It is always refreshing, that moment of clarity. The National Park Service, perennially starved of money, is looking for private partners to help restore some Jersey Shore architectural gems. Sandy Hook, a spit of land in extreme northeastern Monmouth County between the Atlantic Ocean and Sandy Hook Bay, was known as Fort Hancock and served [...]
In the great film Bruce Almighty, Morgan Freeman's God character says to Jim Carrey's Bruce Nolan, "Bruce, you always made me laugh." The film is, of course, meant for us to rethink our relationship with God. But can we make God laugh? Can we amaze Him with our creativity? Does God take delight in what [...]
I am endlessly fascinated by creativity in the real estate world. I had the opportunity to spend some time recently with John Sims, Chairman and CEO of Marketlogics, a firm that provides creative real estate market advisory services for residential home builders. John's personal philosophy is simple, "People want to feel special. We figure out how [...]
Seth Godin has been saying for years that scaling and mass-production are things of the past, for the simple reason that we have gotten so good at it. We can take any methodology or process and make it more and more efficient. What matters today, according to Godin, is art, honest expressions of individuality and [...]
Online retailer Bonobos, not to be confused with the eponymous simian, wants to be the Amazon of Pants. Men's pants, specifically. [I perused the Bonobos website. They indeed have a wide variety of men's pants. If you live in the West Village. Of if you are built like Adam Scott. The actor or the golfer, take your [...]
In an earlier post, I described my plans to get up earlier, add more to my morning routine and build some new habits. My goal was to focus on (1) waking earlier; (2) using that morning time to write or exercise. Another goal was to play more golf. This is more pragmatic than it sounds, [...]
Fearful that I was becoming horribly dull, I committed to Do One New Thing each month in 2013. This is the July 2013 installment. I haven't done this post in the past few month because my "new things" have been fairly mundane. For example, I am a relatively new golfer and I was afraid to play [...]
Apropos of my recent post, A Better Way to Preserve Historic Properties, it came to my attention that many historic properties are donated. And that's good, right? Maybe not. While I don't doubt the generosity of the donors, most of these deals are burdensome in the long run, and probably should not be pursued by [...]
I committed to reading two books every month in 2013, one fiction and one nonfiction. These are June's selections. A friend of mine recently asked if I really do read two books per month. The truth is I that read more than two books, but I have a secret: I don't feel obligated to finish [...]
Now Pay Attention: Axiom 1: The person who brings in the business is king and should be fêted daily. Axiom 2: If you return telephone calls and e-mails, you will be successful. Axiom 3: About one in ten employees work out. This sucks for everyone involved. Axiom 4: Creativity is much more important than you [...]
I have been following a number of tech blogs lately. Let me sum up the first adopter zeitgeist: Google/Android Good (meaning hip and "really getting their customers") Apple Bad (meaning old/behind the times). Yes, Google just had their Googlepalooza a.k.a. the Google I/O Developer's Conference in San Francisco where they rolled out their fabulous new features including maps (with clouds!), Google Wallet (e-mail money [...]
In a effort to make my drive time more productive I started listening to podcasts. It has worked well, my head stays full of positive thoughts and I have learned a lot. I have had to create ways to safely take notes in the car (more on that sometime soon) but I have a treasure trove [...]
Don't like wearing neckties, but my collar tends to droop below my jacket collar. Not a classy look. The solution: Wurkin' Stiffs. Wurkin's Stiffs are metal collar stays with powerful little magnets to hold your collar in place. They work great. The Wurkin Stiffs product has evolved over the years. Originally the magnets were fairly large [...]
I committed to reading two books every month in 2013, one fiction and one nonfiction. I cheated a this month (again) and read two nonfiction books, but both were really useful. Here is what I found: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. This book is a fascinating study [...]
I love it when people have greats ideas, especially when they create whole new uses for underused real estate. I like it even more when they make money doing it. It seems that in all the telecommuting frenzy people forgot that they would actually have to get together from time to time. Strategy, brainstorming and creating and [...]
As more and more people are working from home, the effects on existing office space and office development are well-known: vacancy has increased and stayed stubbornly high and the rural corporate campus design has fallen out of favor. Desk- and job-sharing are now commonplace. But if all of these people are working from home, what are home [...]
If someone claims to have a "surefire" marketing/sales system, walk the other way. Here's why: The system is unlikely to be a fit for your business. Or for you personally. The system will force you to do and say things that are unnatural for you. Even if she is not conscious of why, a potential customer will [...]
The latest trend in New York City - Schools and Libraries in need of renovation are instead offering the land they sit on to developers. The developers bid on the land with the understanding that they can build a high-rise and lease or sell apartment units on the upper floors (consistent with zoning, of course), but the lower floors are to be [...]
Do you think that your income as a [insert profession here] is limited in some way? If you think so, you are absolutely correct. You will never exceed that number. Except by accident.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently announced that Yahoo was no longer going to allow employees to work from home. Ms. Mayer's reasoning? Here is her statement, "To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. hat is why it is critical that we [...]
In the documentary From the Sky Down (a reference to the nature of creativity itself), longtime U2 producer Brian Eno describes how he keeps a microphone in the studio open at all times so lead singer Bono can run up and record any melody, riff or lyric that pops into his head. Many of U2's hit [...]
