My Favorite TEDx Talk on Play
Last year, I was invited to do my fourth TEDx talk in Santo Domingo (many thanks to Freddy Ginebra for inviting me again!) To date, it was my favorite TEDx talk and event. In this post, I’m going to give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the evolution of my talk. Specifically, how I came up with th
How “The Mozart of Chess” Gets His Head in the Game
I recently watched the documentary Magnus, the story of uber-genius chess player, Magnus Carlsen. The film shows his meteoric rise from childhood chess wiz to World Chess Champion. One of my favorite scenes in the film is during the World Chess Championship. As he plays the first few games against h
Dependence Day
When we found out we were pregnant, I was terrified. I was so scared of having a child. All I could see were potential disasters. What if we go broke? What if I’m a terrible father, or husband? What if we stop doing things we enjoy, and grow to resent each other? What if something unexpected happens
How McDonald’s Lean Startup Revolutionized Fast Food
With nearly 37,000 franchises in more than 120 countries, it’s easy to forget that the McDonald’s corporation was once just a humble startup. In this post, I’m going to show you how McDonald’s used the lean startup principle of a “minimum viable product” to develop the Speedy System, which introduce
Our Winter Wedding in Colorado
As many of my readers know, my wife Andrea and I had our wedding at the Ritz-Carlton in Beaver Creek last December. It was a really special day for us and our families, and I wanted to share these fantastic photos with you guys. Check out the slideshow I put together, set to Gordon Lightfoot’s “Song
Glorious Chaos
For the past year, I’ve described our life as a car wash. Sequences being run, one after the other, until we get spit out looking slightly cleaner on the other side. I used the car wash analogy after numerous friends exclaimed some version of “WHAT THE F*CK DUDE” about all the major changes that hap
The New Book Unveiled: Play For A Living
My new book is finally here! I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. In each of the 180 pages, you’ll be greeted with an artistic portrait and an inspiring quote from a successful innovator, creative, or idealist who changed the world with their work. This book was 100% CROWD-SOURCED. We had 4
How to Land a Job at The White House
Photo Credit: Daily Signal Ben Rhodes is Obama’s former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications. For 10 years, Ben was the President’s speech writer on foreign policy. They spent 2-3 hours per day together, which eventually lead Ben to state: “I don’t know anymore where I begin
What I Learned as a Volunteer Teacher at Ko School
For the past year, I taught entrepreneurship once per week at Ko School in Austin, Texas.
Here’s a little
He Cured His Panic Attacks with Play
I’ve received a lot of great emails from readers of Play It Away and the How I Cured My