Matt Ruby on How Fear Can Be a Motivational Tool

In Chapter 12 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, standup comedian Matt Ruby answers "Where Did You Learn Your Work Ethic?"  Ruby finds fear motivates him to practice enough to perform at levels that meet his expectations.  He notes how a string of bad shows, where he is not doing as well as he could be doing, pushes him to compare his performance and push himself to succeed.  He notes how technology can be a negative influence on his productivity and how unplugging is important for him to stay on track and produce and practice new comedy material. 

Matt Ruby is a standup comedian and comedy writer based in New York City.  He co-produces the weekly show "Hot Soup", co-hosts the monthly show "We're All Friends Here", and manages a comedy blog "Sandpaper Suit".  Ruby graduated from Northwestern University.

Simon Sinek on How Reflection Informs Personal Growth

In Chapter 7 of 16 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "What Role Has Reflection Played in Shaping Your Personal Growth?"  Sinek notes the importance of looking internally at his past actions and decisions and evaluating his performance.  Using the example of sales training, Sinek notes how the observer often learns the most.  He applies this to his life to inform his approach to making more optimal future choices and avoiding pitfalls.  Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.  His goal is to "inspire people to do the things that inspire them" and help others find fulfillment in their work.  Sinek is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action".  He works regularly with the United States Military, United States Congress, and many organizations, agencies and entrepreneurs.  Sinek is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an adjunct staff member at the think tank RAND Corporation.  Sinek earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen:  What role has reflection played in shaping your personal growth?

Simon Sinek:  The ability to look at one’s self critically. To say to one’s self, you were good in that situation. You weren’t good in that situation. You could’ve been better in that situation. Not to be overly critical meaning you’re always at fault if something goes badly or not be so filled with hubris that you think everything you did was fine and it’s always the other person, but to be able to sort of separate yourself to look at the situation from a—as if you were the third party evaluating it. You know, when they do sales training those—you know, it’s always three people, one who pretends to be the salesman, one who pretends to be the customer and one who observes. And then they all take turns, you know, and the one who does the learning is the observer. So the question is, can you be your own observer, like can you replay a situation? And so self-reflection has been huge for me and I’ve been huge into it for many, many years. The ability to say, okay, I can take some responsibility for the outcome of that, good or bad. And I can learn to do that again, or can I learn to spot those situations and avoid them in the future?

How to Improve Communication by Changing Behavior - Ross Floate

In Chapter 11 of 20 in his 2012 interview, branding and design strategist Ross Floate answers "How Are You Learning to Communicate More Effectively?"  Experience teaches Floate to be less blunt or brusque when communicating with others, especially when there are larger gaps in age, experience, or power.  He also learns to appreciate behaviors learned from childhood, including being uncomfortable discussing money and work through them by being more forthright.  Ross Floate is a principal at Melbourne, Australia-based Floate Design Partners.  Experienced in branding, design and both online and offline publishing, Floate and his team provide marketing services to clients seeking to better communicate business and culture goals via image, messaging, and story. He is a graduate of RMIT University.

Learning to Make Life Decisions That Are Right for You - Ross Floate

In Chapter 15 of 20 in his 2012 interview, branding and design strategist Ross Floate answers "How Are You Learning to Make Better Decisions?"  Floate begins by looking back at the poor decisions he has made, ones that have not been the right fit and ones that were not true to himsef.  These experiences bring to light how Floate ignored that proverbial voice in his head.  He learns to trust his gut and think through how the person on the other side of the decision would feel.  Lastly, he talks about leaving a legacy behind that shows he was a good person who chose to make the right decisions, not necessarily the easy decisions.  Ross Floate is a principal at Melbourne, Australia-based Floate Design Partners.  Experienced in branding, design and both online and offline publishing, Floate and his team provide marketing services to clients seeking to better communicate business and culture goals via image, messaging, and story. He is a graduate of RMIT University.

Jon Kolko on What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder

In Chapter 1 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, design educator Jon Kolko answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?"  Kolko shares how mentors have taught him to pick his battles and not fight every fight.  By being more selective on what he takes on, he lowers his stress levels.  He still wrestles with an inner dialogue of the quantity, validity and craftsmanship of the work he does. 

