video

The Only Decision that Matters

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring Happy birthday to J. R. R. Tolkien! See the bottom of this post for a fun clip of the cast and crew of The Hobbit showing off (or not) their knowledge of the man himself. One …

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“Hire Weirdos and Let Them Fail All the Time”

In the video below, MailChimp co-founder and CEO Ben Chestnut talks about how to foster creativity and empowerment, not by adding more whiteboards, but by subtracting time (thank you to my colleague Nadya for passing along the link). You won’t want to miss this, whether you are a worker, leader, teacher, parent, or someone who needs a way to re-frame your own sense of “weirdness.”

A taste:

  • “I was a very strange little boy… I wanted to be an inventor… I wanted to make a robot arm somy mother could reach the can on the top shelf, and I would sell this to mothers all over the world.”
  • ‘I had a subscription to Businessweek, like all little boys.”
  • “I only hire weirdos basically, and I just let them fail all the time.”
  • “In my little tiny industry, we’re actually known for our creativity and our innovation, or just flat out weirdness–it’s the same to me.”
  • “You don’t give them more tools. You give them less time.”