A Curator of Strategy, Leadership, Spirituality, and Rock and Roll…. "Changing the world…one "contact" at a time…."
Eight years ago I crafted a recommended reading list for the Mastermind Century Group—it is something I intended to update, yet there always seemed to be something else to write about. As I look back at the list there are several books that are “keepers” and others that have not had the staying power I …
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I can't recall where I first heard the question...but it has haunted me for quite some time now. "Where do you get your wisdom and affirmation?" wis·dom [wiz-duh m] noun 1.The quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight. af·fir·ma·tion [af-er-mey-shuh n] noun 1. the act or an instance of affirming; state of being affirmed. 2. the assertion that something exists or is true. 3. something that is affirmed; a statement or proposition that is declared to be true. 4. confirmation or ratification of the truth or validity of a prior judgment, decision, etc. It seems this is a question one should be readily able to answer. I have asked several leaders that …
I keep returning to Malcolm Gladwell’s book: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. This morning, reading a devotional on 1 Samuel 17:37…David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of …
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Social innovation is basically the process of securing support for and implementing novel solutions to social needs and problems. The question is do we see a place for social innovation given the world’s new challenges – such as new markets in emerging nations and increasingly urban, interconnected and dangerous societies? Further, the US has …
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I am always fascinated by the concept of philosophical schools--especially when applying that philosophy to leadership. The last school we looked at was the Jedi Praxeum, I am sure no one will have any trouble connecting the Praxeum to Plato's Akademia. THE SITE The Akademia was a school outside the city walls of ancient Athens. It …
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I spend a lot of time pondering the question: "What is leadership?" It's really not that complicated, until we spend time to really think about it. A friend of mine Steve Cockram of GiANT Worldwide talks about how a leader's responsibility is to take the simple, understand and acknowledge this "simple" in all it's complexity, and distill the complexity back …
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by J. William DeMarco Walking Montparnasse in Paris one Christmas--I caught the ghost of Hemingway sipping a cafe au lait at the Dôme. I was struck by all the great minds that had walked the streets of the Left Bank. I recall having the same thoughts walking the streets of Florence Italy, eating Thai with the boys in Mountain View CA or …
Okay, or die might be a stretch, maybe be miserable, or really stressed out. Amor fati is a Latin phrase translated as "love of fate" or "love of one's fate". It describes an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at least, necessary. Lately I have been …
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By J. William DeMarco DeM Banter: For those tracking with the last 4 weeks--we've resisted a strategy and leadership paper I worked on in 2008. In typical DeMarco fashion--we are posting the first chapter last. Chapter 1 “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” –Sun …
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DeM Banter: As mentioned in the ABSTRACT POST, Chapter 1, 2, 3 and now in Chapter 4 in 2007-08 I was fortunate enough to be selected a a National Security Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. An outstanding year spent with some of the foremost personalities in National Security on both the Right and the …
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Mastermind Century Group 