How to Cope With Losing a Job - Tricia Regan

In Chapter 2 of 10 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, filmmaker Tricia Regan shares how she has learned to manage her emotions when a potential job falls through. As a filmmaker, Regan has experienced multiple moments when a seemingly sure thing falls through. She learns from friends and experience to release her emotion when the disappointment happens so she is in a position to move on and pursue the next opportunity full steam. Regan is an Emmy-Award winning filmmaker. She directed, produced and shot "Autism: The Musical." When not shooting documentary films, Regan has worked as a director, producer, and writer at ABC, NBC, FOX, and Lifetime. She earned a bachelors from Binghamton University and masters from New York University.

How Raising Hens Provides Benefits Beyond the Eggs - Cathy Erway

In Chapter 13 of 19 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, author, food writer, and rooftop gardener Cathy Erway shares the emotional and physical benefits gained by raising three egg laying hens on her rooftop garden. She gets her hens from Heritage Farms. The first, Beaker, is a BB red bantam hen; the second, Yoko, is a Silver-Spangled Hamburg hen; the third, Mama, is an Aracauna hen; and the fourth, MeiMei, is a Cochin hen. Over time, the hens teach Erway about social behavior and resiliency during winter while creating a more positive mood. Erway is the author of "The Art of Eating In: How I learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove." She writes two blogs, "Not Eating Out in New York" (http://www.noteatingoutinny.com ) and "Lunch at Six Point" (http://www.lunchatsixpoint.com ). Erway earned her B.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College.

How to Support Your Spouse During Period of Extended Family Illness - Andrew Epstein

In Chapter 18 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, husband and charter school executive Andrew Epstein shares advice on how to best support a spouse during a period of extended family illness. Presence matters most, so he begins by prioritizing family first. He finds combining strength with an occasional joke to keep people laughing to be a good mix through the experience. Epstein is currently Senior Director for Finance at Democracy Prep Public Schools in New York City. Previously, he was a finance executive at Universal Music Group's Island Def Jam Records and, previous to that, a schoolteacher in the Teach for America Corps program. He holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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.

Simon Sinek on How Finding Purpose Increases Sense of Fulfillment

In Chapter 3 of 20 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, author and leadership expert Simon Sinek loses his passion and rebounds by understanding his why, his purpose. Sinek references "Man's Search for Meaning" author Viktor Frankl and the three means Frankl identified to find purpose: through a loving relationship, service, and suffering. Sinek came to understand his own why through suffering and reinvention of self. By clarifying his why, Sinek better understands what actions to take to live a more meaningful and fulfilled life. 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: How has better understanding your "why" put you in a more impactful position to change the world?

Simon Sinek: Well, I mean, I'm a guinea pig, you know? When I discovered this thing called "The Why" it came at a time in my life when I had lost my passion for what I was doing. And it wasn't because I saw a market opportunity, or it was an academic exercise, it came out of a time of need. Victor Frankle, the guy who wrote "Man's Search for Meaning". He said that you can find your purpose one of three ways: Through a close, loving relationship; through service; or through suffering. And for better or for worse, mine came through suffering. I wouldn't go through what I went through again, I have no desire to go through what I went through, but I'm glad that it happened. And I literally stopped talking about what I do and started talking about what I believed in the world that I imagined.

You know, there are over 90 percent of people who go home at the end of the day not feeling fulfilled by the work that they do. And this is the point I was in in my own life. Everything superficial looked good but I didn't - I didn't care - I didn't love what I did I just, I went through the motions. And I am now working towards a world in which that statistic is reversed. I imagine a world in which over 90 percent of the population is fulfilled by what they do, that 90 percent of the population goes home at the end of the day and says, "I love my job; I love my work." And for me, that kind of focus is itself fulfilling. To be able to contribute and help build that world, and to see it build. So, understanding my own "why" has absolutely contributed to my own sense of fulfillment. 

