Leadership

“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,…

“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 …

“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 …

“Longevity isn’t about staying the same; it’s about evolving without losing your soul.”

I took this photo at The Black Keys concert I attended at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway. I’ve been following the band since their very first album, and now, 14 albums later, I’m struck by how they’ve managed to grow, shift, and experiment with their sound, yet remain unmistakably themselves. That’s the quiet brilliance of endurance. Whether in music, leadership, or life, the challenge isn’t simply to reinvent; …

“Design is the visible soul of intention.”

Look closely. This isn’t just a greenhouse, it’s a living metaphor. This stunning image comes from the Bombay Sapphire Distillery, where architect Thomas Heatherwick designed these botanical glasshouses as a celebration of transparency, creativity, and integration. It’s a place where nature, industry, and artistry are not separated but intertwined. What strikes me most is how this space invites flow. The curves aren’t just aesthetic; they evoke movement,…

“The future belongs to those who imagine it first.”

This is the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, set to open in Los Angeles. It is a space dedicated to the power of storytelling in all its forms. Its sweeping, futuristic architecture, designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, doesn’t just house art; it’s a statement in itself. The building curves like a living organism, blending seamlessly with the landscape while also seeming to hover above it, an architectural embodiment of vision meeting possibi…

"Balance is not something you find; it is something you create." – Jana Kingsford

We live in a time when “work/life balance” has become a tired cliché, a phrase so overused it almost mocks us in a world where the lines between work and life have dissolved. Leaders are left asking: Is balance even possible anymore? Perhaps the problem isn’t that balance is out of reach, but that we’ve been searching for the wrong kind of balance. What if the key isn’t work/life balance at all, but something I call…

“We are all driven by reward systems.”

I was recently reminded about the power of reward systems in a Campfire conversation with Rich Sheridan, founder of Menlo Innovations. Rich shared how most organizations are often unconsciously designed around deeply embedded reward structures. Whether it's the adrenaline rush of checking off tasks, the dopamine hit of inbox zero, or the quiet pride of being seen as the one who "always comes through," these systems are constantly shaping our behavior, attent…