The tag-line for Penelope Trunk’s blog is ‘advice at the intersection of life and work’. That’s good, but quite frankly it undersells what Penelope does. For one things, she’s the founder of Brazen Careerist, a social network which helps young people manage their careers. Second, her blog is a no-holds-barred, deeply personal and often provocative look at her life and what it takes to be successful in business today. It’s a compelling mix of research, personal revelation and wise advice.
Penelope’s piece in Do More Great Work is as thoughtful and as provocative as you’d expect having read her blog.
In this interview we look at:
- The problem with our own ‘internal rules’ about how the world is run
- How wisdom is often found in the ‘in between parts’ and the moments of transition
- Why career advice is often best when it’s based on the ’stumbling around’ rather than the straight line
- How the risk of being real is more than worth it
You can follow Penelope on Twitter at @PenelopeTrunk and on her blog.
If you enjoyed this interview, you’ll also enjoy my conversations with
- Dan Pink, author of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko
- Barbara Coloroso, author of The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander
- Michael Neill, author of Supercoach
Posted on February 10, 2010
Those who like Hugh MacLeod’s cartoons and writing like them a lot, and I’m one of those people. His cartoons are wise, abrasive and often cut to the heart of what it means to do Great Work, to find your own path and to stay human in the corporate world – or as he puts it in this interview, “figure out what’s really going on.” In fact, he often refers to this cartoons as ‘cubicle bombs’ – little explosions that disrupt Business As Usual. I’ve got this one hanging up in my house:
In our interview, we spend a good deal of the time exploring some of the 40 strategies for creativity he outlines in his book ‘Ignore Everybody‘ including:
- What it really means to ’sing in your own voice’ (and how Hugh found his)
- How Hugh manages to stay creative and fresh – and the answer is suprisingly undramatic
- What, when it comes down to it, Hugh thinks is the secret to his and others’ success
You can follow Hugh on Twitter at @gapingvoid and see his cartoons and art at his blog, www.gapingvoid.com
If you enjoyed this interview, you’ll also enjoy my conversations with:
Posted on January 15, 2010
Here’s a confession. I want to be able to think like Merlin Mann.
He’s really smart on the topic of productivity, and in fact some part of his success comes from 43Folders.com which is a reference to David Allen’s Getting Things Done system. But his work is not just about productivity. It’s about creativity and purpose and striving to stay human and sane in a busy and distracting world and doing work that matters, doing Great Work. And he does all of this in funny, provocative, iconoclastic way.
In fact, writing this introduction and listening to the interview again has already provoked me to shift some of my own commitments in an effort to, as he puts it, “identify and destroy small return bullshit. Shut off anything that’s noisier than it is useful.” Great stuff indeed, and this is a wise and funny interview.
In our conversation we talk about:
- How the present is a “remedial course for the future” – and the pros and cons of those ‘creation myth’ stories of where people find clues for their Great Work
- The importance of an open heart and just where that might lead you
- The connection between productivity and creativity
- The two levels of prioritization (and how freeing it is to know that)
- And quite a bit more
You can follow Merlin on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies
The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.
If you enjoyed this interview, you’ll also enjoy:
Posted on November 25, 2009
I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing 
