How to Find Mentors and Receive Support in Difficult Times - Doug Jaeger

In Chapter 6 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer Doug Jaeger talks about finding support from mentors and friends in difficult times. Jaeger shares approaches he has used through low times he experienced losing a parent and also a business. He finds mentor support to understand business challenges and not resist looking at both positive and negative sides to solving a particular problem. Ultimately this helps Jaeger identify what is truly important so he may address the problem or issue with greater clarity. Jaeger is a partner at design firm JaegerSloan - http://jaegersloan.com/ - and is also president of the Art Director's Club - http://www.adcglobal.org/ . Previously he founded thehappycorp and has served in creative director leadership roles at TBWA/Chiat/Day and JWT. Jaeger holds a BFA in Computer Graphics and Art Media Studies from Syracuse University.

How Experiential Learning Shapes Ambition - Garren Katz

In Chapter 6 of 13 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, executive and private life coach Garren Katz explains how learning by doing - or self-directed learning - has become his preferred style. While the experiential investment is a greater time commitment, Katz finds the increased understanding provides a benefit that far outweighs the cost. Katz is a graduate of Western Michigan University and coaches clients on areas such as entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances. Learn more about Garren at http://about.me/garrenkatz .

Why to Create Your Own Career - Steph Redlener

In Chapter 2 of 10, creative talent agent Stephanie Redlener shares why she advises recruiting clients to create their own career. Rather than fill holes by requirement, Redlener takes a non-traditional approach to push clients to better understand their ambitions and goals, ultimately leading to a better match between employer and employee. Redlener is an advertising industry recruiter for The Talent Business (http://www.thetalentbusiness.com).

How Entrepreneur Transitions from Founder to Manager - Richard Moross

In Chapter 13 of 17, entrepreneur and Moo (www.moo.com) founder Richard Moross shares lessons learned about his sociological and behavioral development while building his business over a six-year period. Moross highlights the transition from an instinctual, energetic, passionate role as company founder to a more composed, relaxed and calculated role as manager. The transformation plays a huge role in Moross' personal and professional development and complements an his increasingly refined communications skills.

How Meditation Program Helps MBAs Overcome Fear Culture - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 11 of 14 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, Wharton MBA graduate and "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" author Nina Godiwalla answers "What prompted you to create Leadership at Lunch and expose MBA students to the benefits of meditation?" Godiwalla shares how she overcame the business school fear culture and peer pressure by using meditation. Godiwalla goes on to create a six-week "Leadership at Lunch" meditation program to help classmates find clarity in their ambitions and actions while earning their respective MBA degrees.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What prompted you to create Leadership at Lunch and expose MBA students to the benefits of meditation?

Nina Godiwalla: So before I went to business school, I had been exposed to meditation probably maybe it was about five years before I went to business school and my exposure to meditation was really crazy. I was visiting my parents and I always like to try new things and they were going away for the weekend and I had my sister drop me off at a meditation retreat not realizing it was a very, very intensive retreat for advanced people which means you couldn’t talk to anyone, you couldn’t do anything for the entire weekend, you couldn’t look at a word, you couldn’t make eye contact, I literally took my contacts off and just walked around in like this blur. And I found it very frustrating because I’m a go, go, go person, let’s get something done.

My first few days was just quite miserable to be honest and by the third day I just found -- I didn’t find like peace and happiness in the whole world but there was something I just felt like there’s something to this. I found a sense, a little bit more sense of clarity, a sense of clarity and then from that experience when I went into business school I felt like it was the exact, there was a bit of craziness to it, there was like I said people put on their resume ‘this is what I’m going to do’, not on their resume their application, it’s almost like the first day we got there people were moving towards that goal, I mean it was a very, very fast pace and I felt I was losing my sense of clarity while I was in business school.

I wanted to just step back and just say ‘Are we clear about this? Are we clear about what we’re all so anxiously trying to go towards?’ and what amazed me is and it’s not just me, research has shown that there’s a lot of fear culture in that world, in business school, at times. And a lot of it is, you know, that person coming up to you is like ‘did you go to that meeting? Did you catch? Did you see that company that was here? Cause if you missed that meeting they’re not going to invite you to the next interview.’ And I feel like there was just a lot of that going on constantly, you know, ‘Did you get this on the exam, did you see the previews?’ and that mentality started to -- I got sucked into it and I was coming from a place where, I was coming from a liberal arts masters degree where it wasn’t necessarily that way.

And for me, I just thought ‘Can I expose people to something that I’ve found valuable’ and I created a program, it was a six week program where we lead a meditation and we brought in some experts from the area as well and a lot of people had never tried it, they didn’t know what it was but people, some people had that curiosity of ‘Huh, I wonder what it is’ and that’s exactly how I started when I got exposed to it and if someone got something out of it, beautiful, that’s all I could ask for.

