This Week At Gapingvoid

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add to cart "I think – the moment you stop helping others and start patting yourself on the back is the moment you’re actually back at the bottom of the food chain.  Even if the toilet paper is better than it was the first time." One of my favorite responses to the question about leaders not ignoring problems, from David Cameron. Kinda turns the message of today's cartoon on its head, in a good way. Another great response from Eric Barnhart put it all into perspective: "If you follow the Hero’s Journey, as outlined by Joseph Campbell, the last part of the journey is to return home and share the benefits of your journey and your knowledge with your fellow (hu)man.  This is the part of the journey that we seem to have forgotten nowadays; building up those who have yet to take their journey." Got me thinking...maybe it's time we reinvent how we think about success. Reinvent the American Dream. add to cart Self-obsession: it's science. No surprise that people love to talk about themselves. See blogging, social media, the entire internet etc... But this is interesting, (bold mine): "Talking about the self is intrinsically rewarding, even if no one is listening." Maybe this is why so many brands get stuck in an echo chamber of their own greatness. I know a lot of marketers, entrepreneurs and CEO's will see this...my question to you is, how do we strike that balance between self-promotion and obscurity? Without ending up like the poor guys in this cartoon. add to cart Our SXSW 2015 limited print, $99 for our fans. 100 copies available. We're so excited to be attending SXSW '15. It's our first time back since 2012 and it's gonna be awesome. Hugh is giving a talk on how art impacts business. We'll have booths at the main Interactive trade show and the SX Health and MedTech Expo. Hope to see you there! add to cart This is a cartoon I drew recently for an engagement with Zappos. Tony Hsieh is probably the best we've seen in the corporate world at really getting this idea - that for a leader, it's not about you.   It's not about what you say, or what you do, it's about inspiring people to go on an inspiring mission. add to cart As a new parent, the topic of parenthood in the workforce has been on my mind... Seeing articles like this one, it makes me wonder if we could be doing a lot better. If our priorities as a society are in the right place. Especially when you think about how meaning and purpose impacts productivity and innovation. After all, what is more fulfilling than your own children? Maybe instead of seeing work and family as being at odds, we should be looking at them as complementary forces for inspiration.  add to cart Leadership is about taking responsibility in the present, so we can leave the future better than we found it. That's why stories like these are particularly troubling. The last thing leaders should be doing is taking away the words people need to do their jobs. Responsibility: it's about we take some, in my opinion. So we just heard the news...Donna Shalala will be stepping down as President of the University of Miami to run the Clinton Foundation. We had the privilege of having her on our panel at the Art Basel "Do Something That Matters" discussion last winter. Miami will miss her insight, honesty and wicked sharp sense of humor. Joy Through Making Things Happen Shalala is our inspiration for this piece: the pure joy we get out of pursuing the things we love with our whole hearts.  add to cart Like Tweet Share Forward to Friend Read Later