What Marriage Teaches About Teamwork - Andrew Hutson

In Chapter 16 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, Andrew Hutson answers "What Has Marriage Taught You About Teamwork?"  Hutson notes marriage IS teamwork and is built upon communication, goal setting, collaboration, and execution.  Two years into his marriage, Hutson finds this a welcome challenge full of exploration, discovery and an ongoing process of working together to create a stable, interesting and happy life.  Hutson is a senior project manager at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), where he advises corporate partners such as Wal-Mart on sustainable supply chain initiatives.  Hutson holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MEM from the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment.  He earned his BA from Michigan State University. 

How to Pick a City That Best Matches Your Interests - Andrew Hutson

In Chapter 17 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, Andrew Hutson answers "What Has Been Your Approach to Determining What City is Best for You?"  Hutson shares the decision process behind his and his wife's move to Durham, North Carolina.  He looks at quality of life and the inputs going into it.  He looks at professional opportunities, including scenes and associated writing communities for Hutson's wife and a supportive non-profit community of his own.  Hutson is a senior project manager at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), where he advises corporate partners such as Wal-Mart on sustainable supply chain initiatives.  Hutson holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MEM from the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment.  He earned his BA from Michigan State University. 

How Entrepreneur Learns to Manage Expectations at Home - J.T. Allen

In Chapter 3 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, education entrepreneur J.T. Allen answers "What Have You Learned About Managing Expectations at Home While Building a Business?"  Allen shares the importance of good communication at home with his wife, especially as he transitions from a 24-year old founder to a husband and father over ten years in business.  J.T. Allen is the CEO and co-founder of myFootpath, a company that provides higher education online resources and call center services to help high school and adult learners choose academic programs in line with career goals.  Before myFootpath, Allen worked in strategy consulting for Ernst & Young.  He earned his BBA and graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

How Immigrant Learns to Assimilate into Foreign Culture - Anatole Faykin

In Chapter 1 of 18 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, Internet entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "What Has Your Own Immigrant Experience Taught You About How to Assimilate into a Foreign Culture?"  Emigrating from Russia to the United States at 13-years old, Faykin learns to listen to learn the language and how others spoke.  He also learns that surviving the American high school experience is far more challenging than moving into foreign cultures.  As a result, it makes sense since high school Faykin has lived all over the world.  Faykin is the founder of Tuanpin, a Shanghai-based daily deals site he grew to 25 employees and sold in the fall of 2011.  Previously, he worked for British Telecom in London, Intel in Shanghai, American Express in New York, and Oracle in San Francisco as well as several startup ventures.  He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

How Parents Learn to Understand Their Son - Anatole Faykin

In Chapter 2 of 18 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, Internet entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "How Have Your Parents Encouraged You to Pursue Your Passion and Explore the World?"  Faykin shares how his parents have moved from allowing him to move far away to supporting and, ultimately, understanding his decisions to live abroad in other countries.  Faykin is the founder of Tuanpin, a Shanghai-based daily deals site he grew to 25 employees and sold in the fall of 2011.  Previously, he worked for British Telecom in London, Intel in Shanghai, American Express in New York, and Oracle in San Francisco as well as several startup ventures.  He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

How to Manage Aspiration Expectations - Anatole Faykin

In Chapter 3 of 18 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, Internet entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "To What Do You Aspire?"  In aspiring to live meaningfully, Faykin aims to make an impact on where he chooses to spend his time and how he values the resulting experiences.  Faykin is the founder of Tuanpin, a Shanghai-based daily deals site he grew to 25 employees and sold in the fall of 2011.  Previously, he worked for British Telecom in London, Intel in Shanghai, American Express in New York, and Oracle in San Francisco as well as several startup ventures.  He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