How to Learn From Failure - Jason Anello

In Chapter 14 of 15 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, entrepreneur, creative director, and experience marketer Jason Anello shares learning from failures is more meaningful than learning from successes. He highlights that it is much more powerful to learn from the process of making failures and not failure as a result. Over time, understanding this and then being able to recognize a failure while it is happening is a great way to find long term success. Anello is the co-founder of non-traditional marketing agency Manifold Partners - www.wearemanifold.com . He is the co-founder of Brooklyn-based supper club Forking Tasty - www.forkingtasty.com . Previously he held creative leadership positions as an Ideologist at Yahoo's Buzz Marketing team and as an associate creative director at Ogilvy & Mather - www.ogilvy.com . Anello is an alumnus of the University at Albany - www.albany.edu .

How Goldman Sachs Sales and Trading Teaches MBA to Adapt - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 1 of 12 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, media and publishing entrepreneur Phil McKenzie joins Goldman Sachs sales and trading upon earning his MBA at Duke University. McKenzie is thrown into an unfamiliar trading floor and industry environment and is forced to adapt over time. McKenzie recounts that initial year as the most challenging in his career given the intensity and overwhelming amount of new information to learn, both at the bank and within the industry - pharmaceuticals - he covered as a trader. McKenzie worked at Goldman for eight years before embarking on an entrepreneurial career. McKenzie is now co-founder of FREE DMC, a New York based event, media and publishing company, and co-founder of the Influencer Conference, a global event series bringing together entrepreneurial, arts, design, and non-profit communities. Phil McKenzie graduated from Howard University and earned an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Before starting FREE DMC and the Influencer Conference, McKenzie worked for eight years in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.

How Science Nerd Overcomes Unpopularity and Saves Lives - Clara Soh

In Chapter 8 of 10 in her 2010 interview with Capture Your Flag host Erik Michielsen, health economist Clara Soh Williams shares how she deals with being unpopular as a comparative effectiveness researcher. Soh, who majored in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale, follows her passion to research drug effectiveness compared to alternative drugs. Based on research into Vioxx and health implications, she believes she saves lives by providing patients and providers tools to make correct decisions when choosing medication. Additionally, Soh applies her passion for science and research to educate a vulnerable, marginalized population who could use the information.  Soh holds an MPA in Public Health Finance from New York University and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

How to Renew Life Purpose After a Devastating Break Up - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 11 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis finds courage to take a risk and start a company after a heart-breaking break up. He finds freedom in the moment and takes responsibility to try something - starting a company - that initially seemed impossible. De Franciscis finds perspective by thinking about how his story would translate into film, keeping an eye on the protagonist and his ability to maintain momentum and make big decisions.

Learning Leadership in GE Management Rotation Program - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 7 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis joins General Electric (GE) and enters an international management rotation program. The program rotates de Franciscis to a new country and business unit each couple months, where he selects projects to complete. The opportunity teaches him not only about executing under short-term deadlines, but also about a broader company culture norm that emphasizes execution, accomplishment, and resiliency over pure intellect. De Franciscis graduated from Universita degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

How Home Cooking Helps Overcome Eating Disorder - Sarah Simmons

In Chapter 3 of 16 of her 2010 interview with Capture Your Flag host Erik Michielsen, food writer and entrepreneur Sarah Simmons discusses her health battle with an eating disorder and the associated physical and mental challenges. Simmons turns to home cooking, focusing her attention on pleasing others with food, to help her regain a normal relationship with food. Keep up with Simmons, an award-winning home cook and food entrepreneur, at http://sarahmcsimmons.com.

How to Handle the Hardest Conversation in Journalism - Yoav Gonen

Yoav Gonen returns to Capture Your Flag to build upon his 2009 interview with a 2010 conversation with host Erik Michielsen. In Chapter 6 of 17, Gonen, a New York Post education reporter, shares why interviewing a parent who has lost a child is the most difficult conversation in journalism. As a general assignment reporter, Gonen was tasked with knocking on doors of families who lost a loved one. He finds himself sympathetic to families and has found warm reception from families who want to talk about their lost loved one. The most difficult door knock Gonen faced involved going to a family whose son murdered his girlfriend and then committed suicide. Gonen diffuses an initial hostile confrontration and discusses why the story should be written. Gonen earned his BA in English from the University of Michigan and his Masters in Journalism from New York University.