Jon Kolko the founder and director of the Austin Center for Design.  He has authored multiple books on design, including "Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving."  Previously he has held senior roles at venture accelerator Thinktiv and frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).  Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What is getting easier and what is getting harder in your life?

Jon Kolko: Let's start with what's getting easier. I feel like if I say it out loud then everyone will laugh. At least people who know me will laugh because it isn’t true. But I feel like I'm less of a stressed out maniacal control freak about things. I feel like I'm able to let the little stuff go and again, maybe like everybody is, “Seriously? He’s still a total ass.” But I do feel like I’ve figured out -- like all of my mentors in the past have said in some way, shape, or form, pick your battles, and I never understood it and I never did it.

And so, everything was a battle. Anything that wasn’t going my way was always like, ok, we're going to argue about it and I'm going to get my way, and I do feel like I figured out how to just simply ignore the stuff that is irrelevant and to reprioritize what matters and what doesn’t and really emphasize – you know, fight for the stuff that matters and let everything else go to the wayside. I think my stress my level has decreased tremendously as a result of that.

What's getting harder? Staying out drinking all night long, I'm not able to do that anymore. I'm losing my hair. I don’t know if anything’s getting harder. Actually I'm in a pretty good place recently. I feel really good about the way that my work is going, my life is going, my relationships are headed. I always have that sort of inner dialogue about the quantity and validity, and craftsmanship of the work I do and I suppose that’s true about anyone who does anything creative but that hasn’t gone away. I wouldn’t say that’s harder to deal with, it's just hard to deal with it and it's always there. But I don’t think that -- it's not new, this. That is what it is.

Finding Meaningful Work in Problem Solving Career - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 5 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  Stallings finds meaning in the fit between his academic and work background and the problems he tackles on the job.  By framing and understanding problems Stallings gets meaning using tools  from his cumulative education across psychology, economics, and business.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

Idan Cohen on Aspiring to Leave a Legacy Behind

In Chapter 2 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "To What Do You Aspire?"  Cohen aspires to create work that will be remembered when he is gone, referencing great art and architecture, from the Pyramids to Le Corbusier, to small tombstones.  

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: To what do you aspire?

Idan Cohen: I think I wanna be remembered after I’m gone. I was always fascinated with architecture because I think that that’s one of the only things that really survive—like that’s one of the few things that can really survive after you’re, you know, after you’re gone. And, so you can look at it from wherever, from the pyramids to, you know, Le Corbusier, in New York, or wherever. It’s kind of like the most amazing phallic thing that you can put out there and people will never be able to kind of forget it. And in some ways—Well, it will sound really weird but like tombstones are like very small architectural leftovers of—It might sound weird, but like of small people, and then big people can just get, you know, cremated and their ashes can be spread around, but they have these massive things that are remembered after they’re gone, or at least for a few hundreds of years. So, in some ways, I think that we all want—or I hope—I don’t know, for me, I know that I want to be—I wanna leave something behind me.

Idan Cohen on Developing a Passion for Building Products

In Chapter 8 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What is the Source of Your Passion for Building Things?"  Cohen references his joy creating beautiful products or useful devices.  He appreciates a holistic product design process and compares it to the 20th century Golden Age of furniture design. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What is the source of your passion for building things?

Idan Cohen: It’s basically creating beautiful useful devices or products that are also—I put a lot of emphasis to how the process—what is the process like. A lot of things can look very nice from, you know, from outside or from the surface, like I really appreciate for instance, Apple for actually engineering the inside of their computers, and making them look beautiful. 

It’s magnificent when you open, like the Mac mini which is probably the most negligent product Apple is doing, but it has this beautiful thing that when you open it and when you look inside it’s just beautifully laid out, and I’m sure that they have actual people that are in charge of making that look nice, so for me, it’s all about the whole process being, you know, holistic and very aesthetically pleasing. So at the end of the process, it’s about creating something that’s functional but you really enjoy the process. 

