A Curator of Strategy, Leadership, Spirituality, and Rock and Roll…. "Changing the world…one "contact" at a time…."
For years I have struggled with the notion of what makes a better leader—one who is a master of a skill or one who is more of a generalist. Interesting, in the military, we expect our junior leaders to be masters of their skill and then as leaders gain in seniority—they are expected to be …
A version of this post can also be found at The University of Cambridge's Centre of Social Innovation Blog Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. - Pablo Picasso Every morning I pore over quotes and post a few to twitter. Why? For some strange …
It is probably just me...but ever since 1983--I seem to hear Bono's words...ever single New Year's Day...and does anything really change...on New Year's Day? "New Year's Day" is a song by rock band U2. It is on their 1983 album War and it was released as the album's lead single in January 1983. Written about the Polish Solidarity movement, "New Year's Day" is driven …
“Reason shows us there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” ― Seneca, Letters from a StoicFailure is an inside job--inside our head. So is success--all depending on how we define it. If we want to achieve, we have to win the war in our mind first. We can’t let the …
Continue reading "Stoic Thinking and Failure: Adjust Your Thinking–DeMarco Banter"
I recently started a journey towards a doctorates degree. I have longed believed most of all the required reading for leaders has already been written--so what in the heck am I going to do? Well--attempt to uncover it and make it accessible to today's leaders. Ancient philosophy is ripe with leadership lessons for all …
Continue reading "The Stoic Mind and Neo-DeMarcoian Thought"
So...what are you reading? I ask that of people a lot Why? You are what you read... don’t you think? So....what are you reading? “Think before you speak. Read before you think.” -Fran Lebowitz It seems....that to a much greater extent than we want to recognize, we really are what we read. For many people, …
Continue reading "A Contrarian’s Thoughts on Reading… DeMarco Banter"
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 …
Continue reading "Mastermind Century Group Suggested Reading List 2020 (Updated)"
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 …
Continue reading "Amor Fati or Die and Happy New Year–DeMarco Banter"
This year we spent a good bit of time focusing on ethics in our Leader Development course at ACSC. I am not sure if readers are familiar with the Cardinal Virtues--Plato identified the four cardinal virtues in The Republic. Plato narrates a discussion--a metaphor of sorts--of the character of a good city where the following …
Continue reading "Can Aristotle Teach Us About Leadership? Neo-DeMarcoian Thought"
This has been one of those songs we have loved since day one. It did an incredible job of capturing not only the issues of the day, but also drew an awesome linage of how we got there. Its lyrics are made of rapid-fire brief allusions to over one hundred headline events between March …
Continue reading "We didn’t start the fire… The History Lesson"
