The new year always brings big energy. But this time, I’m hearing something quieter: fatigue. Not burnout exactly, just the weight of staying “on” all the time. Like there’s always something to respond to, keep up with, or post to stay visible. None of these activities is wrong. But they add up. Ambition carries a cost, not just in effort but in attention. And when so much of that attention goes to anticipating a response, clarity doesn’t come from finding better answers. It comes from...
14 days ago • 3 min read
This is one of those weeks that feels like a pause. The holidays are fading. The new year is at hand, but real momentum hasn’t kicked in yet. There’s less noise than usual, and that quiet can feel both calming and uncertain. If you’re not feeling ambitious, that’s okay. What this moment asks for is something simpler: clarity. A way to see what matters before everything speeds up again. So instead of talking about goals or resolutions, I want to offer something smaller and more practical for...
21 days ago • 4 min read
Holiday weeks feel like they stretch attention in a dozen directions, right? Lists grow longer, people need more from you, and your business keeps whispering that you must do more right now. Here’s a simple reminder you might not hear elsewhere: Not everything needs your attention right now. This is one of those weeks when the best thing you can do is hold steady. A simple filter might help: If something doesn’t require a decision before January, won’t meaningfully change outcomes if put on...
28 days ago • 2 min read
Every December, I revisit the sketch that reshaped my business. Twenty years ago, frustrated with the wrong kinds of clients, I drew a simple matrix to help me sort out what was really worth my time. That sketch turned into a powerful tool I’ve shared with thousands of solopreneurs. I bring it back every year to help you plan the next one with more clarity, more purpose, and ideally, more joy. Meet the Money-Fun Matrix The Money-Fun Matrix is a simple 2x2 tool I created to evaluate the...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Have you ever pinned your self-worth to a single number? Mara did. She wasn’t new to baking, and she’d built a loyal market following. But still, every week, she let one number decide if she was a failure. Each Saturday, Mara rolled into the farmers’ market before sunrise. She displayed warm sourdough. Rosemary focaccia. Cinnamon raisin loaves. Every loaf reflected the precision and care of a serious professional baker. And every Saturday at noon, she judged her entire business by one thing:...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Most people try to avoid failure. Paul MacCready, however, was different. He welcomed it. For nearly two decades in the 1960s and 70s, the world’s best engineers chased a dream. Their goal? Build a human-powered aircraft that could fly a mile-long figure-eight and clear a ten-foot barrier. No one could do it. The failure pattern was consistent. Teams built immaculate, over-engineered planes. A single crash meant months of repairs. With that much sunk into every prototype, experimentation...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
In the early 1980s, Steve Jobs’ team at Apple Computer was creating the revolutionary computer that would become the Macintosh. They knew that a crucial part of creating a personal computer “for the rest of us” would be visual symbols instead of arcane computer code. So Andy Hertzfeld called up Susan Kare, a former high school artist chum (Weak ties! See the recent issue), and told her to go get the smallest graph paper she could find. Kare’s task was deceptively simple: make the computer...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hey, Reader — Do you have favorite products you can’t live without? For me, it’s my Dyson hair dryer, vacuum cleaner, and room fan. Silly, I know. People think they’re incredibly overpriced. But I bought them all for one reason: every Dyson product delivers a remarkable experience. And they’re more alike than you might think. You see, many folks think Dyson built a vacuum company. He didn't. He built a company obsessed with one underlying mechanism: how to move air with precision. Everything...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Could your next big break start with a stranger? That’s exactly how things unfolded for a then-unknown chef named Anthony Bourdain. Back in 1999, Bourdain thought he was writing for a handful of cooks when he penned his behind-the-scenes article about restaurant operations. Maybe his fry cook would laugh, he thought. Maybe he’d make a hundred bucks. He sent his essay, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,” to a small New York City alt-weekly that ended up killing it at the last minute. But it...
2 months ago • 3 min read