So I like working with materials, software is somewhat of a material designed in a lot of—you know, that’s pretty great how the last 5 years were not about the actual technology, but much more about the user experience and the design, because I think that the design is much more coming closer to kind of like the golden age of furniture probably in around like, you know, the previous century, which was much more creating beautiful things, and putting an emphasis on materials. So it’s somewhere between these—and that’s what I’m attracted to, I really, really—it’s not about software, it’s not about internet, it’s about products.

Courtney Spence on How to Use Story to Articulate Your Company Vision

In Chapter 2 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "How Are You Becoming Better At Articulating Your Vision?"  Spence uses story to explain her purpose.  She realizes her organization was spending too much time telling partner stories and needed to focus internally and tell its own story.  Courtney Spence returns to CYF for her Year 3 interview.  As Founder and Executive Director, Spence leads non-profit Students of the World to empower college students to use film, photography, and journalism to tell stories of global issues and the organizations working to address them.  Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are you becoming better at articulating your vision?

Courtney Spence: Well, I guess the last 6 months of 2011 were very internal months for us. What we recognized was we really had to work on our own story. We have been so busy telling the stories of others that we haven’t told our own. And when you have to tell your own story, you really have to dig deep, and what is your purpose?  And what is your mission? And what is your vision? What are you here really to do? What’s your big hairy audacious goal? You know, what can you be better at than anybody in the world? And what is your economic engine?

I mean it’s all the great lessons of Jim Collins, but what has been really nice is I’ve had a really great solid team to really sit down with over the course of the last few months and really figure out what is our vision? What is our mission? What is our purpose? And lots of debates over words and verbs and nouns and concepts, and it’s been a really intense process in some ways, especially for me because this is like my child, so I’d like to think we’re on our way to middle school so it’s the 12th year of Students of the World, so I’m very protective of it, but I’ve also recognized that I’ve been so entrenched in it that I have definitely needed other people to help me figure out what is it that we’re gonna really go do? What is our vision?

So for me, again, there’s been this change of similar to the TED talk experience of how do I talk about Students of the World, not in what we do but in what we believe? And there is so much more power and so much more opportunity to engage people when you talk about what you believe and what you stand for, as opposed to we do this really cool program, you should consider participating. And that switch has been a difficult one for me but super empowering and super encouraging, so.

Courtney Spence on How Personal Priorities Change With Age

In Chapter 6 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "How Are Your Personal Priorities Changing As You Get Older?"  Spence shares her challenge with cultivating a meaningful life outside work.  She details how in the months before the interview, she has learned the personal and professional benefits of making her personal life a priority.  Courtney Spence returns to Capture Your Flag for her Year 3 interview.  As Founder and Executive Director, Spence leads non-profit Students of the World to empower college students to use film, photography, and journalism to tell stories of global issues and the organizations working to address them.  Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are your personal priorities changing as you get older?

Courtney Spence: I just realized, literally in the last 2 weeks, I never really prioritized having a life outside of Students of the World. And if I started to have one, I felt guilty about it. And I didn’t realize this. I’ve always been someone that works hard and I’m fortunate that I get to work hard on something that I believe in and something that I helped to create or I created, and it’s something that I love to do, so it doesn’t feel like work, it doesn’t feel like a job. But I didn’t – I didn’t really allow for myself to truly cultivate a life outside of that. I think that there are times I thought I did but in reality I think my mind and my heart was always focused on Students of the World.

So part of the last – the evolution of these last 6 months as well as Students of the World is growing and I think I’m growing as a person too and recognizing that having a life – a meaningful life outside of Students of the World actually makes me more effective at what I do for Students of the World, and it makes me a more effective leader. It makes me more efficient in the way that I work. It’s a motivator to do really great work and do it well, and do it in maybe a little bit less time because I gotta do some other things outside of it.

So my priorities are definitely shifting and it’s still in line with wanting to move the ball forward with Students of the World and what we’re trying to do and really change the narrative, nationally, internationally, from problems to progress, I mean we – it’s all in line with that big goal that I have but it’s also motivated by the understanding that I need to have that as a priority as well in terms of my personal life and my relationships, and to take care of myself perhaps better than I have before, so I can take care of the people I love, and an organization that I love as well.

