A good friend of mine recently recommended a wonderful film to me: Jiro Dreams of Sushi. I now recommend it to you. It’s a phenomenal and fascinating study of a man who embodies the disciplined pursuit of perfection. 85-year-old Jiro Ono owns Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, $300-per-meal, sushi restaurant located in a Tokyo subway station. (Yes, you read that right…10 seats, subway, $300!) He is considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. …
Read More
It’s that time of year. That time when we invoke the spirit of Janus. Janus was the Roman god, the guardian of doors and gates, the god of new beginnings, as powerful as Jupiter himself. January is named for him. Janus was the custodian of the universe, and was seen as the originator and orchestrator of all things – the system of the years, the changing of the seasons, the ebbs and flows of fortune, and …
Read More
Nothing like a double whammy to start the week off right. In this case, it concerns my little fable, The Shibumi Strategy. First, my publisher informed me that it had won a gold medal in the Axiom Book Awards. Very cool. It may not have broken sales records, but a recognition of quality is always reinforcing, and I can now brag “hat trick,” since all three of my books have now garnered some sort of …
Read More
This entry marks the midpoint (at least according to my planned outline) of my Artistry At Work series. If you recall, I started back in January, saying that when I’m in the throes of writing a book (which I completed two weeks ago!), a lot of other stuff, mostly random abstractions, creep into my head. Rather than dismiss them as I usually do as being brain chatter, I decided to organize and develop them as …
Read More
The only authorized biography of the late, great Steve Jobs, is, as everyone knows by now, barely three weeks old and penned by Aspen Institute CEO and former Time magazine editor Walter Isaacson. I’m generally skeptical of “authorized” biographies, because they tend to be puff pieces. I’ve been proven wrong on two occasions: Open, by Andre Agassi, and now Steve Jobs. In a complete contradiction to the rest of his secretive existence, Jobs gave Isaacson unprecedented …
Read More
It’s no secret that Steve Jobs was a practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I believe his teenage sojourns to India not only broadened his perspective, but had everything to do with his eventual design aesthetic, one of clean simplicity and uncluttered elegance, which influenced all of the Apple products developed under his watch. This most famous of Diane Walker’s portfolio of the man speaks volumes. It’s the first photo in Isaacson’s centerbook collection, and shows Steve …
Read More
Jonathan Fields understands the potential power of uncertainty. He gave up a six-figure income as a lawyer to make $12 an hour as a personal trainer. Then, married with a 3-month old baby, he signed a lease to launch a yoga center in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City. . . the day before 9/11. Not only did he survive, he flourished and prospered. And he learned the real life lessons along …
Read More
I just received a copy of the Mandarin translation of my first book, The Elegant Solution: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation. I was blown away by the cover, shown here. They got it! They got that the pursuit of elegance and perfection is achieved through subtraction! It’s a fantastic treatment, and one of the best, most intriguing and beautifully minimal book covers I’ve ever seen. I love it. No offense to the designers at Simon …
Read More
I’m always elated when a highly regarded publication opts to publish my brain droppings. I’m pleased and honored that, thanks to the efforts of the great team at The Rotman Magazine, The Wall Street Journal posted an excerpted piece from the longer article on their international blog The Source. You can read it here. (You don’t need to be a subscriber.)