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.
“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore…” –Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” A damp, wet drizzle shrouded the view in the low light. Steam seemed to drift up from the trees. Old man MacNelly had the car running and was wiping the fog off the windshield as the boy climbed up…
Brie completed the introduction. Elizabeth stood and walked briskly to the front of the room. She paused. The entire Overture team and a group from Circle City filled the room. They waited quietly for her to begin. “To understand what has happened, it’s important to recognize that slow-moving changes have more social weight than fast…
You ain’t got no money, you just ain’t no good Hit the road, Jack, and don’t you come back No more –Ray Charles Morning coffee at Overture was usually a warm time of catching up, reconnecting. This morning was different. They’d all spent the night reconsidering yesterday’s events. A sleepless night for some, a restless…
“Where do the leads come from?” I’d been worried about Anna since she’d left the co-op to take the sales job. We’d been in the planning stages at the time, and had no revenue. In fact, we hadn’t even put in any startup money yet. Anna was an industrial designer who’d worked mostly with exhibits.…
Angry that my creative energy has been used to build, sell and enable things that don’t make the world better. Angry that we helped create an idealized reality that isn’t sustainable. Angry that I and all creatives have been getting an increasingly smaller and smaller portion of the wealth this economic system provides. Angry at…
Marcus, standing, still wet from the storm… “The Amazon is burning. The Amazon is gone. The oligarchs are taking over. The oligarchs own us all. “Tommy, Tommy! Didn’t you see this coming? Why didn’t you do more? You Boomers let them burn the world. “You burned high-octane. Laid the rubber and the girls. Felt no…
It’s all about becoming a better writer. A more compelling writer. Tapping into your best, to become better. A series of short exercises, linked together with warmth and kindness. Longer exercises that helped us think deeply. Collaboration that allowed us to tap into the best of ourselves and each other. All in a matter of…
New essays, every week.
With an illustration.
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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