Courtney Spence on How Family Relationships Change With Age

In Chapter 7 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "How Are Your Family Relationships Changing as You Get Older?"  Spence shares how the relationships are strengthening and why she is learning new ways to appreciate her family as she moves into her 30s.  Courtney Spence returns to Capture Your Flag for her Year 3 interview.  As Founder and Executive Director, Spence leads non-profit Students of the World to empower college students to use film, photography, and journalism to tell stories of global issues and the organizations working to address them.  Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are your family relationships changing as you get older?

Courtney Spence:  They’re strengthening, you know, I am blessed to have been raised by 2 wonderful parents and a wonderful brother and a wonderful sister. I mean my immediate family and then my extended family have been a big part of shaping who I am for the good, for the absolute good. I mean, I wake up every day thankful for the family that I have and I’ve always been close with them but as I get older my ability to appreciate them grows. And even though I don’t think it can – I can appreciate them any more than I can today, I know I will tomorrow, I think especially as you start to accelerate into your 30’s, I feel like I am – I think I’m learning more than I ever have before.

I feel like I’m in a place personally where I am motivated again by cultivating my personal life and really thinking about where do I wanna be in 10 years, in 20 years. And as I think about those things, really for the first time ever, I mean I’ve never been someone that really plans my life out or is like I wanna go be that in 30 years.

And I’m starting to think in those ways, and not that I want to mark things by money or that house or that car, it’s more of the kind of life I wanna lead, and who do I wanna be as I get older. And as I’m thinking through these things, I’m looking to my parents predominantly and seeing where they are and learning from them and seeing them go through, you know, great times and difficult times, as they are, you know, at their age now. And I think because I have that appreciation that’s growing for them, my relationships with them are strengthening as well.

Matt Curtis on Taking a Trip to Ireland to Meet Distant Family

In Chapter 2 of 18 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, public affairs and communications strategist Matt Curtis answers "What Did You Learn About Yourself by Traveling Abroad to Meet Distant Family?" Curtis plans a trip to his grandparents' birthplace in Western Ireland - specifically Attymass in County Mayo - to meet distant relatives. The trip allows Curtis to not only meet family and learn about the geography, but also it was about understanding core values and characteristics that remain present in his family today. Matt Curtis is the director of government relations at HomeAway Inc. Previously he was communications director for Austin mayors Lee Leffingwell and Will Wynn. In 2011, Curtis won "Austinite of the Year" in the Austin Under 40 Awards. He earned his bachelor's degree in radio, television and film from the University of North Texas.

Crafting a Personal Philosophy to Reach Your Full Potential

In Chapter 3 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, leadership philosopher Bijoy Goswami answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Goswami shares his life model and where he finds himself in it as he continues his journey on understanding his place in the world and how he can realize his potential by living a certain way.  Bijoy Goswami is a writer, teacher, and community leader based in Austin, Texas.  He develops learning models, including MRE, youPlusU, and Bootstrap, to help others live more meaningfully.  Previously, he co-founded Aviri Software after working at Trilogy Software.  Goswami graduated from Stanford University, where he studied Computer Science, Economics, and History. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  At this moment in your life, where are you seeking advice and coaching?

Bijoy Goswami:  you know, I've been on this journey as you’ve been tracking for the last few years and it’s really been interesting, I've realized that, you know, even the last few years I've on a threshold of something very interesting which is, which is what I call Bijoyism or you know, Bijoyist like what is it to be me, you know. What is it to have my own complete philosophy, understanding of the world.

And what I realized is I would go to this sort of three-step process. The, you know, the stage one where you simply live according to other people’s rules. Stage two, you let go of what you’ve been given and then the third stage, you start to really live according to your own aesthetics and your own idea of what is you’re trying to create in the world. So, to me what’s really interesting is, I know a lot of friends who have done that in different aspects of their life, they might be, they might have broken the mold in entrepreneurship, they might have broken the mold in relationships or sexuality or whatever it is and for me it’s just interesting to step fully over that threshold now that all the different pieces have all gotten to this third stage, I feel like.

