Risk takers are often discounted, pooh-poohed and can be actively campaigned against for stepping outside the status quo. Their daring to question what’s accepted challenges our seeming comfort, shining a light on the constant change surrounding us, yet can sometimes go by undetected. Think: Steve Jobs, fired from his own company than rehired to take…
Tag: Wisdom
Guest Post: Pinch Me Now, Please
Michelle, a friend of the Creative Marbles team and a successful business woman, shares her experience with students budding into adulthood (or, already budded young adults), struggling to find their place in this increasingly interconnected world. _________________ Not that there’s ever an average week in the office for me, but this one was especially different…
B.A. in Common Sense
“Common sense can be uncommon.”–Art Baird Every parent knows with certainty their kid is smart. As Montaigne said, “Everyman has within himself the entire human condition.” Yet, what does smart mean? How smart is smart? Is our current generation of budding adults–actually legally an adult–but mere months away from teenager-dome, lacking common sense? Have we,…
The Journey of our Youth
I recently watched the movie, White Squall, directed by Ridley Scott and stars Jeff Bridges as the captain. The movie is based on the real events of the people involved in the year-long school-at-sea program on the brigantine, Albatross. The program is set up to provide students with sailing lessons, alongside college preparatory courses. Besides…
Enjoy Yourself While You Can: The Story of the Little Fir Tree
My son, who loves fairy tales, recites in this podcast a timeless fable from memory for all who care to listen. I hope you enjoy and take this cautionary tale to heart, as your lives continue unfolding and you seek the peace and prosperity you deserve. Photo Credit: Art Baird, Creative Marbles Consultancy 2012
IMAGINE and Then RE-IMAGINE
Everything can be re-imagined. Our creativity is limitless in its natural state. We only limit ourselves. Education gives us tools and helps expose us to options. After that, its our responsibility to build on those experiences to produce (or re-produce) something new. Here’s another “re-imagining” of a classic icon, Julia Child, who wrote that through…
Advice for Parents: Thinking about Alternatives to College
The expectation of college, as the next step after high school, is a lifetime of effort. To stop and consider an alternative is complicated. Julie Nguyen, CMC’s CFO & Managing Partner, knows the complexities of choosing options other than college. She offers the following podcast of advice for parents:
Fail to Succeed?
Steve Jobs on Failure: I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter into one…
Sidewalk Surprises
Look around every once in awhile. Other people’s good ideas can infuse your own.
Generation Y: Change Agent or Loafing Youth?
“More American Idle than American Idol” is how The Economist (January 3-9, 2009) described the current generation of young adults born in the 1980’s and 1990’s, known as Generation Y. Is this a fair assessment?
The Soul Connection
Too often its easy to think, “I can’t…I’m not an expert.” Collaboration, however, relies on all-comers. The energy created when everyone is sharing their talents, exposing their weaknesses and openly working together is ripe with potential, of which the consequences are unknown and possibly lasting beyond the group’s time together. “One short week, we put…
New College Freshman Blues?
Ok. Let’s look at the facts: You’ve moved away from home. (Possibly the first move in a primary residence–ever. And, possibly in a brand new city, maybe even state.) You’re living with a stranger in your immediate space (where you may have been used to your own room); not to mention the hundreds of other…
Risk & Reward
Fear of mistakes can become a liability. Henry Kissinger once warned that our search for certainty can leave us simply reacting to the next emergency. Yet, transformed, this same desire for perfection can create an exacting attention to detail and ability to forecast probabilities. Is your view that life is inherently full of risk or…
Seeking to understand your purpose
Reading about the death of Ray Bradbury a few weeks ago led me again to wonder about the purpose of life. Having been alive for 47 years, one thinks this question would have been answered by now, but here I am still wondering. Maybe it is this wondering that keeps me searching for something innovative,…
Being Special in a Sea of Special
Wow. In a time when it seems every 5 year old knows what “self-esteem” means, David McCullough Jr. reminded us of our basic human equanimity. “…even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you. ” Boy, that either fries your hide…