ability of an individual to convey his or her thoughts in a clear and orderly manner such that an audience can understand and follow what is being said. Sales is an extremely important skill. I only discovered the importance and the power of sales after I graduated from college. In [...]

Each morning I wake up, shave, gather my gym clothes and hop on a Manhattan-bound F train.  As I walk the three blocks from the subway to the gym, I always pass the same sights.  Up and to the left I see the top of the Empire State Building, to the right I see the [...]

Like many other technology enthusiasts, I was very sad last week when I learned that Steve Jobs passed away. There is no doubt that he will be remembered as a global thought leader, tastemaker and transformative figure in the technology, film, and music industries. When I think about Apple and their recent success, one vivid [...]

If the entire NYC advertising industry was simultaneously transported back to a single jr. high class – all the cool kids would be talking about “scale”. Over the last year and a half, it seems not a month goes by without me hearing something about scalability, or ideas being scalable. These words are not new [...]