So, I think what is it to live that fully integrated stage three is really what I'm looking at and I think you have a lot of leadership in stage one, you have a lot of folks that – Stage one is broadly external. How do you create things in the external world, how do you make more money, how do become more powerful, how do you – You do all that. We have a lot of those leaders in that. You have Stage two, which is the spiritual journey broadly speaking. People who have gone in the inner world and I think you have less of the stage three, it is sort of like, it’s like, you know, the population is in this progression. So, I think people like, you know, I think it’s interesting because people like Steve Jobs I think are a stage three person. Where you examine his life, the biography is really great. You look at someone who’s really integrated, you know, spiritual, the material and then he’s creating, he’s just creating, you know.

So, I think it’s interesting because I think there are not as many guides for the stage three way of living and that’s what I'm beginning to curate. It’s like look at how do you – Is there a way to teach that? Is there a way to learn that? Is there a way to articulate it? Who is articulating it? Because most of the time it gets articulated in terms of the other two.

How to Make Your Ideas Easier to Evangelize

In Chapter 9 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, leadership philosopher Bijoy Goswami answers "How Are You Becoming Better at Selling a Vision?"  He shares the importance of distilling a vision into something simple so it can be more easily evangelized and speaks from experience on how to make it happen.  Bijoy Goswami is a writer, teacher, and community leader based in Austin, Texas.  He develops learning models, including MRE, youPlusU, and Bootstrap, to help others live more meaningfully.  Previously, he co-founded Aviri Software after working at Trilogy Software.  Goswami graduated from Stanford University, where he studied Computer Science, Economics, and History.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How are you becoming better at selling a vision?

Bijoy Goswami:  I think that part of it is that that vision has to be distilled, you know, so like if you ask someone, okay, what’s your vision and they kinda go off and they go, oh, it’s like 25 things. It’s like, no that’s not a vision, that’s too broad and it becomes very hard to evangelize a vision because people are, they go well, is it that, is it this, is it motherhood and apple pie and everything else, right?

So, I think part of it is, I feel like it’s like what Michael Angelo said about David. He said, you know, the rock was there; David was in there I had to keep cutting and get all the excess rock. So, ironically I think it’s a process of finding out that one thing like what are you about and yes, you're about 500 things and we can all be, but part of this thing about being locked in who we are is we’re positional, right? There’s a position that we get to take in the world. We can’t take all positions.

So, taking away the positions that are not you or that are not at your core is to me the real process. So, that’s what I've—I feel like I've been doing is articulating lots different positions, right. Oh, MRE, you know maybe later evangelist, Bootstrapping that’s all about different aspects but those aren’t actually they’re all pieces of the puzzle.

Fabian Pfortmüller on How Holstee Sets Growth Goals to Scale Business

In Chapter 15 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller answers "What New Challenges Are You Facing As You Grow Your Business?"  He finds the business has passed the "get started" phase into its position as an 8-person company.  As it looks to take the next step and expand into the 25-50 headcount range, Pfortmüller shares how the maturing company is assessing its team, its capabilities, and its market opportunity.  Pfortmüller is co-founder of the young leader accelerator, Sandbox Network, and HOLSTEE, an apparel and design firm that sells meaningful products to mindful shoppers.  Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its school of General Studies. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What new challenges are you facing as you grow your business?

Fabian Pfortmüller: With HOLSTEE we’re going definitely into phase three right now I would say. First phase was just get started phase. Phase two was building up to kind of a certain first level, for now 8 people. We have grown a lot in terms of traffic, revenue, sales, you know, how our brand and our community has grown and that keeps growing right now.

The question is: where do we take this from an 8-person company to maybe a 20 people company. How do we take this to really have an impact on a global level and those questions we never thought of in the beginning and very often people told us in the beginning, you’ll be thinking about those questions later on and we’re like, “You guys are crazy”. We’ll never have think of like inventory questions and, you know, how to optimize our books and financial planning and what not because in the beginning you just make it work.

And that’s okay, that’s how it should be, but in the phase that we are right now, we really wanna fully understand every part of our business to then be able to scale it up and scale doesn’t come by itself. Scale comes from fully understanding where you’re at and finding that niche, that really kinda has the opportunity to grow a lot. And at HOLSTEE right now, at the moment where we have an existing business that is doing very well and is growing, but at the same time it also gives us the opportunity to take a step backwards. We were a whole week in California last week just to do exactly that. Think of, you know, where do we really wanna take this in the next 3 or 5 years and almost start with a clean slate.