Jullien Gordon on How Auschwitz Concentration Camp Story Inspires a Life of Purpose

In Chapter 4 of 14 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon finds inspiration and purpose, his "why", by reading Viktor Frankl's book, "Man's Search for Meaning." Specifically, Frankl's quote, "Nietzsche's words 'He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how'" helps Gordon align his why, or purpose, when pursuing goals, no matter how challenging. The book chronicles Frankl's time as an inmate at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp during World War II and details his quest to find reason, or meaning, to live.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How has Victor Frankl’s quote “A man who knows his why can bear almost any how” reflected in your own sense of purpose?

Jullien Gordon:  I read that book A Man’s Search for Meaning in high school, it was in a class called Living and Dying and that quote just stuck out to me [asks Andrew a question] So I read that quote… I read Man’s Search for Meaning in high school in a class called Living and Dying and that’s where that quote came from and so for me your Why is your purpose, right? And so when you are clear, crystal clear on what it is your purpose is no matter what obstacles stand in your way in terms of living in alignment with that, you can over come them and of course Man’s Search for Meaning was about being… stuck and trapped in Auschwitz and how his ‘why’, which was a love of his family, helped sustain him during that try, trying time and so when you are clear of your ‘why’ and your reasoning for being in your own self worth, no matter what obstacles come your way you actually over come them.

Courtney Spence on How Non-Profit Uses Stop Doing List to Reset Strategy

In Chapter 8 of 15 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive and Students of the World founder Courtney Spence answers "What have been your greatest lessons learned to date in leading your organization through a multi-city, multi-school growth phase?" Spence shares how lessons from Jim Collins' books "Built to Last" and "Good to Great" have helped her team overcome adversity around the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis. Surrounded by a strong team carrying shared passion and purpose, Spence is able to navigate funding challenges and downsizing to implement a more sustainable organizational strategy.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What have been your greatest lessons learned to date in leading your organization through a multi-city, multi-school growth phase?

Courtney Spence:  I think I’ll speak to two lessons learned.  The first lesson I really have learned came out of this most recent year.  2009 was certainly a difficult year for everyone, we were no exception to that.  We took on eight different partnerships, we had seven teams, we did incredible work.  I am the most proud of our work from 2009 of any work that we’ve ever done.  At the same time, right about the end of September, there wasn’t funding, we weren’t sure what was going to happen. Was there even going to even be a 2010 year?  We had to sort of step back and I personally had to get myself through a very negative place.  I mean, I was pretty down and this was something I had been working on for nine years and we were facing the possibility of, “Okay, maybe we’ll just stop for a year and do something else.”  And I had prepared myself for that because it was just such a difficult time for everybody financially and I knew that we weren’t going to be immune to the financial crisis that we just went through – or still going through.  But I have read Jim Collins quite a bit and I go back and re-read “Good to Great” and “Built to Last” and the “Stop Doing List” is something I have never been great at, but I think sometimes when you back is to a corner and you have no other options, you have to make hard decisions and I think you also get to make more creative and riskier decisions because of that.  So, I finally took his advice and we sat down with a big pad of paper and was like, “Here are all the things we’ve said we need be doing differently, or we don’t need to be doing this anymore, or we shouldn’t be doing this.” And we made some hard decisions, but out of that we are looking at stronger 2010 year than I ever imagined possible.  We have three full time staff.  We are so optimistic and things are falling into place right and left and I really feel like we are back on a new track that’s the right track.  Now, I’m sure things are coming up, bumps in the road, that will happen, but the idea that you can get to what you think is the bottom, the deepest, most, bottom, terrible place you can be in, and you can find a way to get out of that by making hard decisions but knowing that you have that courage within yourself to do that, I think is really an incredible lesson that I wouldn’t have learned if I hadn’t gone through what I went through last year. 

