Tech journalist Gina Smith had never been on TV when she was asked to appear on PBS to debate Steve Ballmer of Microsoft about Windows ’95. It was a gutsy move, but she said yes because she was determined to let consumers know her criticisms of Windows ‘95. After the interview, she was worrying “Whoa, should I have actually done that?” when ABC called and asked her to be the tech correspondent on Good Morning America and World News Tonight. And that’s how Gina started her TV career: by saying yes to opportunities, taking risks and sharing her passion.
Gina is also the New York Times bestselling author (with Steve Wozniak) of iWOZ: From Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple and Had Fun Along the Way. She’s a radio host, wrote an award-winning column for the San Francisco Sunday Chronicle, wrote a book about DNA, and now she’s a partner in First 30 based in San Francisco, which is an incubator firm for tech start-ups.
During our conversation, we talk about Gina’s serendipitous career journey and her current role at First 30, and:
- How getting a text from a friend who met Steve Wozniak at a Grateful Dead concert turned into a book deal
- Bringing great ideas to life: getting the guy who’s been working in his basement for 7 years a patent, an expert team, and a million dollars in funding
- The Purple Cow: what Gina looks for when deciding which projects to back
- Ripping the band-aid off: how to reject people without making them resent you
Learn more about Gina’s company at www.first30services.com.
Listen to my interview with Gina Smith
Posted on August 31, 2010
Here’s a full and frank declaration: Andrea J Lee’s one of my very favourite people on the planet. She’s as funny as she is generous as she is smart as she is innovative. She’s been hanging out at the edge of coaching and also what it means to be a thought leader for as long as I’ve know her.
She was the COO of CoachVille, then the largest coaching community in the world. She’s written several books, the most recent being Money, Meaning and Beyond. She runs large events engaging people on the quest to be a thought-leader and a successful entrepreneur. And she’s constantly practicing what she preaches as she reinvents herself and her business time and time again.
In our time together we chat about:
- How the Tiananeman Square protests – Andrea was in China at the time – helped awake one of the deepest choices about Great Work
- The power of ‘galvanizing energy’ – and how to find it
- An inspirational insight from Buckminster Fuller that will help you play your life out fully
- And why cleanliness is so much more than a good bar of soap
The doorway to her various enterprises – including her blog – is www.AndreaJLee.com and you can follow her on Twitter at @andreajlee
Posted on May 6, 2010
Alex Kjerulf is one of the leading experts about happiness in work and deeply committed to raise the sense of engagement, fun and passion in workplaces in his native Denmark and around the world. His book is Happy Hour is 9 to 5: Learn How To Love Your Job, Create a Great Business and Kick Butt at Work, which is pretty much one of the more excellent book titles around.
We talk about:
- How Alex made the leap from an IT guy to a Happiness maven
- Ways you can manage the “white noise” that keeps us buzzing
- Three practical ways you can increase your own happiness at work (and the happiness of those around you)
You can learn more about Alex at his blog Chief Happiness officer and follow him on Twitter at @alexkjerulf
Posted on April 16, 2010
Todd Kashdan, a clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychology at George Mason University is also the author of a new book, a fantastic book called Curious?: Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life. And when you check it out, you’ll see that it has got one of the best cover designs ever. It’s just a yellow cover with a single word on it, “curious” in big black bold typed with a question mark. I love it when the medium is the message, because you can’t help but look at that book and go, “Okay, I am curious. What is this book about?” And then when you flip it over to the back, it says simply again, “embrace uncertainty, attract love and abundance, master your life.” What a wonderful call to do more Great Work.
In our conversation we chat about:
- Why the quest for happiness is overrated
- how Todd ended up where he is today, having been a Wall Street trader and a clerk in a law firm
- How the shift in focus from scary to curious changed everything
- The link between anxiety and curiosity
- The importance of sadness, worry and anger in a well-lived life.
You can follow Todd at Twitter at @toddkashdan and learn more about his work at www.ToddKashdan.com
Posted on March 17, 2010
