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“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall

I find myself reflecting deeply on the extraordinary life and legacy of Jane Goodall — a scientist, activist, and storyteller who has profoundly changed the way we view our planet and ourselves. Her passing marks the end of an era, but her influence continues to ripple through every act of compassion and curiosity she inspired. Jane didn’t just study chimpanzees; she redefined our und…

"The main character of any living system is openness." — Ilya Romanovich Prigogine

Have you ever worked in a team where one person — through their energy, attitude, or mere presence — completely shifted the atmosphere? Maybe they were assertive, loud, dismissive, or radiated negativity. You could almost feel the air change when they entered the room. We have all experienced this. I certainly have. And it never fails to remind me of one essential truth: we are not machines; we are living systems.

T…

“Real innovation is not always fast or flashy; it is often layered, embodied, and slow burning.”

In The Innovators: How Mature Minds Shape Creativity, economist David Galenson dismantles one of our most persistent cultural myths – the idea of the lone, young genius who transforms a field overnight. Instead, he presents a more nuanced and liberating truth: there are at least two distinct paths to groundbreaking work, and neither is inherently superior.

Conceptual innovators strike like lightning. T…

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Invisibility? Flight? The ability to see the future?

Back in the early 1980s, there was a quirky TV show called The Greatest American Hero. (Cue the theme song: “Believe it or not, I’m walking on air…”)

In the show, aliens gift an ordinary man with a superhero suit designed to help him save the world. There’s just one small problem: he immediately loses the instruction manual. The rest of the series is him crash-landing into walls, shooting laser…

“Greatness is not built in haste but in layers.”

This photo is of Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn), in Bangkok, a place that has stood for centuries on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. Taking a boat ride along the Chao Phraya is an experience you are not likely to forget. Seeing its intricate spires rise above the water, I’m reminded that structures of beauty and endurance are never built in a single stroke. They emerge through layers of craftsmanship, patience, and devotion over time. Too often,…

Luxury may be associated with high-end lifestyle and possessions, but there is far deeper wisdom to it than meets the eye. Leadership strategist, keynote speaker, and author Neen James joins Tony Martignetti to explore how a luxury mindset can help elevate your business and capture people's attention with your message. She breaks down how customization, personalization, and fascination can profoundly transform how you convey your message to the world, leading to lasting connections and excepti…

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” – Charles Mingus

I used to be an insight hoarder. Maybe you’ve been there too. I’d collect random articles, highlight books, bookmark podcasts, save screenshots of quotes, scribble half-formed ideas in notebooks with the belief that someday, somehow, this mountain of inputs would make me more creative. But the truth was, my collection wasn’t making me sharper; it was just making me …

When the air is thick with anger,
and division hums louder than truth,
I ask myself:
When did tenderness become naïve?
When did compassion go out of style?

We scroll past suffering,
argue louder than we listen,
forget that every voice
comes from another human body
breathing, breaking, hoping.

And I wonder,
What if the bravest act now
is not to win,
But to soften?
Not to prove,
but to understand?

Peace is not weakness.
It is the strength to pause
before striking.
Love is not indulgence.
It is the discipline of seein…

“The human world is shaped by two terrible truths: we are bad at predicting the future and we are good at ignoring the past.”

When I first heard this quote, it struck me with the weight of a paradox we all live with. As leaders, we’re constantly asked to chart the path ahead while carrying the lessons of what came before. Our default modes betray us; we often lunge forward with false certainty about what’s next, while brushing aside the inconvenient or uncomfortable wisdom of history. The result …

Executive coaching takes on a new dimension as Jessica Wan — executive coach, classically trained soprano, and former marketing leader at Apple, Smule, Magoosh, and the San Francisco Opera — shares how she’s built a career at the intersection of business and creativity. In this conversation she reveals her formative “flashpoints,” from growing up in immigrant communities to earning her MBA at Berkeley Haas, and how those experiences shaped her Ampersand Manifesto podcast and upcoming Ampersand…