And I think the second lesson is – it’s really important to be able to work with a team that works, and I think, for me, work with a team that you love.  Particularly, the two women that I work with now, we are an incredibly strong team.  There is not ego involved.  Work is getting done.  Emails are going out – midnight, “ Hey, I’ve got this idea!” We all have the same passion, we all have the same sense of purpose and we love each other and I think it makes for such a successful environment.  What we have done in the last couple of months, I would never have dreamed.  So, I think it’s just as important as it is to love what you do or like what you do, I think it’s important to love or like the people you do it with.

How to Make a Memorable First Impression - Richard Moross

In Chapter 7 of 17, entrepreneur, innovator and Moo.com founder Richard Moross shares how he made a memorable first impression by wearing a black shirt, every day, for ten years. Moross was able to familiarize himself to other before meeting them by creating a story around his "black shirt only" wardrobe. More importantly, beyond the two-dimensional Internet, Moross finds that those that do well in life know how to engage in the real world.

How Mistake Enables Innovative Customer Service Apology - Richard Moross

In Chapter 10 of 17, entrepreneur, innovator and Moo.com founder Richard Moross shares why mistakes and apologies matter. If you are not making mistakes, you are not trying anything new, Moross notes. He references Esther Dyson and her motto to always make new mistakes. More importantly, Moross highlights the importance of apologizing and how the apology enables a humanizing reconnection. Moross' company, Moo (www.moo.com) takes a unique approach to solving an ordering mistake by creating a character, Little Moo, to communicate with customers and build a bond. The approach wins over customers, who appreciate not only the openness to admitting fault but also the creative means by which it is done.

How Internet Startup Job Teaches Resiliency - Richard Moross

In Chapter 15 of 17, entrepreneur, innovator and Moo.com founder Richard Moross joins a London-based Internet startup in 2000. As the business encounters insurmountable challenges and winds down, Moross picks up more responsibility and pushes himself to learn the various job roles required in an Internet start up. In the end, he walks away with a diversified skill set and an understanding of the positive elements associated with failure.

How Female Investment Banker Confronts Stereotyping - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 5 of 14 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "How have you embraced being a fish out of water in your education, career and travels and what have you enjoyed most about the challenges they present?" Godiwalla shares how she finds herself a fish out of water in New York City upon graduating college.  Coming from Texas, public schools, and Parsi education into Wall Street as a female investment banker teaches Godiwalla about outsider status firsthand.  Godiwalla makes the most from an oft uncomfortable experience by turning lessons learned into education opportunities for other women considering an investment banking career.

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 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 have you embraced being a fish out of water in your education, career and travels and what have you enjoyed most about the challenges it presents?

Nina Godiwalla: When I went to New York I felt like I went to a different country and in a lot of ways I did, I mean I was going into a completely, the people I was with were a completely different socioeconomic class, not all of them but a lot of them, a lot of, they were all Ivy League, I was a kid, I was a public school kid coming from UT and there were other public school kids, it was just coming from Texas, it just the everything put together. I didn’t know people perceived Texas as so different in the US, that was probably one of the most startling things for me is that I didn’t know I was supposed to be living on a ranch.

There’s always been a sense of an outsider because I was an immigrant so I know I can be like other people but at the same, I mean I can be like the average American if I need to be, but I know that when I walk into my parents’ house, there’s a completely different environment that I walk into. And so that… going into that investment banking I think it was just startling for me, I didn’t know how different I was, I mean it made my childhood experience of growing up in a suburb as an immigrant look like nothing and then again, like I said, being a woman I didn’t even know that was going to be such a big deal, it’s just all of a sudden all these different aspects of my life that were everyday to me became suddenly they were outsider status and… that was very, to have all those different things happen all at once was, was challenging for me. That’s what I try and do for my book is look back at it and say ‘What can I learn from this?’ and that’s all I can do and I can help share the experience for other people that might be going through the same thing and after that, there it is.