Essays on creative leadership,
culture, and the human side of work.
Becoming
These are personal essays about growing up as a fostered, then adopted child — and about what that does to a person over the course of a life and career. The passivity you develop to survive. The shame that shows up uninvited in elevators and conference rooms decades later. The moment you finally recognize the bully pattern, in a boss, in a father, in yourself.
The most-read piece opens with a meat cleaver. My wife, coming down the hall. Me, curled under the covers at thirty years old, having just been fired and not yet told her. It’s not a comfortable essay. But by the end, it explains — more directly than anything else I’ve written — why I understand what happens to people when they’re made to feel small at work, and why that understanding is the foundation of everything I do professionally.
These essays aren’t separate from my advisory work. They are the source of it.
Advisory Notes
These are essays about the emotional realities of creative professional life — the anxiety of leadership, the psychology of negotiation, the particular ways creative people get in their own way, and the particular ways organizations let them down.
One of the most-read pieces, “Why Creative Firms Break Differently,” argues that creative firms don’t fail from bad strategy — they unravel from the inside, through fatigue, misalignment, and a gradual loss of trust no one can quite name. That piece captures what all of these essays are reaching toward.
I write from four decades of experience inside creative firms, but I write the way I talk: directly, without jargon, with stories. Each piece includes one of my own illustrations. If you work in a creative firm and ever feel like the game is rigged against you, this series is for you.
I believed fairness and love were the goals. Inclusion. Equality. An equal playing field for all. There was peace in the world. Fairness and love were the agenda. Sometimes I can still pull up those wonderful feelings – feelings long past. The warmth and kindness that was kindergarten. Where everything was right in the world.…
“It felt like a knife through my heart.” This from a client of mine who’d just had four people unsubscribe from his email list. Or this one from another client: “Every time she posts another success on Facebook, it feels like success is impossible for me. It’s as though her success is a direct result…
A hoodie, a mask and a cardboard sign. A tired look that goes with spending the day begging. “Will work for food” is the way it is in Seattle these days. My parents came of age in the ’30s. The Great Depression was their world. They came to Seattle in the late ’30s and rented…
“Don’t walk with him to school.” Richard Taylor and I were in the fourth grade together. I liked walking with him. Two of us together were less likely to draw the attention, and the meanness, of the bigger boys. I’d learned to be afraid of Dad’s wrath. So I didn’t ask why. But I knew…
Another black man dead under a white cop’s weight. Riots in the streets. Militarized police. Pandemic. 110,000 dead, and more to come. Votes not counted. The middle class shrinks. Incomes shrink. Wall Street rallies. The rich prosper. My thoughts trail off as I escape into sleep… Startled, he turns his head when I enter the…
Incomes for professional creatives have not increased in 30 years. As a result, it has become harder than ever to find economically sustainable creative work. Now with the virus, clients are putting projects on hold. Some creative employers are laying off whole groups who are not considered core to their enterprise. All this has left…
The concern for the economy over people is deeply disturbing. The profiteering from the virus is horrible. The misleading advice for political gain is disgusting. Depriving healthcare and other workers from the gear they need to stay alive. To stay healthy is appalling. I don’t know how to contribute other than helping my community adjust…
New essays, every week.
With an illustration.
No noise. Just the writing — delivered to your inbox when it's ready.
"*" indicates required fields
Also available on Substack.
You never cease to amaze me with your willingness to make your life an open book — especially the more hurtful parts. And I'm amazed by the lessons you draw from all of it.
— Larry Coffman, PublisherYour writing has revealed some very intimate, powerful lessons. You are a source of inspiration both professionally and, increasingly, on a personal level.
— Rick GoreWe can discuss the ugly, uncomfortable truths while always circling back to what matters: the people, the underdogs, the work we get to do, and the magical existence we get to share as creatives.
— Sarah EskandarpourI loved your article about how clients' emotions affect briefs. It's a huge part of the creative industry and it's always good to see somebody so knowledgeable write about it.
— Vuk Bojovic, JKR Account Director, Singapore