The Golf Shot Heard Round the Academic World: Guest Post

When my little cousin called me up some years back to tell me how much he hated his Ivy League College professors and their biased political views that corrupt young minds, I thought no big deal. This is what your College professors do. Mine thought they were really special. I know differently now.

Playing B-Ball with Obama: 6 Steps to Crossing Anything Off Your Bucket List: Guest Post

This is one of the most inspiring posts I have read in a long time via Tim Ferris' blog. In 2009 a junior at Cornell contacted me to ask about his idea for a non-profit, based on helping people achieve their dreams. Fast forward to today, Everest is no longer a non-profit pipe dream, but a Silicon Valley start-up with a lot of determined people pushing to create a way to help people live their dreams. Check them out and follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

The Importance of Keeping Your Head Empty

This week I had the privilege of attending a private dinner with Elizabeth Gilbert, best selling author of the book Eat, Pray, Love. Now before you say 'huh?' let me just say I haven't read the book or watched the movie, but am aware it is a "chick flick" and that didn't prevent me from attending. You see, I find authors to have interesting perspective on the world and have often found their views helpful to me personally and in my work. I was not disappointed by Ms Gilbert.

Change The World NOW!

I wanted to share with you an incredible vision statement from a start-up I am privileged to sit on the Board of. At this time I am not able to name the company or the founders of this incredible venture, but you will hear about them in the near future, both on this site and around the world. But the words in their business plan blew me away. And they reminded me of the essence of this blog - the power of the individual and the different each of us - YOU - can make in this short life.

Why Fearing China Is A Mistake

One of the unfortunate repercussions of the weak economy and politics in the West is the growing animosity towards China. I have heard uninformed people blame China for everything from the high rate of unemployment (its all those outsourced jobs) to the high cost of gas (they are using more and more energy!). This anti-China beat is still in "politically correct" tones, however as elections loom and we continue to fail in turning our economy around, this narrow view of a Chinese threat beating us will no doubt grow louder. This is a mistake and a missed opportunity in the making in my view. 

Government 2.0: Guest Post

In 1990 I was privileged to attend the 50th Anniversary dinner for Bruce Lee in Los Angeles. He would have been 50 had he not tragically passed away in 1973. It was a wonderful evening, lots of stories from his family (wife, son Brandon and daughter Shannon all in attendance), as well as Ip Man, the grandmaster of the martial art Wing Chun and Bruce Lee's Master, who is the subject of the highly rated Chinese film Ip Man, a must see for avid foreign film lovers. That night I learnt an amazing lesson that has stayed with me 20 years on, and holds so true in today's complex world.

Introducing the DoBand Campaign

In today’s fast paced internet world where ideas, action and start-up businesses make headlines every day its hard to separate the really good ideas from the short-lived hypes. Thanks to a team of students at Cornell University I am pleased to share one of the best ideas I have seen in a long time. The DoBand concept (www.DoBand.org) was inspired by the movie Pay It Forward, but takes the concept from the movie to a whole new level of personal involvement.