INC magazine editor-at-large Leigh Buchanan and I chatted a few months ago about leadership, and she’s published some of our discussion in the upcoming March issue, which focuses on leadership. I’m not a leadership expert by any stretch of the imagination, but Leigh’s focus was on how to apply the concept of elegance–maximum effect through minimum means–to the subject. She was tired of all the “To Do’s” that basically start sounding the same, and was instead …
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The Artist: Subtraction Scores A Hat Trick
I’m so glad The Artist won Best Picture, not to mention Actor and Directing. In fact, I’ve decided to use it as the centerpiece for the “Coda” of my forthcoming book, The Laws of Subtraction. The more I think about it, the more I realize every law was used. I realized that the movie was a brilliant series of moments like the two-minute long silent scene in Mike Nichols’s 1967 classic The Graduate. You know the …
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Artistry At Work: Hearts and Minds
I am never weary of being useful. In serving others I cannot do enough … no labor is sufficient to tire me. –Leonardo da Vinci Our greatest legacy may be found in the hearts and memories of those whose spirits we lift and needs we serve, not in some recorded format. All too easily, we forget for whom we create, for whom we must create. If it is only for ourselves, we are not true …
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Addition By Subtraction
The meme of subtraction is growing, the drumbeat louder. “News Corp. Without Newspapers Would Be Addition By Subtraction” reads the headline of Jeff Bercovici’s column on Forbes.com last week. “Everything I did was subtraction,” states TED founder Richard Saul Wurman in an article on OPEN Forum, referring to the original intent behind his 1984 conference in Montery, the first TED. According to the article, Wurman wanted to change the conventional format: “Suited white men standing …
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The Subtractive Art of “The Artist”
Last night my wife and I watched The Artist, up for 10 (!) Academy Awards. I’d been wanting to see it for months, simply because it looked to be a study in subtraction: black and white, and silent (except, of course, for music). It did not disappoint, and it deserves every award it gets. I think my wife cried for half the movie, which I’ve never seen her do. What’s behind that? Subtraction at its …
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Artistry At Work: Form Following Function
Today, each artist must undertake to invent himself, a lifelong act of creation that constitutes the essential content of the artist’s work. The meaning of art in our time flows from this function of self-creation. Art is the laboratory for making new men. –Harold Rosenberg All art has its foundations in functionality and utility. Great works of earlier centuries were not created to hang in museums and adorn private collections any more than elegant Egyptian …
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Artistry at Work: New School Rules
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. – Albert Einstein Business artistry is much more than simply becoming technically proficient at something. We all marvel at the wizards of the game who not only perform the basics to near perfection, but then actually change the game and achieve hero status: Jake Burton (snowboarding), Dick Fosbury (Fosbury Flop high-jump …
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The Wrong Way To Market Social Media
Entrepreneur Kevin Ready tells a sadly humorous social media story in his book StartUp: An Insider’s Guide to Launching and Running a Business.The airport parking company that he uses has a shuttle bus that runs from the lot to the airport terminal. Plastered on the bus windows are posters that say: “Like us on Facebook. Plus us on Google. Follow us on Twitter.” “This makes sense doesn’t it?” asks Kevin. “Not. Let’s break it down. …
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Visual Communication
I’m lucky. Scott McCloud is a neighbor. Not next door, mind you, but same town. In fact, we used to have offices in the same building. Don’t know who Scott McCloud is? He’s a cartoonist of Zot! fame, and a student of comics. He wrote Understanding Comics in 1993, Reinventing Comics in 2000 and Making Comics in 2006. He’s working on a graphic novel right now. (You can see his TED talk here.) Scott is …
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