Living in More Than One World

Many of us will have to become more entrepreneurially-oriented as we move deeper into the 21st century. In that spirit, be sure to check out the April, 30th anniversary issue of Inc., especially for the highly informative interview with Jim Collins. Jim is well-known for his books Good to Great and Built to Last, and he wrote the forewords for Peter Drucker’s Management: Revised Edition and The Daily Drucker. He references Drucker in his interview, which is about the state of entrepreneurship, and especially the entrepreneur, in the past, present and future.

There are lots of other things worth reading in this issue and on the magazine’s website, including The Business Owner’s Bookshelf, a list of 30 books that should be helpful whether or not you own a business, or think of yourself as an entrepreneur. Drucker’s The Effective Executive is one of the recommendations, along with other such varied fare as Collins’ Good to Great, Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People and Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start.

Everything is connected. But one connection that took me a long time to make was between the lovely city of Claremont, California (Peter Drucker’s home and site of the Drucker School), and rock music. I have traveled to Claremont – which also contains a stretch of Route 66, not far from the Drucker School — a number of times since 2002 for research on my book. But it wasn’t until last year that I discovered how many great musicians come from Claremont.

Two members of one of my favorite ‘60s bands, Kaleidoscope, David Lindley and Chris Darrow, live there. I had a couple of nice phone conversations with Chris when I was in town last June, after being introduced by a mutual friend from Claremont Graduate University. Check out Jud Cost’s interview with Chris on the Sundazed Records site.

Besides Lindley, the best-known Claremont rock artist is Ben Harper. I visited the Folk Music Center Museum & Store in the “village” part of Claremont, which was started by his grandparents in 1958, and which Ben now owns. I met his mother, Ellen Chase-Verdries, also a musician, and now the store’s manager. Last year, Ben was one of the headliners of the Claremont Folk Festival, with Jackson Browne and Taj Mahal.

In the ongoing spirit of rethinking and reframing our lives, it’s worth reading Paul B. Farrell’s gentle advice in The Zen Millionaire’s 14 Secrets to Happiness on MarketWatch.com. He references such diverse sources as Warren Buffett, Charles M. Schultz (creator of Peanuts), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience; formerly based at the Drucker School) and the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

It echoes and builds on advice he gave in a similar column in August 2007, Crash course for ‘happier millionaires’. Farrell includes a reading list of 10 books to set you on the road to happiness, including Flow, the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness (written with Howard C. Cutler), Jacob Needleman’s Money and the Meaning of Life, Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness and Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.

Needless to say, these columns are not for millionaires or aspiring millionaires only. They have perspective-setting ideas for anyone trying to navigate today’s crazy economy.

An ongoing theme of my blog is how we can continually think of our personal and professional lives in different, more productive ways. Techniques of creative problem solving are often useful shortcuts at helping us get unstuck. In the mid-1990s I took a creative problem solving continuing education course at Georgetown University with Win Wenger, a creativity guru and author who is also based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. I enjoyed the course, and have stayed in touch with him over the years.

His organization, Project Renaissance, is a great source for information on many creativity and thinking-related issues. There is a really handy page on his site that collects many of his problem solving and creative thinking tools. One of Win’s tools, Image Streaming, is also featured in a book I reviewed for USA TODAY in 2007, Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America’s Greatest Inventor, by Michael J. Gelb and Sarah Miller Caldicott (Edison’s great-grandniece).  Another reason why Win is worth reading and listening to is his emphasis on teaching and learning. On these topics, have a look at his 1992 book Beyond Teaching & Learning.