Author: dannielleblumenthal
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How To Reduce The High Cost Of Loneliness
We may live in a more connected world than ever, but in many ways it is also a lonelier one, too. And though isolation may feel like “an intensely personal, private problem,” as Janet Choi notes in Lifehacker, the manifestation is both social and costly. She shares research published by Hakan Ozcelik and Sigal Barsade,…
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Some Thoughts On Religious Extremism
My side of an interchange today with a friend. * * * The greatest threat to our planet is not climate change (!) but religious extremism of EVERY kind. Why do people fall for it? We underestimate the lure of being “chosen” “anointed” “appointed” “blessed” and “saved.” There are a million hucksters all ready willing…
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The Hard-To-Kill Myth Of The Self-Made Man
To read most business magazines is to think that success is born mostly of hard work, a great attitude plus a spark of creative genius. But the reality is that wealth, at least in the United States, has historically come from standing with one foot planted very firmly on others’ backs. You already know about…
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We Don’t Do Branding On Shabbat
“The federal government does branding?” he said. The congregant goes to this this synagogue we visit when we’re on vacation in Florida. He owns a billboard company and was president of an ad agency and is “retired, but retirement is boring.” “Yes, the federal government does branding,” I said. “But not the kind of branding…
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Against All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic
She’d gone up to him at a cocktail party and asked for a moment of his time. A powerful politician, he ordinarily might have brushed her off but this crowd was exclusive. “My son was sexually assaulted in high school, and all of them are covering up about it.” She clasped one hand inside the…
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The Unbearable Lightness of Freedom
I have decided to live my life. Really live it. At the ripe old age of 44. Where was I before? I think I was sleeping. “The universe will show you the way you need to go,” said a friend to me many years ago. And it is true. The universe shows the way, and…
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Tortured By Your Gift
You may think brand people are a dime a dozen. But I would gladly pay that dime for a moment of their singular value. Which is this: A brand-minded person can tell you what it is about you, or your product, or your company that sells. It is shocking to me that people do not…
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Rule #1
It is the only rule that matters: You are the brand. You are always the brand. Whether you work for yourself, or somebody else, or you don’t work at all. Therefore, you should do the things that feel right for you. And you should not do things that feel wrong. No matter what anybody tells you.…