A Curator of Strategy, Leadership, Spirituality, and Rock and Roll…. "Changing the world…one "contact" at a time…."
Personality has a lot to do with how we understand Niccolo Machiavelli. We have talked about how misunderstood the man may have been here on the blog many times. Recently I picked up a somewhat newer translation of The Prince with an introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon and reading through Butler-Bowdon's intro it only confirms my …
Continue reading "Leadership: Machiavelli The Misunderstood: Neo-DeMarcoian Thought"
What are you doing to grow as a leader? That is a question I ask myself close to every day... sometimes I have great answers, other times I have terrible or fake answers...and the truth is, at times, my growth has paused or in some cases actually atrophied....but it is a journey, and I …
Continue reading "Leadership Growth…Optional? DeMarco Banter"
With Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) we find ourselves in interesting times—one might even say unprecedented; but I work with academics, and this was mentioned on a text the other day to which the response was, "These are actually precedented times." What does that even mean? Unprecedented: never done or known before. Precedented: Provided with or having …
Continue reading "Thucydides, The Plague of Athens, COVID-19 and Leadership–DeMarco Banter"
“You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.” ― Zig Ziglar …so give the people what they want -Ray Davies, The Kinks I am sure all leaders sit through meetings where we ask— "How do we create, assess, mentor, and advise new leaders?" The …
Continue reading "Give The People What They Want (w/4 simple concepts): DeMarco Banter"
I grew up just north of Silicon Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula—it always seemed that innovation was something everyone did. At 18 years old—I left the area and joined the USAF only to return to the Valley to visit family, talk with friends, two tours at Travis AFB (about an hour from the Valley), …
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par·a·dox ˈparəˌdäks/ noun noun: paradox; plural noun: paradoxes a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory."a potentially serious conflict between quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity known as the information paradox" I love a good paradox, and in …
Continue reading "Four Paradoxes of Leadership: DeMarco Banter"
We had a post a few months back pondering what Aristotle teaches us about leadership, but at the same time we have been pondering ancient schools of leadership—we’ve pondered Plato’s Academy, The Jedi Praxium, and today we will ponder Aristotle’s Lyceum. HISTORY The Lycaeum was a temple dedicated to Apollo Lyceus ("Apollo the wolf-god"). …
Continue reading "The Lycaeum the Aristotelian School of Leadership–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)"
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 …
Mastermind Century Group 