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
How to Avoid Becoming China's Bitch: A Radical Centrist Manifesto for Fixing What's Broken
By Peter D. Kiernan
"Let's start by gazing in the mirror. The looking glass never lies, and it reflects two things about our beloved country: We have allowed ourselves to become paralyzed. And, worse, we are so used to being poorly led that we refuse to lead ourselves. How did we let this state of affairs happen to us? Well, to begin with, we haven't chosen the right leaders for the right times—and that used to be our talent. Could these times be any more uncertain? Imagine piloting the ship of state through all the global and domestic cross currents we face today. Leadership in uncertain times must be different than when the path is clear."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Stop Selling and Start Storytelling
By Jason L. Baptiste
"After a lot of thought, it's pretty apparent to me what the most valuable overall skill is for future CEOs and world changers—the ability to tell a story. We live in a world where we are sold to hundreds of times a day and have become ridiculously blind to those trying to sell us something. But we're always up for a good story. Storytelling is what made us love the advertisements in magazines that, as children, we would rip out and put on our walls and asleep under with inspired awe. Stories are the most powerful form of inspiration and persuasion in the world."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Nine Things I Learned from Alan Mulally
By Bryce G. Hoffman
"Alan Mulally arrived in Dearborn like a Kansas cyclone, ripping through Ford's dark-paneled corridors like a twister through a trailer park. He would take a sledgehammer to the automaker's ossified silos, force long-time adversaries to kiss and make-up and challenge Ford's most cherished delusions. Over the next three years, he would also make Ford the most profitable automaker in the world. Mulally would do it as the rest of the American automobile industry fell apart in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And he would do it without taking a government bailout."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Inspire and Influence with the Power of Presence
By Kristi Hedges
"Lying inside you, untapped, is an inspirational force. Guided by passion and steered by your influence, you can build momentum for yourself, others or a greater cause. Hearts are full, and ideas are many. You might want to start a business. Land a 'change everything' job. Get respect. Break the glass ceiling. Shatter your own ceiling. Own the room. Motivate a team to greatness. Change your entire career. Leave a legacy. Or fight for an issue you lose sleep over. You can do it, no question. But it takes more than heart. It requires the game changing power of leadership presence. And most people have no idea how to get it. "
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Twelve Gentle Rules: How a Couple Can Live Together Peacefully When One of Them Is an Entrepreneur
By Meg Cadoux Hirshberg
"Clearly, when it comes to business-building, some degree of obsession is required—or soon the business won't be around to obsess about. The problem arises when entrepreneurs try to simultaneously enjoy a thriving family life while they are growing a successful company. Business-building introduces the obvious pressures that arise when free time is scarce, but the financial risk and uncertainty also become sources of tension. Combined with the classic entrepreneurial personality—the tendency to need to be the boss, to make the decisions, and to go it solo—the entrepreneurial life can be difficult for spouses to endure. At the very least, this cocktail can introduce resentment and friction into the relationship."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Laughing at the Joneses
By Laura VanderKam
"The last few years have certainly shown the downside of thinking that more house is always better, even if you have to stretch to afford it. Regardless, it's silly to talk about personal finance without talking about where you live and what you drive. In the context of achieving happiness, there is also some intriguing research suggesting that big, infrequent purchases (such as houses and cars) don't do much for overall happiness, whereas spending a lower percentage of your income on these items might free up cash for categories that will give you a more pleasant life. There are also plenty of people who have discovered this truth and, rather than trying to keep up with the Joneses or submitting to their tyranny, are getting a good laugh at them."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Lead Differently
By Mark Miller
"Leaders and leadership are often thought of in a poor light. Leadership is often viewed as a necessary evil. There is even a growing voice to the idea of leaderless organizations. I'm not sure where that is headed, but I do know I don't want to be a part of a leaderless organization. My experience is that people want to be well led. We all seem to thrive when we are under great leadership. We know it when we see it because our talents are being leveraged, our purpose is clear, our contributions are appreciated, our ideas are welcomed and we're making progress organizationally and personally. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Most of us have had an experience or two—or more, in which we were NOT well led. We were doing time and watching the clock. We weren't giving extra effort because that was not what we were told to do and doing what we were told to do is ALL we were supposed to do. Which of these scenarios matches your experience with leadership – necessary evil or liberating force.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How Habits Work (and How They Change)
By Charles Duhigg
"Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they're not. They're habits. [...] Countless people, from Aristotle to Oprah, have tried to understand why habits exist. But only in the past two decades have neurologists, psychologists, sociologists, and marketers really begun understanding how habits work—and more important, how they change."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Changing the Way We Change
By Eric Haseltine
"As a senior executive in fields as diverse as Aerospace, Entertainment and Intelligence, I've learned a hard lesson about people and organizations everywhere: they seldom learn from previous failures. To make matters worse, most people not only repeat past mistakes, but fail to learn that they've failed to learn from the past so they go on making the same mistakes over and over again."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Generating Repeat Business
By Richard Shapiro
"For any enterprise to thrive, you cannot underestimate the importance of repeat business. The vast majority of senior executives believe that providing good customer service is sufficient to obtain return customers. However, focusing on the service interaction alone is not always enough to generate repeat business; it's building an emotional connection that becomes the loyalty glue."
Categories: changethis