Kevin Carroll has an amazingly cool background. Raised by his grandparents in Philadelphia, his first job really was with the U.S. Air Force where he served as a language interpreter and translator. And in those ten years he became fluent in Croatian and Czech and Russian and German. But while being fantastic at languages, he was also an athlete and soon an athletic trainer. Leaving the Air Force, he worked his way up to be the head athletic trainer for the Philadelpha 76ers. So he’s already cool. But then he was tapped on the shoulder by Nike. He spent a number of years at Nike helping to deepen their understanding of athletic performance and team dynamics and interpersonal connection, basically helping Nike become one of the forces it is today.
And then things shifted again, and he put his experience and wisdom into a terrific series of books, starting with the Rules of the Red Rubber Ball. In this interview we talk about:
- How it was a ball that saved and changed Kevin’s life.
- Why ‘encouragers’ are so crucial to sustaining success
- The role of curiosity and play in connecting with your great purpose and Great Work
- The role of “lonely work” is setting up for success.
You can follow Kevin on Twitter at @KCKatalyst and find him on the web at www.Kevincarrollkatalyst.com.
Posted on March 10, 2010
Jason Fried’s new book Rework comes out today, and I’m delighted that we managed to talk just a week ago in the lead up to its launch. Now here’s a quote to kick us off. It’s from Seth Godin, and he says (and I’m paraphrasing), “Make everything a project – and run it through 37Signals’ Basecamp.” Jason is the one of the founders of 37Signals. They design useful software to help people work better – connect with people, run projects, managing stuff. (I know, because I use it!)
And what’s cool is they haven’t done it by practising business as usual, but by practising business as unusual. In this interview Jason shares some of his successful and counter-intutive approaches to how to get stuff done. We talk about:
- The evolution of 37Signals – and why where you start is not where you finish
- The value of introducing “done enough” as a measure of success
- The problem with meetings – and what to do about it
- Why planning is highly overrated
- And a bunch more…
You can pick up the new book on Amazon , follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonFried, and learn more about 37 Signals’ products at their website.
(And by the way, Jason’s surname is pronounced “Freed” – Apologies to Jason, and please ignore my mistake at the start of the interview!)
Posted on March 9, 2010
Michael Port is a best-selling business author. His first book, Book Yourself Solid was on the best seller lists for months, and this week he’s publishing his latest, The Think Big Manifesto. Its subtitle says it all: “Think you can’t change your life (and the world)? Think again!”
I’m thrilled that Michael wrote a piece for Do More Great Work.
In this interview Michael and I look at:
- Why you should know your limits and avoid the Bonk
- The power of goal setting
- How to create a To Not Do list
- The Think Big Revolution
This interview is approximately 20 minutes long.
Posted on February 11, 2010
Tags: Author,
Coaching,
Goals,
Happiness,
Impact,
Marketing,
Right People,
Satisfaction,
Self-reflection,
Support,
Think Big
I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing 