How to Be Happier by Turning Work Projects into Play - Jason Anello

In Chapter 5 of 20 in his 2012 interview, creative director Jason Anello answers "When Are You at Your Best?"  Anello notes he is at his best when happy and shares how he does it.  By turning work projects into play activities Anello achieves happiness and personal best.  Jason Anello is a founding partner and creative director at marketing services agency Manifold Partners.  He is also the co-founder of the Forking Tasty Brooklyn supper club.  Previously, Anello held creative leadership roles at Yahoo! and Ogilvy & Mather.  He graduated from the University at Albany. 

How to Use Company Culture to Recruit Great Teams - Jason Anello

In Chapter 9 of 20 in his 2012 interview, creative director Jason Anello answers "What Has Your Experience Taught Your About Bringing Together Teams to Successfully Complete Projects?" Anellos shares he and his business partners use cultural fit in how they recruit employees and freelance workers.  He notes why he values cultural fit over skillset when recruiting and building high performance teams. 

Jason Anello is a founding partner and creative director at marketing services agency Manifold Partners.  He is also the co-founder of the Forking Tasty Brooklyn supper club.  Previously, Anello held creative leadership roles at Yahoo! and Ogilvy & Mather.  He graduated from the University at Albany. 

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen: What has your experience taught you about bringing together teams to successfully complete projects?

Jason Anello: I'm almost 2 years in at Manifold, and it's been a very interesting 2 years, I've learned a whole lot about having what I would say is a real business, I had a lot of little businesses that were in my mind maybe more businesses than just they were really projects. And this is definitely a full-blown business, with all the things that businesses come along with, particularly finding employees that can execute to the level that me and my 4 partners expect and do. That's a really interesting thing about having a business and who do you -- how do you find the right people that are going to meet and then exceed the expectations, the very high expectations that me and my partners have. And I think one of the keys to finding proper employees that will make a successful team, or freelancers for that matter, or even outside of the context of a working environment in any project that you're trying to get done, is for the culture to be a match. I know people talk about culture in many -- lots of big companies talk about culture and just thinking about who your friends are and how you -- when you hit it off with somebody and you don't hit it off with somebody. I think that skill set is obviously really important but you could have somebody who's really, really good at the thing that needs to get done, and if you don't mesh with them right, and they're -- they don't fit inside of the culture of Manifold, in this example, then the project won't be as successful.

So I would rather have somebody who's less skilled but fits the culture better, because that would make a more successful project. A real world example of that is, if I yell at you, because of the way that Manifold's culture is, I can't really explain what that is right now, is that that's -- it's a high intense sometimes environment because we're hanging things in the middle of Times Square for 24 hours and it's -- there's permits and these things and all sorts of -- it's raining and whatever.

So it's sort of like a kitchen environment, sometimes, when we throw a big event. It's like what you see on TV, when Gordon Ramsay is going berserko, screaming at people and people are just doing stuff, that's sort of what it's like when you're doing high-profile events and you're in the shoot, as we say. But the shoot being, you know, a slide of some sort, or the barrel of a gun. But if you can't take that and you think that if you don't fit that culture, if I can't yell at you, you can't brush it off your back, that's not gonna fit with our culture. Because I don't -- I'm not really mad at you, I just need you to do that thing right now. And I'm not saying we're a bunch of these screamers and yellers, but you could be really, really good getting that thing done and if you shut down when I yell at you then that's not gonna make a successful team. 

How to Break Out of a Comfort Zone - Jason Anello

In Chapter 20 of 20 in his 2012 interview, creative director Jason Anello answers "Where is Your Comfort Zone and What Do You Do to Break Free of Living in It?"  He finds security in doing things he has never done before.  He breaks out of his comfort zone by revisiting things he once thought he mastered and pushing himself to improve his skills or views.  Jason Anello is a founding partner and creative director at marketing services agency Manifold Partners.  He is also the co-founder of the Forking Tasty Brooklyn supper club.  Previously, Anello held creative leadership roles at Yahoo! and Ogilvy & Mather.  He graduated from the University at Albany.