Why to Live Abroad Multiple Times - Anatole Faykin

In Chapter 10 of 18 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, Internet entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "Why Have You Made it a Point Not to Just See Living Abroad as Checking a Box and More of Something to Embrace, Then Bring Back, Then Repeat?"  Faykin shares his approach to living, having one life to life, and making the most of one lifetime.  He finds himself living differently abroad than at home.  The different attitude, viewpoints, and conversations are anything but temporal, and Faykin repeats abroad experiences to make them permanent.  Faykin is the founder of Tuanpin, a Shanghai-based daily deals site he grew to 25 employees and sold in the fall of 2011.  Previously, he worked for British Telecom in London, Intel in Shanghai, American Express in New York, and Oracle in San Francisco as well as several startup ventures.  He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

How Childhood Informs Adult View of a Life Well Lived - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 1 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "When are You at Your Best?"  She finds she is at her best when she is doing something meaningful.  She goes into detail about when and how this happens and what it allows her to project that energy into the world.  She shares how as a child she learned to appreciate and embrace dance.  As Godiwalla focuses more and more on dancing, she learns progressively cultivates her passion, deriving happiness from the process.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street". She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  When are you at your best?

Nina Godiwalla:  I’m at my best when I’m doing something that I think is meaningful.  I think in general, kind of 99% of us are just kind of going through life for what it is and then there’s those rare moments where something just really sparks for me and I have something that I’m just extraordinarily excited about and when I’m in that – when I’m concentrated and focused on that, I find that – I find that usually it can be above average but when I have that, I find myself just kind of soaring above everything and part of it is just that I’m thrilled and happy with what I’m doing.

Erik Michielsen:  Do you remember back to your childhood when you first remember that happening?

Nina Godiwalla:  There wasn’t a whole lot in my childhood that -- I didn’t spend a lot of time looking for things like that.  I – one thing I really enjoyed in my childhood, it was – we didn’t have a lot of hobbies.  My parents were immigrants and it wasn’t the – we did not have the life where you go do piano and then this and then that and that. The one thing we did was dance because my mom always wanted to be a ballerina and so she had me and she tried to get all of us, there’s four girls.  Each child, she would just be like, “Okay, that’s our thing, we’re doing dance.  You guys are going to dance classes.” So, me – two of us caught on to the dance thing, my older sister, my younger sister, they never really did much of it but me and my – the two middle kids, me and my sister, we really enjoyed dance so we would be in dance probably like four or five nights a week, we joined a company and we’re dancing. So for me that was something I loved and we did for fun but otherwise, there wasn’t a whole lot we did for fun.  It was just kind of you know, we just did what we needed to do, we had to do well in school, we hung out with our friends, like more social but the dancing for me was like where my passion lied growing up.

Nina Godiwalla on What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder

In Chapter 2 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?"  She notes how she has pushed herself to overcome challenges and identify with and connect to a tribe of like-minded aspirational peers.  Through the process, she finds it getting easier to find herself.  What becomes more difficult is putting this into action.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street". She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin.  

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What is getting easier and what is getting harder in your life?

Nina Godiwalla:  When I grew up, there wasn’t a whole lot of focus on what do I love, what do I want to do, so I’d say it wasn’t until my 20s that I kind of got to a point and I call it -- I had my midlife crisis in my 20s because I was an investment banker and I realized, “Oh wow” everything the way that -- the whole way my life of success has been defined to date is not in line with what I want. So I think what’s getting easier is starting to understand what I like and what I enjoy in life and that was very hard for me before because I had never focused on that so that’s getting easier and then the challenge becomes, okay, now I’m starting to get it, I’m slowly starting to learn about myself and who I am and now what’s getting harder is putting that into the world, like how do I actually create my life around that and at moments, it’s hard and then there’s something about it that’s so easy honestly because when you love it, you’re so good at what you’re doing and you find a way to move through things and I really believe that there’s people that come along in your path and you -- I call it your tribe.  You find people that are like you in your tribe and through that, you start to build your world around it and so, I think that parts, it’s challenging yet at the same time, it’s exhilarating and when you’re around in the right world and the right people, everything starts to work out.

