Hint: Scratch Your 3 Itches — You’ve heard the entrepreneurial wisdom: “scratch your own itch.” It’s a good rule of thumb when starting a project. But here’s what people don’t tell you: There are many types of itches and not all are created equal. Here are three itches you could scratch with your side project: The…

How Seth Godin Became Seth Godin Offers a Clue — I’m a huge fan of Seth Godin. Author. Marketer. Ruckus-Maker. His most recent book, This is Marketing, launched as a WSJ and NYT bestseller. His blog consistently ranks as one of the most visited on the internet. In fact, Google “Seth,” and he’ll pop up at number 1. Much of…

This distinction should be common sense. — There’s a wonderful video of author Elizabeth Gilbert distinguishing between a hobby, job, career and vocation: A hobby is something you do to keep life fun and interesting. With a hobby, the stakes are zero. You don’t need it to succeed. It’s simply something you enjoy doing. …

I remember reading the very first Word doc manuscript of Steve Markley’s Tales of Iceland. It was riddled with red squiggly lines — a bloodstained battleground of misspellings and grammar casualties. I was floored. Steve was a published writer — a real author! I had just admitted to myself that…

“If I were to realize that door A, B, or C all lead to a lot of heartache and pain, but you know, A was what I really want, well, why not just choose A?” –Mike Herrera, founder of MxPx (via Ryan Holiday) Last summer I wrapped up another intake…

Let’s Bring Genius Down a Level. — “Tell me if anything was ever done… Tell me… Tell me…” — scribbled inside Leonardo da Vinci’s private notebook. Leonardo Da Vinci is the quintessential Renaissance Man. He likely inspired the inception of the phrase itself. …