Why MBA Students Should Consider Meditation - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 12 of 14, Wharton MBA graduate and "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" author Nina Godiwalla highlights how MBA students can benefit from meditation. Godiwalla notes how external factors, including family and job, motivate our career ambitions. She shares how external factors, including television, movies, and sports, also relieve us of stress from our external ambitions. By teaching meditation, Godiwalla has found the internal awareness to be especially comforting to MBA students who are in high peer pressure environments where unnecessary urgency is often associated with decison making. The internal focus alleviates stress and provides a calming awareness and clarity to longer term focused decisions.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: Why should an MBA student consider meditation?

Nina Godiwalla: I think there’s just this universal feature within us that we have a way within ourselves to ground ourselves. I think often we look to external sources to find happiness, our spouse, children, our family, jobs, careers what ever it is, we look, that’s what we look through too often and then we find things that constantly distract us when we’re not – when those things aren’t working for us, TV, movies just, you know, what ever it is we find our own little distractions and instead of doing that there’s something inside that you can actually change the way you feel, the way you think and even understand, it’s just that initial awareness of what it is. So for me for MBA students there were people there who were very grounded and knew exactly what they wanted to do and I don’t know if they necessarily, if they probably had a way that they were doing that themselves, I think MBA students should consider it because it gives them a sense to feel comfortable with what they’re doing and step back and maybe operate in a way that in the long term is really going to pay them off and not necessarily just right now this looks like the right thing to be doing because everyone else is doing it.

How Meditation Improves Memoir Writing - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 13 of 14 in her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "How has meditating helped you be more self-aware and introspective in your writing?" Godiwalla notes how meditation has helped her be more present in every moment, choose where to put her attention, and apply this process in her memoir writing.  Her book "Suits: a Woman on Wall Street" covers some buried and even dark experiences.  The meditation helps Godiwalla get depth in understanding what happened and putting it down on paper.  As a result, she is able to take the reader to a different level in the storytelling experience. Nina Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" and the founder and CEO of Mindworks, a provider of leadership, stress management, and diversity training programs. Before starting her business and writing her book, Godiwalla worked in corporate development at Johnson & Johnson and Oxygen Media and investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How has meditating helped you be more self aware and introspective in your writing?

Nina Godiwalla: For me meditation is a general term and it is for a lot of people as well, of being present in every moment so while we’re speaking actually really listening to what you’re saying and not having my mind think about ‘Oh wow, I’m really nervous, does this make sense? It’s a lifestyle in that I can choose where I’m putting my attention, meditation is choosing where you put your attention at every single moment of your life.

So in terms of being able to take that self awareness and understand and quietly be with myself and be comfortable, it’s completely affected my writing specifically the book I’ve written because it’s a memoir and it’s about my life. One of the things is I think we go through experiences and if they don’t work the way we want them to work we kind of can bury them someplace else. And to be honest some of the stuff I wrote about were definitely things that I buried, I didn’t want to go back, I didn’t want to think about them and meditation allows me -- gives me the safety and comfort with myself to go back and visit those experiences and not just visit them but try and understand why I put myself in that situation, why that happened and get that depth and in all honesty when you’re writing you want to take people to that different level, you don’t want to – it doesn’t need to just be ‘Hey this is what happened’ its kind of like, ‘I’m trying to understand what happened’ and when you’re meditating you’re actually getting comfortable enough with yourself to where you’re not denying things, you’re not -- you’re saying ‘I accept the way I acted, I accept what happened and let me take it to a different level’ and I think that way you’re able to take the reader to a different level.

How Small Town Culture Promotes Self-Discovery - Dan Street

In Chapter 9 of 20 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, hyperlocal entrepreneur Dan Street - founder of Loku.com (previously BorrowedSugar.com) - shares how small town cultures push individuals away from self-defined comfort zone networks to interact with people not like you. Challenging that norm living locally helps shape and hone interests over time.

How Purpose and Ideals Change From 20s Into 30s - Andrew Hutson

In Chapter 1 of 16, environmental management expert Andrew Hutson defines his aspiration to find success in ways that makes this world a better place than he found it. He details two very different perspectives. While in his 20s, Hutson takes a selfish or egocentric view to find purpose, direct career, and change the world, whereas in his 30s, Hutson finds more comfort in himself and sees his contribution as something more collective and outwardly focused.

How Women Manage Work and Family Balance Change - Kyung Yoon

In Chapter 4 of 18, non-profit executive, spokesperson, and mother of two Kyung Yoon reconciles her expectations of fulfillment coming out of an all women's college, Wellesley, and how this changed for her over time. Yoon learns it is not an equation of one - herself - but rather an equation of many, including her family.

How Gandhi Words Help Align Passion to Purpose - Louise Davis

In Chapter 11 of 20 in her 2009 Capture Your Flag interview, Peer Health Exchange co-founder and social entrepreneur Louise Davis shares her interpretation of Gandhi's words "You must be the change you want to see in the world". Davis begins by identifying values and beliefs - being true to yourself - and then making an impact by taking action to put these passions to work.