Erik Michielsen:  Can you give me an example of that?

Nina Godiwalla:  Yeah, I mean my book is a great example of that.  That was something – it was something that kind of sat in me that I needed to do.  I was actually, I was in a corporate job not doing, it was when the economy was low and everyone was like trying to hang on to any job they had and the reality was my job at that time was not very thought-provoking.  It was just – it was a job.  It got to a point it where it’s job.  Our client cut back so much that we weren’t doing a lot of interesting work and in the end, what happened was I had in my head like this is kind of boring.  I’m not learning a lot.  I’m not doing a whole lot and I left to pursue my book and it’s cause -- it’s kind of that book kind of looked at me and I had written it before but I hadn’t really done anything with it and with that whole process, I mean I got it published very quickly.  I got -- everything fell into place along the way, just the way it should because I was so excited about it.  I mean I worked so hard towards it but also when I needed the right people to fall into place, somehow miraculously, I would meet the right person that would help me get to that next step, next step, next step and it’s because I was on the right path for me.

Nina Godiwalla on How to Integrate Meditation Into Daily Routines

In Chapter 18 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "Where Has Practicing Meditation Been Most Helpful as Your Career Responsibilities Have Grown?"  She transitions from quiet, sitting meditation to integrate meditation into her lifestyle.  This helps Godiwalla stop living a double life of crazy and quiet.  Now a mother, she applies meditation principles to focus, listen and let go of anxieties and stress.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street".  She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  Where has practicing meditation been most helpful as your career responsibilities have grown?

Nina Godiwalla:  Well, integrating meditation as not just meditation so I see when I think of meditation or I think when people think of meditation is just sitting quietly, not do anything. And what I’ve had is, I’ve had a long practice of doing that over 10 years of the quiet sitting meditation and what I found at some point was I would have – I would go into my crazy world of business and then I would walk out maybe do a retreat for a weekend or do a long retreat or do my 30 minute sitting in my house and the reality is, is I was living kind of this double life in that I would go into the craziness and be that crazy person and then I would go into the quiet world that I had and be that quiet person and so in the last few years, my focus has really been living the meditation lifestyle if you will and that is – meditation is really about attention.  It’s about where you choose to put your attention at any given time and my focus now is putting it into my life so, wherever I am being able to actually choose where I put my attention. 

If I’m doing any sort of interview or if I’m doing something I’m very focused on listening.  Listening is one of the critical, critical things of meditation or if I have something very small I’m doing, like I’m walking from the door of my, you know, my car door to a building, my focus I call it you know, it’s my walking meditation where I just focus on the bottom of my feet and the reality is, is I’m kind of letting go of all the anxieties and things that I think are so important and everything during that day that I just can’t let go of and has to get done and somebody said this and so and so said this. 

I just kind of let go of all the thoughts and it’s – for me it’s how do I put it into my day every single day and it’s also more of a challenge because I have a baby so I will tell you when you’re waking up, I don’t know every three hours of the day and you’re only sleeping in 45-minute slots.  The idea of sitting there and doing an hour of meditation when you’re extraordinarily sleep deprived is not as practical and the reality is, is I don’t want to let go of that lifestyle but how do you make it your lifestyle and I have had enough introduction to the effects it has and how amazing it is to do the sitting, to where I have that – I have that, I’m able to do that. There’s a lot of people when I train people in stress management through meditation, a lot of people don’t want to sit and they don’t want to learn it that way and I have an attitude and I – not everyone would share that but it’s like, “Okay, if you don’t want to sit and do it this way through body scans or through sitting meditation, let’s talk about how you can integrate the mindset into your life.”  And I’ll take people through that angle and if later on they, you know, they build themselves up to place of sitting, that’s wonderful, but if they never even make it to sitting, it doesn’t matter to me as long as they have an understanding of they have control over their destiny.

