Leading With Heart: The Dropouts, Renegades and Optimists
Hello and welcome back to my free weekly roundup of the content that has most impressed or inspired me this week. For your visual and aural pleasure, please find my top picks below.
Here goes...
PODCAST
“Life needs to be lived with such a carefulness and a gentleness when it comes to humans and interactions, and what I call an extra layer of love.” Tina Roth-Eisenberg
If you don't know the Time Sensitive podcast - you should check it out. It features candid, revealing portraits of curious and courageous people in business, the arts, and beyond, all of whom have a distinct perspective on time and their relationship to it.
"The pandemic has definitely changed how I think about time, to the point where I?now wear a watch that says “NOW.”?
To me, time is nothing but a collection of “nows.”"
Tina Roth-Eisenberg
Co-hosts? Spencer Bailey and Andrew Zuckerman *?interview a leading mind who has made a profound impact in their field, contributed to the larger conversation, and is concerned with the planet and this week sees Spencer interview Tina Roth-Eisenberg, celebrated designer, serial entrepreneur and a true powerhouse.
She grew up in Switzerland before moving to NYC. As the podcast blurb says, "Through her collaborative spirit, exuberant energy, and deep sense of optimism, Eisenberg has, over the past 15 years or so, built a cult following of creatives around the world who, like her, constantly seek to connect, reflect, and grow together—and who view her as an inspirational curator and guide. Taking what she calls a “heart-centered” approach to life and work, Eisenberg, through all the trials and tribulations of start-up life, leads with a joy- and love-first outlook. “I believe there are two ways of operating in life,” she says on this episode of Time Sensitive. “You’re either in love, or you’re in fear.”"
I really enjoyed this episode as Tina opened up about her life and loves, her successes and failures, and why she does the work she does. Listen here.
*I am interviewing Andrew for the podcast in the new year so please do get in touch if you have any questions for him.
QUOTE
I shared this post on my Instagram this week after discovering someone close to me was having a really hard time.
In my stories, I added:
I was thinking today how we all go through different seasons.
On any given day, one person may be in summer - joyous and light - whilst another might be in the midst of their worst, darkest, winter.
The truth is, you’ll never know who is suffering.
Be kind… always.
Spellbound
The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But?a?tyrant spell?has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.
The?giant trees are bending
Their?bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is?fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.
Clouds beyond clouds above?me,
Wastes beyond wastes?below;
领英推荐
But nothing?drear?can move me;
I will not, cannot go.
Emily Bront?
Let's look out for each other this season, and all seasons.
INTERVIEW
I decided to re-visit this 2020 talk from Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler on how to find your purpose and create a framework to live your best life. With a simple four-square grid, Yancey shifted his entire perspective on decision-making, his sense of self, and his relationship to the world. His concept of “Bentoism ,” inspired by the Japanese - bento box - is a way of framing your choices with an eye to the future, beyond your own self-interest, and with consideration for your community and the next generation. Read more here.
As we head optimistically towards the end of 2022 and into 2023, I think it is worth watching, especially so if you need a nudge towards finding your purpose.
Watch it here.
BOOK
I have long-been interested in Peter Thiel and The Thiel Fellowship where two of its team ( Danielle Strachman and author Michael Patrick Gibson ended up starting the 1517 fund : "We back?dropouts, renegade students and?deep tech scientists?at the earliest stages of their companies."
Partly, I was interested because of Thiel's rich history in tech (co-founder of PayPal, Palantir et al) but mainly because I was always drawn to an alternative means of education, something Thiel is passionate about. I have also had the pleasure of interviewing 1517 co-founder Danielle here and the great fortune of spending time with Principal Nick Arnett - all of whom worked together at The Thiel Fellowship before setting up 1517.
But I digress... According to the blurb, Paper Belt on Fire ?is the unlikely account of how two outsiders (Danielle and Michael) with no experience in finance—a charter school principal and defrocked philosopher—start a venture capital fund to short the higher education bubble. Against the contempt of the education establishment, they discover, mentor, and back the leading lights in the next generation of dropout innovators and in the end make their investors millions.
This story is the behind-the-scenes romp of one team that threw educational authorities into a panic. It fuses real-life personal drama with history, science, and philosophy to show how higher education and other institutions must evolve to meet the dire challenges of tomorrow.
I am interviewing author Michael for the podcast in the new year so please get in touch if you have any questions for him.
Buy the book here (only Kindle and audiobook available in the UK currently but you can pre-order the hardback too).
FILM
Pepsi, Where's My Jet?
I didn't know what to expect when I started watching this series but I was pleasantly surprised!
The year was 1996, and the Cola wars were raging. Pepsi needed something huge to compete with Coke so they rolled out their biggest campaign ever: “Pepsi Stuff” It featured a soon-to-be infamous commercial that claimed for 7,000,000 Pepsi points you could win a Harrier Jet (one of the most advanced military jets of the time). Pepsi execs assumed the astronomical “price” of the military plane was set high enough to indicate it was a joke, but an ambitious and savvy college student John Leonard saw it as a challenge. Enlisting the help (and funding) of older mountaineering buddy and entrepreneur Todd Hoffman, the 21-year old put together a plan to score the grandest prize of all.
As you can imagine, it does not go to plan. Instead, what ensues is an outrageous goose chase for the infamous Harrier Jet and a legal battle with Pepsi that changed advertising forever.
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As always, thanks so much for listening to the podcast and reading the newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it and have a wonderful weekend.
Until next time...
Danielle