On March 2nd, 2014 Matthew McConnaughey won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Motion Picture: Dallas Buyers Club. What I most liked about the Oscars was actually his speech. It was powerful and resonated with me. In his acceptance speech, he mentioned: There are three things that I need each day. One, I need something…
If you ask any entrepreneur, what defines success? Some might say their product, their vision, or a cool feature they’ve developed. But, that’s actually wrong. What makes success is simpler, it’s people. It’s the DNA you inspire, you create, that magnifies into something greater than you ever imagined. It’s infectious as it can cross boundaries…
Want some morning Monday inspiration? Then here you go. These are the life lessons from “The Last Lecture” by the late Randy Pausch – the lecture that captivated the world and now inspires millions. Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things. Experience is what you get…
Happy 60th Birthday Oprah! There aren’t many people in the world who are instantly recognizable by their first names. Oprah is one of them. She celebrated her birthday today and in the course of her remarkable life journey has scored success after success in many different aspects of human endeavor. I know that from my…
How much are you worth? It’s a touchy subject for most business professionals no matter how many years experience you have under your belt. For some reason most people find establishing one’s salary with a prospective employer a difficult conversation to have. You may have negotiated multi-million-dollar deals. You may have worked with senior executives…
Success doesn’t come by accident. It comes from consistent hard work in pursuit of a dream. It comes from a passion that drives you, day and night. And it also comes from constantly and diligently employing some key habits that position you for greatness. Over the past three years my new venture,
Nothing worthwhile in life comes easy. You will never see success without hard work, determination and the ability to make tough decisions. Sometimes you have to be ruthless for the sake of the company, your employees and, of course, yourself. But it’s equally as important to have a strong moral code and to conduct yourself…
The start of a New Year is as good a time as any to make resolutions. Every business leader should have new goals and make sure they achieve those goals on an ongoing basis, anyway. But the New Year gives us an annual opportunity to review our priorities and make fresh commitments. It provides us…
One of the first crucial lessons I learned when I first went into business at the ripe old age of sixteen was how to listen. This was due to the fact that all of my business dealings happened on the phone since my ‘office’ was in fact my bedroom in my parents’ house. I was…
In the course of my career, I have interviewed hundreds of prospective employees, and I’m always amazed by the way so many of them get the process so wrong. At the end of the day, the interview is really about one thing: Making the person across the table fall in love with you . Here…
We’re all aware how A-list actors such as George Clooney and Brad Pitt usually make about $20 million up front and then 10% of the back-end to appear in a new motion picture. But if a performer really believes in their ability to bring people into theaters, the smart ones take far less, sometimes even zero dollars for a…
The presidential election means big business for the ad industry, with a whopping $6 billion spent on 2012 election ads last year across all media according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Last year’s election broke records, both at the poll and in the boardroom, with recent figures confirming the 2012 election as the most expensive…
Marketers are accustomed to investing quite a lot of capital to build their core audiences. Until now, that’s mostly meant collecting mounds of data from multiple sources such as agencies, in-house metrics, marketing analytics companies and the social web, analyzing this data for trends and relevant insights before extracting the actionable information and deciding where…
At the age of 16 I dropped out of school to start my first company and I think the advantage that ended up happening at that time is when you’re young you really don’t have the concept of failure. You don’t really have the concept of fear. That’s why even when you’re younger than that you…
With the proliferation of real-time social technologies, marketing has quickly moved away from traditional display ad channels towards how brands can better harness “now” moments. The highly-anticipated release of Twitter’s ad API will accelerate this trend as brands learn to automate their Twitter campaigns and compare the results with what they are currently doing in…
Although startups and tech companies are widely known to be job creators, they can also be volatile due to the competitive industry in which they exist. Despite their innovative and often game-changing approach, startups function in a high-risk environment with the chance of being squeezed out at any moment. However, with that risk comes endless…
Advertising is one of the most dynamic and creative industries on the planet, and one that changes rapidly with each passing second. The field of ad technology, in particular, is constantly propelled forward by the introduction of new innovations and approaches for harnessing online intelligence to attract potential customers. For the first LinkedIn post on…
The ad industry is charging forward at a rapid pace and only those companies who innovate will survive. This past year, we witnessed many innovations in the advertising arena, including the launch of Facebook’s real-time bidding platform Facebook Exchange (FBX), the introduction of real-time hashtag targeting, and multiple acquisitions. Therefore, brands and agencies alike are working…
Fear is your worst enemy – risk is your best friend. The best thing about the unknown is the meaning itself: If success were guaranteed, the journey wouldn’t be the same. And the journey is actually what inspires and shapes us to understand that success isn’t supposed to be easy, it’s supposed to be worth it….
It’s no surprise that startups and tech companies are the forerunners in job creation, and Silicon Valley startups are leading the pack. Silicon Valley startups create 11-percent more jobs than NYC startups and 38-percent more jobs than London startups. There is endless potential for innovation at startups in the valley, and these companies are looking for the best…
Below is the commencement speech I delivered to the graduating class at Evergreen College on May 28th, 2010. Thank you, Evergreen College, for asking me to speak here today. I feel honored. Everything starts with a dream, a particle of our imagination that teases us of what the future could be like, as long as…
Today is a very special day and marks an important day in history not only for myself but also for my family. I feel truly honored to be here. Eleven years ago, I made the decision to drop out of high school and pursue my love for business. Getting this award and an honorary doctoral…