Jake

The weird thing is that the word “leader” itself is cliché and boring, but when you come across somebody who actually is a real leader, that person isn’t cliché or boring at all; in fact he’s sort of the opposite of cliché and boring.

Obviously, a real leader isn’t just somebody who has ideas you agree with, nor is it just somebody you happen to

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At best, what any of us can hope for with our creative work is to organize, clarify or more clearly convey the unnameable that lives within us.

In a recent series of studies at Cornell University, psychologists Thomas Gilovich and Clayton Critcher asked participants to think about what they'd be doing if they weren't in the lab: Some were asked to think about leisure, others about obligations. Then, all participants completed a jigsaw puzzle. Afterward, they were asked if their minds had... See more

Roles change faster than people, and executive tenures are often short. In cases of true rapid scale (a business that’s 3–10×ing every year), I tell people to expect leaders to last about 18 months. Let them surprise you by lasting longer, but don’t let it surprise you if it’s shorter.

You should find the candidate confusing at times. If you first see their dysfunction, you should know you have yet to find their genius, and vice versa.

Problems should come from success, or being on the brink of success rather than being invented by some intellectual quest.

• What’s one word on your mind right now?

• What’s an idea that jumped out at you from what you just heard?

• What did this remind you of?

• Share one way you might make this better. 

• On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident/excited/clear are you on what you just heard?

• Raise your hand if you felt ____ about this. Raise your hand if you felt _____ about this. (Bonus

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