Nina Godiwalla on How Meditation Training Improves Employee Wellbeing

In Chapter 19 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "How Does Meditation Training Impact Employee Wellbeing".  Godiwalla shares how the training teaches employees to accept they have the right to choose their decisions.  This allows individuals to take control, which provides perspective that decreases panic and stress while raising the impact they create.  She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How does meditation training impact employee well-being?

Nina Godiwalla:  When I speak to professionals, I hear, “I have so much stress that I don’t know what to do,” you know, “Help me lower the stress,” and I think the perspective which is -- it’s hard for people to understand initially but that you choose that stress.  I mean no one wants to hear that because the minute you say you choose how much you’re allowing your stress to be, I mean I’ll get a laundry list from some people like no I don’t because I have this project due and I have this project due and then I have to do this and I have to do that and the reality is, is you get to choose some of that.

One, you get to chose how you treat yourself so even if some people will have a list of 10 things to do and they can be the calmest people around and some people will have that list of 10 things that, you know, doesn’t necessarily look realistic that it could happen this week and they kind of just, you know, break down about it and so the reality is, is it’s building in for employees it’s helping them understand that we have control over how we treat ourselves and the stress that we create for ourselves and we also – when you get to a calmer place, you’re able to manage that a little bit better and it doesn’t mean -- part of it’s understanding what really needs to get done, asking the right questions but when you’re in that state of mind of panic or of fear, you’re not able to really realistically manage this, you’re not in control and it’s helping people feel comfortable bringing themselves from the panic to the “Okay, maybe I can do this and maybe there are certain things I need to change about the situation so that I can manage this better” and it – so much of it, this first step, is about perspective and the reality is it just changes peoples lives and their productivity permanently because having different perspectives allow you to actually get things done and it allows you to be a better manager, a better leader, a better person colleague for other people so it has definitely a complete ripple effect and when you have – especially when you have leadership and senior managers who don’t know how to handle their stress.  All of that has a ripple effect on the employees.

Nina Godiwalla on How Meditation Helps High Performers Achieve

In Chapter 20 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "How Do You Reconcile Meditation and the Inherent Slowing Down It Encompasses When You Are Dealing With High Performing Individuals That Thrive on Intensity?"  Working with high performing individuals, often Type A personalities, Godiwalla teaches students mind-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques to help them be less fearful and more hopeful and positive.  Even for the most high performing individuals, she finds this helps them to unlock restrained potential and achieve more.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street".  She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How do you reconcile meditation and the inherent slowing down that encompasses when you’re dealing with high-performing individuals that thrive on intensity?

Nina Godiwalla:  So I think one of the things I found -- so in the environment where you say high, there is that mindset of you know either you’re a high performer or you’re someone as if meditation might slow you down but the reality is, is with these high performers, it’s fascinating and research has actually has actually shown this and I’ve been in this environments, the MBA you know the MBA environment, the Wall Street environment, so much of it is run off of fear. 

The culture is run off of fear; it’s like they're so terrified of failing and I put myself in that category too especially when I’m in that environment I mean anything that goes wrong, it’s this environment of perfection and you have to do things right and perfect and you really look down on people that don’t do things necessarily well and I’ve been in those environments and, you know, what is a fantastic example is, you know, somebody that I was just recently talking to, she was rejected from Stanford she had this like complete sense of failure and got into several other MBA programs, fantastic, you know, top programs and she was just like “I don’t get rejected from schools,” and it was just that sense and so she was so focused on this failure, you know in her mindset and it’s that kind of attitude that’s ludicrous I mean so people look at that and they’re like “Oh, please I can’t feel sorry for you.”  But that’s how they operate like in general it’s – they, you know, 10 wonderful things happen to you and that one little thing and you’re so focused on that failure. 

