October 28, 2013

The best choice when you feel trapped

There are times when all of us we feel trapped in some way. We might feel trapped in a job we no longer enjoy, in a marriage that defies reconciliation, or in a financial or health crisis that appears ...

October 25, 2013

A personal mission statement: the résumé for your future

A personal mission statement: the resume for your future

Do you have a résumé for your future? I’m not talking about the conventional kind to land a new job. I’m talking about a clearly defined personal mission statement. As a concise expression of your vision for your life, a ...

October 24, 2013

A conviction to keep you going

What convictions keep you going? It’s not a question that you may often think about, but a critical one to be aware of, particularly in times of trouble. Four years ago, when our friend Beth sent her husband, ...

October 21, 2013

The resistance trinity: 3 things that can halt the next chapter of your life

Let’s suppose you’re working on the next chapter of your life. Perhaps you’re switching careers, striking out on your own, or spending more time on a new area of interest. Or maybe you’re wondering if it’s time to make ...

October 18, 2013

Help for that low-grade fear you’ve been carrying

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t feel fear,” a CEO of a highly successful firm once confided in me. The constant uncertainty of knowing whether he was doing enough to keep his business successful haunted ...

October 16, 2013

How to keep your confident leadership from going bad

Questions to keep your confident leadership from going bad

One of the reasons we follow great leaders is the strength of their convictions. John Sculley followed Steve Jobs, leaving PepsiCo to join Apple in 1983, after Steve famously asked him, “Do you want to change the world or ...

October 11, 2013

That which makes me stupid

Ever read something that left you feeling stupid? This did it for me: “…the only possible patterns for English foot, discounting riders and other syncopations, are iambic, trochaic, dactylic, anapestic, and amphibrachic.” —John Gardner, The Art of Fiction I ...

October 9, 2013

The secret I want to learn

Success stories don’t do it for me. There are far too many of them, and far too many people selling their secrets to it. The most pretentious pitch THE secret, as if to suggest an unchallengeable universal and primal ...

October 4, 2013

Becoming a solopreneur? Why the way you work won’t work in your new venture

Becoming a solepreneur? Why the way you work won't work in your new venture

If you’ve struck out on your own or thinking about it, there’s a subtly that may deeply affect you. It’s called structure. When I started out as a solepreneur nearly twenty years ago I was totally oblivious to it. ...

September 30, 2013

What obstacles are in your road?

Thoreau once observed, “It is very rare that you meet with obstacles in this world which the humblest man has not faculties to surmount.” The pursuit of any worthwhile venture hits obstacles. There are obstacles of our own ...

Leary Gates | Venture coach

Turn your vision into venture. Ideas into action.