Human-Centric Transformation and Leadership
Dug deep on the CX Goalkeeper podcast, talking about empathy, AI, speed, and trust. Give it a listen!
How to Pick Affordable Wines
Over on my podcast, The Spirit Guides, I broke away from distilled spirits to talk to Lucia Palm (she's @lucialoveswine on Instagram) who is the leading content creator for folks looking for inexpensive vino at Costco, Trader Joes, and similar. Great episode!
An Even Keel Will Help You Ride Out the AI Storm
It's not all going to be smooth sailing.
If Google's Sundar Pichai is right, and AI really is the most profound technology humanity has ever worked on, more important than FIRE, then some challenges are bound to crop up, no?
I predict that every one of us will eventually be dazzled by AI and what it can do, to the degree it feels positively impossible and magical.
I also posit that each of us will, at some point, be manifestly disappointed and frustrated by AI and what it can do (and ultimately, what it does to society and the concept of labor, intellectual ownership, and truth).
The key is to not let moments of extreme admiration and extraordinary frustration color your OVERALL thoughts and understanding of the larger trend and its importance.
It's like The Beatles.
Yes, they remain perhaps the greatest band of all time, but only because the world decided to not dwell on the occasional "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and instead embrace their entire oeuvre, which - on the whole - is almost impossibly strong.
I'm sometimes asked on podcasts: "What's your favorite business or motivational quote?"
I always answer:
"Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue."
It's an easy quote for me to remember. It's on a sign my Mom gave me 24 years ago. It's on the wall of my office.
It's solid advice that I rely upon often.
But never more so than in April, 2021.
The Best/Worst Night of My Life
At 5:55pm, I concluded my phone call with Chris Johnson from LaneTerralever. We agreed on deal terms to sell my consulting firm to his, for a tidy sum.
A hug and high five from my wife, Alyson.
At 6:00pm, our friends, the Hurlows, arrived for a glass of wine before a 6:30pm dinner reservation.
Wine had just hit the glass, and I'd just begun to tell the tale of the sale, when at 6:04pm my phone buzzed anew.
"I better take this," I said.
At 6:05pm, on that call, my doctor told me I had cancer and needed urgent surgery for stage 3b melanoma.
That put a bit of a damper on the celebration.
To say that 10 minutes - and the subsequent 12 months - was a rollercoaster is an insult to theme park rides.
It was like having your heart ripped out and put into a blender, but then served to you as a surprisingly tasty smoothie.
I cannot say I kept an even keel that entire time, as people who were around me then can attest. But I truly worked at it.
I looked at that damn sign each and every day, and tried to temper every moment of despair, and tamp down every instinct to celebrate.
And as the sign predicted, it all worked out, eventually.
AI is going to make you very happy.
AI is going to make you very sad.
But those emotions aren't forever, they're just for then.
Remember the sign, and keep your head up!
...my new keynote about practical AI adoption and integration.
The Books Report
"Pivoting" in your business and your life is all the rage, but in many cases it's what you refuse to change that sets you apart.
My brilliant friend Stephen Shapiro has a new book that provides a whole new way of thinking about change, and gives readers a really useful framework for deciding what you should NEVER adjust.
Pivotal: Creating Stability in an Uncertain World is the type of thoughtful, counter-intuitive work that I adore. I hope you do, too.
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