So, my attitude towards that is you will – you can still be above average and these are, you know, type A people so they will do well and they will perform well but they will never be exceptional with that kind of mindset.  They will be – they will stand above other people but they’re not going to blow away the world because the reality is, is they’re still operating under that extreme fear and when things get really difficult and really challenging and something takes out their confidence, they will fall.  So you need people that have a mindset of that they actually can accomplish huge things and if every – if the motivation is all around fear and fear of failure, you’re not going to get very far and I talk about that because they have done so much research on the top MBA programs and they find that, you know, one of the 10 things that bring down some of the best people is their fear of failure.

Nina Godiwalla on Why Mutual Respect Matters in a Marriage

In Chapter 21 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "Why is Mutual Respect Important in a Marriage?"  Godiwalla, who had a child amidst the process of publishing her first book, finds mutual respect for things she and her partner both want in life fundamental to their wellbeing.  She shares how this mutual respect is key to achieving a manageable and meaningful work-life balance.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street".  She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  Why is mutual respect important in a marriage?

Nina Godiwalla:  Well, I think it depends what you want to accomplish and what you want out of your marriage but you know one of the things that I’ve gotten so much from for a lot of people have said to me is, I had a baby while – right when I had – in the middle of having a book and I’ve had so many people say to me “Oh, I don’t understand how you did it all.  Like how are you able to do both?”  And I remember growing up, I used to go to these women’s conferences and I’ve never – never been very excited about marriage or having kids because to me I was always – I was so career oriented but I had this fear that once that would come like a husband and a child it would take away from my career life and I remember being in these conferences and you know women’s conferences and having women say it’s true like they just you know once you have the kids, it all falls on you, so much of it falls on you and I’ve always had this fear that it would – having a kid would take you know kind of the excitement of my life away. 

And what I’ve realized is, one, I married a person that in the end I wasn’t going to get married unless I had somebody who completely was inline with what I wanted and there is that and it’s not just mutual respect it’s mutual respect for the things that you both want out of life and I find that a lot of people that say that they have it all, that they never worked that out with their partner to some extent or their partner doesn’t have that mindset of you know I see that these are the three critical things for you let’s see how we can work on them together and my husband is an exceptional person in general but he makes everything – he makes everything possible.  I mean we both have difficult travel schedules and he never says “Well, you know you’re supposed to be here this week and I’m supposed to be here this week this just isn’t going to work.”  He’s always like “Okay, let’s sit down.  Let’s sit down and talk about how we make this work.”  I mean I fell in love with him and then he just happened to be this person that wanted to work everything out and he works out things you know even better than I can even think of. 

I think sometimes “Well, yeah, like one of us can’t go or you know we can’t figure this out.”  But we always seem to make things work and we have this respect in understanding that you know first things first, is our child is going to be in good hands.  Whether it’s with him or the child is with me or we have incredible grandparents that are always around so we – we make it work and there is this understanding that what’s important to you is important to me because if I don’t keep you happy you know I’m not going to be happy either and I find that people that say that they don’t have it all or that there’s no way to do it all, part of it is maybe you know maybe the goals aren’t realistic, I don’t know what their goals are but also I don’t know that there is a mutual respect on both sides for, you know what when I married you, you didn’t want – you only wanted two things and now you want three things.  Well, we just move with the flow.  It’s like okay, well you changed what you wanted but how do I still do things to keep you happy. And I don’t know that everyone really goes of their way to do that for the other person.

How to Set Expectations in a Marriage - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 22 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "What Has Your Marriage Taught You About Sacrifice and Teamwork?"  She shares how she and her husband blend fiercely independent attitudes with a deep support for one another.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street".  She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What has your marriage taught you about sacrifice and teamwork?

Nina Godiwalla:  Teamwork is important.  I definitely think teamwork is important. My marriage is very independent.  My husband and I, we pretty much do whatever we want whenever we want and I – we're both like incredibly stubborn people, we’re very like fiercely independent at the end of the day there’s nothing he could die without me for, there’s nothing I could die without having him for.  We just love being with each other and doing things together. 

