1: Did you know that Babe Ruth began his baseball career in 1914 using a 54-ounce bat?
“That’s a big bat,” Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer write in their powerful book Conversations That Win the Complex Sale.
“For those of you who are not familiar with what’s ‘normal’ for baseball bats,” the authors note, “most professional baseball players today use a bat that weighs between 31 and 35 ounces.”… continue reading
1: Turns out anxiety and excitement are the exact same emotion.
Physiologically, that is. Which just means how your body operates.
“Whether you are anxious about something or excited about it, your body responds in a nearly identical ‘high arousal’ state,” Jane McGonigal writes in her book SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully.
How does your body react?
“You have excess energy, you may feel butterflies in your stomach, … continue reading
1: “Our conversations started out funny and just got funnier,” Diane Button writes in her wonderful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.
Diane and Franck Battelli, both end-of-life doulas, were meeting with Greg, 53, who was dying from ALS.
Before proceeding, Greg wanted to make sure it would be a good fit.
“He let us know in a very serious tone of voice that … continue reading
1: Then Intel CEO Andy Grove was sitting in a conference room with other members of the Intel team.
The topic? “Evaluations of a certain highly touted new software from a company whose other products we already use,” Andy writes in his legendary business book, Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.
Intel’s head of Information Technology shared the challenges her team … continue reading
1: Stanford business professor Tina Seelig divided her class into fourteen teams and gave them a challenge:
“Each group would get five dollars of seed funding and have two hours to make as much money as possible,” Sahil Bloom writes in his book The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life.
When the two hours were up, each team presented their approach and results, sharing … continue reading
1: Netscape founder Marc Andreessen to his business partner and then Loudcloud CEO Ben Horowitz:
Marc: “Do you know the best thing about startups?”
Ben: “What?”
Marc: “You only experience two emotions: Euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances both.”
The year was 2000. The dot-com implosion was happening.
Ben and Marc had raised almost $200 million to launch Loudcloud, a startup focused on network … continue reading
1: Something seemed off, Diane thought when she arrived at her client, Amanda’s house.
“I noticed immediately that there were no paw prints at the front door. Her house was spotless. The kitchen was uncluttered, no clothes on the floors, nothing out of place,” Diane Button writes in her powerful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.
Diane is an end-of-life doula. She sat with … continue reading
1: It was a broiling hot day.
Future entrepreneur and venture capitalist Ben Horowitz was early in his career. He was married with three young children.
One day, his father came to visit.
“We could not afford air-conditioning, and all three children were crying as my father and I sat there sweating in the 105-degree heat,” Ben writes in The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There … continue reading
1: Ben Horowitz had been set up on a blind date by his friend and high school football teammate Claude Shaw.
It was the summer of 1986, and Ben had just finished his sophomore year of college at Columbia University and was living in Los Angeles with his father.
This would be a double date, and Ben and Claude decided to prepare an elaborate dinner for Claude’s girlfriend, Jackie Williams, … continue reading
1: Ever experienced a sleepless night?
Ever lie in bed “contemplating the end of a relationship, a job transition, our physical health, or concerns about children and family members?” Diane Button asks in her powerful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.
The next morning, we typically get up and start the next day. When we stop to pick up our coffee, the barista … continue reading
