Those three things – autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward – are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.
Hard work is only a prison sentence when you lack motivation
Hard world is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.
We talk a lot here about grit and self-control. The kids know what those words mean
A woman who walks away from the promise of power finds the strength to forgive – and saves her friendship, her marriage, and her sanity. The world is turned upside down.
Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.
The power of positive thinking will overcome so many things
Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness.
… forgiveness is a religious imperative: forgive those who trespass against you. But it is also a very practical strategy based on the belief that there are profound limits to what the formal mechanisms of retribution can accomplish.
Contagiousness is an unexpected property of all kinds of things.
The name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once is the Tipping Point.
Our first impressions are generated by our experiences and our environment, which means that we can change our first impressions . . . by changing the experiences that comprise those impressions.
Whenever we have something that we are good at–something we care about–that experience and passion fundamentally change the nature of our first impressions.
The power of knowing, in that first two seconds, is not a gift given magically to a fortunate few. It is an ability that we can all cultivate for ourselves.
Emotion goes inside-out. Emotional contagion, though, suggests that the opposite is also true. If I can make you smile, I can make you happy. If I can make you frown, I can make you sad. Emotion, in this sense, goes outside-in.
We form our impression not globally, by placing ourselves in the broadest possible context, but locally, by comparing ourselves to people in the same boat as ourselves.
For every remote miss who becomes stronger, there are countless near misses who are crushed by what they have been through. There are times and places, however, when all of us depend on people who have been hardened by their experiences.
Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action.”(p.115)
To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success…with a society that provides opportunities for all.
Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.
Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.
Much of what we consider valuable in our world arises out of (these) one-sided conflicts. Because the act of facing overwhelming odds, produces greatness and beauty.
The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.
In the six degrees of separation, not all degrees are equal.
Testers for 7-Up consistently found consumers would report more lemon flavor in their product if they added 15% more yellow coloring TO THE PACKAGE.
That’s like being a hockey player born on January I.
In the general American population, 3.9 percent of adult men are six foot two or taller. Among my CEO sample, almost a third were six foot two or taller.
The ethics of plagiarism have turned into the narcissism of small differences: because journalism cannot own up to its heavily derivative nature, it must enforce originality on the level of the sentence.
That is the paradox of the epidemic: that in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.
Acquaintances, in sort, represent a source of social power, and the more acquaintances you have the more powerful you are.
The paradox of endurance sports is that an athlete can never work as hard as he wants, because if he pushes himself too far, his hematocrit will fall.
When you write about sports, you’re allowed to engage in mischief. Nothing is at stake.
Do you remember the wrestler Andre the Giant? Famous. He had acromegaly.
Part of me thinks that innovation, real innovation in health care delivery, needs to happen from the bottom to the top.
The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world.
The injunction to be nice is used to deflect criticism and stifle the legitimate anger of dissent.