People talk a lot about compromise and things you have to do and I feel like the compromises for us have not been huge at all.  We go out of our way for each other to make things work. The teamwork is, is wanting that other person to succeed in what they want in life at all times.  So we don’t have – one of the things is lifestyle.  We talk about all the time about lifestyle and part of it is, “Hey do we want this—do we want a big house or do we want that apartment down the street,” because right now maybe we both want to start up our own companies or we both want to do this and we’re so flexible.  There’s not – there’s no expectation, there’s no big expectations in our marriage other than I’m looking out for you and you look out for me.  There’s no expectation of you were supposed to bring in this much money this year.  There’s no expectation of you know I spent six hours with our son today so now you need to spend six hours.  It’s hey, what’s going on with you? Can we make this work? And when you have that other person always looking out for you there’s not a lot of threat of you know this is unfair or this didn’t happen and it does happen sometimes with us but we’ll just you know we’ll you know say to the other person like “Hey, I actually don’t think this is working out this way.” 

And when I hear people talk about like the difficulties of marriage or things like that it’s like, “Well, you know I have to cook every night, I have to do this every night.”  And we don’t even have that. Like nobody – if nobody cooks, nobody cooks.  If there’s no food I mean there’s – a lot of times there is no food.  It’s like you get your own food if you want to eat, you want to eat.  If we want to eat together then somebody might make something but there’s just – those expectations are so limited in my marriage that it just works for us.

What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder - Scott Gold

In Chapter 1 of 20 of his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, author and writer Scott Gold answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?" Gold notes that after ten years in New York City, it is becoming harder to be away from his New Orleans roots. Professionally, as a writer, it is getting easier for Gold as he settles into his style, makes connections, and as a result carries himself more confidently. Scott Gold is an author and writer based in New York City. When not writing, Gold moonlights as a bartender at Char no. 4 restaurant in Brooklyn. He earned a BA in Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis.

What Makes Relationships Last a Lifetime - Scott Gold

In Chapter 2 of 20 of his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, author and writer Scott Gold answers "What Has Your Parents' Marriage Taught You About Building More Lasting Relationships?"  When his parents disagree, they never make personal attacks.  He learns from his parents' ability to create a laughter filled environment and overcome adversity such as home wrecking hurricanes.  Scott Gold is an author and writer based in New York City.  When not writing, Gold moonlights as a bartender at Char no. 4 restaurant in Brooklyn.  He earned a BA in Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis. 

How to Create Positive Personal Achievement Cycles - Scott Gold

In Chapter 4 of 20 of his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, author and writer Scott Gold answers "When Are You At Your Best?"  Immediately, Gold notes he finds his best when the weather is nice.  He finds good weather gets him outside, moving, and in the state of mind that keeps him productive. He notes how this then creates a positive cycle of self encouragement, a feedback loop which motivates him to do more.  Ultimately this results in both increased productivity and happiness.  Scott Gold is an author and writer based in New York City.  When not writing, Gold moonlights as a bartender at Char no. 4 restaurant in Brooklyn.  He earned a BA in Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis. 

How to Be Flexible in a New Marriage - Conrad Doucette

In Chapter 1 of 21 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, musician and Takka Takka drummer Conrad Doucette answers "Since We Last Spoke a Year Ago, What Has Been the Most Exciting Thing to Happen in Your Life?"  Conrad shares how getting married tops the list.  A day after the wedding celebration, Doucette, his wife, and the band embark to Paris for a Takka Takka European tour.  Doucette and his spouse navigate the challenges, making the most of the adventure.  Doucette is the drummer for the Brooklyn-based band Takka Takka.  He also performs with The National, Okkervil River, and Alina Simone.  When not performing, Doucette works as a copywriter, blogger, and digital media producer.  He has worked at Blender, Fuse TV, and Heavy.com.  Doucette earned his BA in History from the University of Michigan.