Your reputation will always precede you, for good and for bad; so it makes sense to model it yourself, right? One anecdote about Cuban cigars is the perfect example of the thing that you should always do about it: The American publisher Alfred Knopf was boarding a train one day and he went straight for the smoking car. He sat down next to a gentleman of good manners. Like Hannibal Lecter but without the psycho part, I guess. Knopf took out one of his special cigars and lit it. After a couple puffs, he offered another cigar to his neighbor. The ... [keep reading...]

Most people are afraid of attracting attention. "Let's build and they will come" they say... but no one is going to come without marketing. Michelangelo Buonarotti was well aware of this, and you should, too: It's always a good time to remember that Michelangelo sculpted the Pietá in his early twenties. (And by the way, the Pietá is one of the greatest marble sculptures of the history of mankind) He took TWO YEARS to make it. Let it sink for a moment. It's important. One day, he was around the masterpiece when he overheard two men talking about it. He moved ... [keep reading...]

Sometimes the most obvious way to look at our circumstances might not be the right one to understand it. A great example is when Steven Spielberg met Stanley Kubrick for the first time: The rising director, who only had a couple hits on his belt, met the filmmaking juggernaut in the set of The Shining. Right in the middle of the main hall of the Overlook Hotel - a sound stage entirely decorated and ready to roll cameras. But there was something odd. In the middle of the main hall, over the table where Jack Torrance's typewriter should be, there was ... [keep reading...]

People’s attention span is getting shorter, so we must look for creative ways to capture and maintain it. That reminds me of a fifteen-year-old who one day decided to steal a book, regardless of the consequences: It was at the end of the 70s, and while all his friends were drooling for Space Invaders, he just wanted the book ‘Switch’ by Elmore Leonard. So much was his desperation to have the volume in his hands, that he did not hesitate for a second to steal it. The inexperience led to his capture. The teenager apologized to the owners of the premises, ... [keep reading...]

To negotiate effectively, it's important to recognize the different styles of this art. The style you choose will depend on your goals, your personality and circumstances, as well as the motivations of the other party. Of course, some styles are more 'combative' than others. Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann developed an instrument to assess the behavior of an individual in conflict situations. In this model, they describe five different personalities to handle conflict situations in negotiations. Those 5 negotiation styles are ... 1. Compete: Win-Lose This style is competitive and one of the most used in negotiation; Those who employ it ... [keep reading...]