Does success inevitably breed failure?

When does the switch from aiming to succeed to aiming not to fail occur? Has any company ever avoided it? NASA, Microsoft… and next up?  Apple? Dan Ariely asks this question on his blog. Why did NASA go from the ambitious 1960’s to 1980’s era moon missions to the conservative, blame-finding, cover-your-arse culture of the … Read more

Sun-Tzu’s 5 Factors for Victory and 5 Attributes of a Leader

I just watched Thomas Hyunh speak about his lifetime obsession with Sun-Tzu, the 2,500 year old Chinese General, at Authors@Google (video at the bottom of this post).   Sun-Tzu was only 30 years old when he led the smallest region of China to victory over the largest region.  This victory made him famous, and made … Read more

Leaders Go First. The First Steps on Learning Leadership.

Leadership: You Have to Go First. I love this little Dilbert storyline from Scott Adams: Employee: “I find it rather demotivating that you never praise me for a job well done.” Boss: “You’ve never done a job well.” Employee: “That’s because I’m demotivated.” Boss: “You have to go first.” Employee: “Wouldn’t that make me the … Read more

Conor Neill’s TEDx Talk

In 2013, I had an opportunity to give a talk at TEDx University of Navarra in Pamplona.  Here is the video and a transcript of my speech. Now over 4.2M views of this talk If you had 1000€ and you could invest that money in someone’s future, who would you bet on? Is it yourself? … Read more

How do I become a … ?

Good speaker? Writer? Dancer? Singer? Runner? How do I become one? How does the whole thing come together? How will I know if it really is my thing? Will it be worth it? There is only one way to find out. There has really only ever been one way. The way to mastery in the … Read more

How to write a book in spite of yourself

“It’s extremely difficult to do something big. I think setting out to do something small is easier and more likely to work.”  Seth Godin If you are reading this, I will assume that you writing a book or are thinking about writing a book.  What is holding you back?  What obstacle sits between you and … Read more

The 4 Paths of our Working Life

My last post was on Meaningful Contribution.  I talked about three questions about the work you are doing: does it serve others? do you do it well? and do you love doing it? The 4 Paths in our Working Life Taking two of those questions: does it serve others? and do you love doing it? … Read more