August 6, 2014

Head-first or feet-first into your next venture?

When you're testing to see how deep water is, never use two feet. - Benjamin Franklin

When it comes to pursuing a new venture, you can make one of two errors (I’ve made both). You may either throw caution to the wind and dive in with both feet, blindly trusting everything will work out; or, you can sit on the ...

July 31, 2014

Principles to pivot in place: Moving from where you are to where you need to be [podcast]

One of the greatest challenges to embarking on something entirely new in our lives is how to get there while still maintaining our present responsibilities. Is is possible to pivot in place? In our latest episode of the Reinventure Me podcast, my ...

July 17, 2014

Do your many interests hinder your next great beginning? [podcast]

Of the many issues I’ve struggled with over my life, how to integrate my many interests has been among the most vexing. I know I’m not alone. Many of my friends and colleagues, like me, pursue a variety of ...

June 26, 2014

How reading can lead to your next great beginning [podcast]

My wife, Anna, is a voracious reader. She’s also the smartest woman I know. I don’t think those attributes are unrelated. She’s smart because she reads and she reads because she’s smart. I’ve not always been so smart. Up ...

June 19, 2014

Are you persevering or merely being obstinate? [podcast]

I'm told by others I'm headstrong. (I don't think they're referring to my intellect.) Perseverance is a terrific quality until you continue to pursue something you should really not. Then it's stubbornness.

June 12, 2014

How to create habits for your next great beginning [podcast]

Mark Twain once quipped, “Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.” What’s so easy to see in others, is difficult to spot in ourselves— especially so when we set out to create habits that support our long term ...

May 29, 2014

What is a personal brand and do you need one? [podcast]

“Starting today, you are a brand.” Those words written by Tom Peters in an article titled, “The Brand of You” appearing in the August/September 1997 issue of FastCompany magazine set off a movement. Suddenly it was chic to have a ...

May 19, 2014

Store, don’t kill your new idea

Recently I had an idea as I was journaling. A good one. As quickly as it came, however, I dismissed it. “I don’t trust myself to do this,” I wrote in my journal. Why did I do that?, I ...

May 15, 2014

How to take the sting out of rejection [podcast]

I can get pretty excited about a new idea. That is, until I tell it to a critic. The humorist Franklin Jones once said, “Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or ...

May 9, 2014

Venturing 101 for new college grads

Congratulations graduate. You did it. You’ll hear those words a lot on graduation day, followed by the inevitable, “What’s next?” That question might provoke excitement as you eagerly share your grand plans or anxiety or even discouragement if ...

Leary Gates | Venture coach

Turn your vision into venture. Ideas into action.

Category Archives: Venturing