Drive and Passion - The Growth Equation

Balancing Competitiveness and Letting Go

Michael Jordan’s competitiveness is legendary. There was the time when at one of Jordan’s basketball camps, OJ Mayo, who was then 17, told a 42-year old Jordan that he couldn’t guard him. Jordan stopped the camp, sent everyone to bed, and told the young kid, “You may be the best HS player, but I’m the best…

3 Evidence Based Strategies For Setting Goals and Resolutions

Heading into a new year is a great time to take stock of where you’ve been and where you want to go. Yes, it’s true that January first is an arbitrary time to evaluate your life and make big decisions. But it is also true that even these artificial, man-made segments of time can be powerful. The…

Competition to Promote Excellence

A few nights ago, a familiar scene: after the Boston Celtics swept the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA playoffs, all of the players were chatting, smiling, and hugging it out in the immediate aftermath of the game. It is a starkly different atmosphere from a few decades ago, when, if there was any contact between…

The Case for Ambition

There is increasing momentum behind a movement that I’ll call broadly “anti-ambition.” I think this is misguided. We need ambition. For example, I am certainly glad Kati Kariko, the researcher who worked tirelessly for years pushing the science of mRNA until vaccines were finally developed, was ambitious. I think Kariko is a prime example of the fact that if you are…