How to Measure Success in Documentary Filmmaking - Tricia Regan

In Chapter 7 of 17 in her 2009 Capture Your Flag interview, filmmaker Tricia Regan measures personal performance by looking within the project, as outside comparables, including other films or festival accolades, are not useful until a film is complete. She finds documentary success stories such as the film "Hoop Dreams" can remind filmmakers the importance of maximizing given material and characters. They do not, however, serve as competitive barometers. Regan asserts once initialized, documentary filmmaking is about making the best with what you have.

How Audiences Define Filmmaker's Sense of Purpose - Tricia Regan

In Chapter 11 of 17 in her 2009 Capture Your Flag interview, "AUTISM: THE MUSICAL" director Tricia Regan shares how she reaches fulfillment in filmmaking by envisioning how an audience will feel during and after seeing a film and making that vision reality. This creates a sense of purpose that Regan has worked toward before her filmmaking career, beginning with interest in literature and story symbolism and structure.

How to Balance Between Office and Performance Careers - Conrad Doucette

In Chapter 10 of 13, music writer and Takka Takka drummer Conrad Doucette uses introspection and mindfulness to balance his two concurrent careers. Working within a team at Fuse, working alone at Blender, and setting rhythm as a drummer require Conrad to define performance boundaries while also embracing the cross-pollinating experiences.

Simon Sinek on Why the Past is Relevant to Why We Do What We Do

In Chapter 15 of 16 in his 2009 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, author Simon Sinek elaborates on the purpose discovery process on why we do what we do is built around past success patterns, themes, and motivations. Simon Sinek is a trained ethnographer who applies his curiosity around why people do what they do to teach leaders and companies how to inspire people. He is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". Sinek holds a BA degree in cultural anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: Simon, in your book, "Start With Why" you write:  "The WHY does not come from looking ahead at what you want to achieve and figuring out an appropriate strategy to get there.  It does not come from extensive interviews with customers or even employees.  It comes from looking in the completely opposite direction from where you want to go.  Finding WHY is a process of discovery, not invention.  And it usually starts with a single person." Can you elaborate on that?

Simon Sinek: Why you do what you do comes from you.  We are products of our own upbringing.  We are products of our own cultures.  How your parents raised you, where you lived, your childhood experiences formed who you are.  A miserly CEO who grew up in the Great Depression grows up to be miserly. That's not because he read a management book the importance of being miserly, it is because he grew up in the Great Depression.  To understand why we do what we do, we have to go back into our own past and see what our own patterns of success have been and when certain circumstances exist, when we are motivated by certain things we excel, naturally, and when they are not there, we struggle, naturally.  Projecting forward are aspirations.  To have it truly be lasting it has to be from within you.  

Simon Sinek on How to Identify Your Passion and Create Results From It

In Chapter 16 of 16 of his 2009 interview with Capture Your Flag host Erik Michielsen, "Start With Why" author Simon Sinek shares why passion is a result and not an action. Finding one's passion requires creating a process to make it actionable. Sinek shares why the first step is to identify what you love and then to continue to enable this root element through action.

Simon Sinek is a trained ethnographer who applies his curiosity around why people do what they do to teach leaders and companies how to inspire people. He is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". Sinek holds a BA degree in cultural anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: What are your thoughts and what is your approach in finding and building upon passions?

Simon Sinek: Passion is not an actionable word. It is correct that those who do what they are passionate about do better, but it is not helpful advice.  The question is where does passion come from?  Passion is a result.  Passion is an energy.  Passion is the feeling you have when you are engaged in something you love.  Passion is the feeling you have when you would probably do this for free and you can't believe someone pays you for it.  We mistake that passion is something we do in our private lives but it shouldn't be done in our careers.  I'm a firm believer in you are who you are and anyone who says they are different at home than they are at work then in one of those two places you are lying.  The goal is to make everything you do at home at work something you are excited to do.  So how do you find the thing that you are excited to do?  It is easier than you think.  What are the things you would do for free?  What do you do when nobody tells you to do them? How can you recreate that feeling and be paid for it? I'm very involved in the art world.  I love to go to museums and galleries and I love to go see dances and performances because I want to see how others are interpreting the world.  That inspires me.  New ideas, new thoughts, new ways of looking at the world are things that interest me, privately, and I seek it out and pay money for it.  So, does that mean I have to have a career in the arts?  No.  That means I have to have a career where new ideas are explored, where people are experimenting and trying things out and I have to explore new ideas and try things out and I'm just as excited to go to work each day as I am to go do something on a Saturday night.  The idea of finding your passion is ironically simple. You should be doing something you love sometime. What is the stuff that you enjoy and what is the stuff that you love?  Who are the people you love and what do they all have in common?  

How College Summer Job Leads to Real Estate Career - Brett Goldman

In Chapter 1 of 9, real estate developer Brett Goldman shares how painting houses and improving communities and neighborhoods as a result shaped his ambition while attending the University of Michigan.  Coupled with a preference for managed risk dealing with visible assets, compared to his father's world of securities trading, Goldman decides to pursue a real estate development career.