ChangeThis
The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin, and was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu, and Michelle Sriwongtong. In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling and writing about books, they kept ChangeThis up and running as a standalone website for 14 years. In 2019, 800-CEO-READ became Porchlight, and we pulled ChangeThis together with the rest of our editorial content under the website you see now. We remain committed to the high-design quality and independent spirit of the original team that brought ChangeThis into the world.
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Smart People Manifesto: How to Get Our Nation's Top Graduates to Build Things
By Andrew Yang
"We've got a problem right now: our smart people are doing the wrong things. If we can get them to do the right things it will transform the country. We need more jobs, new enterprises and a resurgent culture of innovation in the U.S. The question is—how can we encourage our top people to take risks and build new things? [...] According to one McKinsey study, since 2007 eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds experienced the greatest decline in entrepreneurial activity of any group, leading the authors to conclude, 'The US economy is currently not producing enough of its next generation of serial entrepreneurs.'"
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How To Experience a Hero's Journey and Become the Hero of Your Own Life Story
By Jeremiah Miller
"What if I told you that there a formula to living a heroic life? What if there was a basic framework, a roadmap that anybody could follow in order to become the hero of their own life story? In the 1940s, mythologist Joseph Campbell discovered that heroic myths from every culture on Earth are essentially the same story. He discovered a pattern in any story where an ordinary person accomplishes something heroic. Whether it was the Greek tales of Odysseus' return home from the Trojan war or the Nepalese stories of Gautama Buddha, who attained enlightenment and founded Buddhism, these stories follow the same set of steps that Campbell dubbed the 'Hero's Journey.'"
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The Brevity Mandate
By Joseph McCormack
"The business world today is full of information overload and there is not enough time to sift through it. If you cannot capture people's attention and deliver your message with brevity, you'll lose them. For starters, the discipline to capture and manage elusive mindshare now shapes and defines professional success. Shorter e-mails, better organized updates, and tighter and more engaging presentations are immediate indicators that you've got what it takes to succeed in an attention economy. Getting to the point is a non-negotiable standard. The reasons why are plentiful. Ten years ago, brevity was a nicety and meant primarily for long-winded types that couldn't shut up. Today, being clear and concise is an absolute necessity; it's what successful people expect to see—and get quickly frustrated when it's missing."
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A Manifesto for the Corporate Idealist
By Christine Bader
"We are Corporate Idealists. We're in Asia's factory zones, working with local managers to make sure employees are paid and treated properly. We're in Africa, sitting on dirt floors with village elders to protect indigenous traditions amidst an influx of foreign oil workers. We're in Silicon Valley, collaborating with product developers to better protect user privacy. We're in London and New York, convincing our directors that protecting people and the planet is good for business. We have experienced heartache and disillusionment. But we also know that big business can make the world a better place, and feel compelled to do all we can to make that happen. Are we delusional or realistic? Are we changing the way that business is done or tinkering at the margins? Terrified of the risks or excited by the opportunities? Is our love of big business justified or misguided? Yes. This is our manifesto."
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Don't Block Up the Hall: Bob Dylan's Advice on Climate Change?
By Leidy Klotz
"In perhaps his most influential civil rights era song, Bob Dylan asked senators and congressmen to 'please heed the call.' Of course, help from those in power makes it easier to address any major societal issue. But Dylan went on to warn these leaders: 'Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall.' His sage advice to allow other contributions is now as relevant as ever. We must prevent catastrophic climate change, our societal challenge akin to those Dylan was 'singing' about and King was meeting. We can do it, but only with new thinking, thinking that is currently shackled by the status-quo."
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The Thought Leader Manifesto: Strategies for Building & Leveraging Your Influence
By Denise Brosseau
"Whether you're an executive, entrepreneur, or a non-profit leader, your success is often dependent upon your ability to engage and enroll influencers to get on board with your ideas. When you create connections with recognized and well-respected influencers, you move from a "one-to-many" to a "many-to-many" model, empowering others to carry your ideas forward to their communities. What follows are 12 strategies to secure the support of influencers and empower them to amplify your message."
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The Calorie Myth Manifesto: How We Can Eat More And Exercise Less—Smarter
By Jonathan Bailor
"Over the past few decades, we've been trying harder and harder to be healthy and fit. The result: We got heavy and sick. What's going on here? When did healthy and fit start making us heavy and sick? And why is everyone calling us lazy gluttons? If an architect builds us a house and it crumbles, is that our fault? No. But we better find a good contractor who knows how to build something solid and safe. Similarly, if a doctor prescribes us a medication and it makes us worse, it is up to us to stop taking it and to find a new doctor. We have to apply the same logic to health and fitness. We've received so much contradictory, damaging advice over the years, often resulting in frustration and extra pounds. It's high time for us to make a better choice. But what other option do we have than the decades-old, calorie-counting approach?"
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Four Forces for Economic Dominance to Unleash the Second American Century
By Joel Kurtzman
"I've been watching the American economy for decades, and for the last few years I've put it under a magnifying glass. My conclusions are strongly positive: the United States is about to enter a period of prolonged economic growth, filled with opportunity. It's not the emerging market countries that will power the world into the next economic era. It's the United States. There are four forces that explain my optimism: America's astounding levels of creativity The renewal of manufacturing Vast reserves of energy Massive amounts of investible capital. Add to these four forces two additional facts. American consumers—the world's engine of growth for more than 50 years—have less debt, as a share of income, than at any time in the last 35 years, thanks to the cleansing effects of the recession (see chart below). And, Americans are savings are at record levels. To paraphrase George Costanza's declaration to Jerry Seinfeld, 'America's back, baby!'"
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A Brand-Builder's Guide to the Universe: 17 Ways to Build a Great Brand Today
By Denise Lee Yohn
"Companies with great brands conceive of their brands as complete strategic platforms. They identify the key values and attributes that define their brands and then use them to fuel, align, and guide everything they do. Operationalizing their brands in this way produces results because companies aren't simply expressing or marketing their brands—they're using them to ignite their organizations and create real business value. This manifesto highlights seventeen developments that are influencing brand-building today and what great brands are doing about them."
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Grow Up and Lead: A Manifesto
By Lisa Rosendahl
"Let's get a few things straight right from the start: Leadership is not about coming to work on time, dressing professionally or having a firm handshake. Leadership is not about 200 carefully worded phrases or five shortcuts to credibility. Leadership is not about calling people out or gloating. The moment you think, 'I've got this' is the very same moment you've lost it. Leadership is one of the hardest things you will ever do. And make no mistake about this. . . you are on your own. This leadership discussion is not about correcting something that is wrong in a performance review kind of way. I walk in the shoes of a leader every day and don't always come out on top. It's what we as leaders choose to do when we are at the bottom that defines us. There are leadership voids to fill in our workgroups, organizations, groups, clubs and communities and you are perfectly positioned with interest and intent to fill. You are selling yourself and your leadership short if you are listening to that voice in your head that is telling you that you can't do this and that this call is meant for someone else.
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