DropBox CEO Drew Houston Explains How To Rapidly Become A Leader; How to Win as a First-Time Founder, a Drew Houston Manifesto

DropBox CEO Drew Houston Explains How To Rapidly Become A Leader

MAX NISEN0DEC 6, 2013, 07.57 PM

This is part of the “Moving Forward” series offering advice to small business owners on technology, mentorship, productivity, and growth. “Moving Forward” is sponsored by Ink from Chase^®. DropBox CEO Drew Houston had to learn how to lead a company incredibly quickly. He started the business in his early 20s. He’s now 30, and the company has more than 200 million users. Read more of this post

Germany Thinks Its Beer Is As Important As The Great Wall Of China And Egypt’s Pyramids

Germany Thinks Its Beer Is As Important As The Great Wall Of China And Egypt’s Pyramids

PAIGE COOPERSTEIN0DEC 6, 2013, 09.06 PM

German brewers want the United Nations to recognize their beer as a piece of “intangible cultural heritage,”NBC News reports. If the UN approves the request, Germany’s beer will be protected by UNESCO, the same agency that looks after The Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon and Egypt’s pyramids. Read more of this post

Seven Lessons Santa Can Teach The World And Its Wannapreneurs

Seven Lessons Santa Can Teach The World And Its Wannapreneurs

SANGHAMITRA MANDAL0DEC 9, 2013, 05.02 PM

So you thought this grand old man in his flashy red robe, outdated sleigh and with his typical “Ho ho ho” laugh would soon go out of business? After all, who believes in all those grandiose tales about him and his snow-capped home in the North Pole? Today’s kids are just too smart. And who cares for childish things like gifts and toys in an age ruled by success, money and mindless fun? You could not have been more wrong. Over the centuries, Santa Inc has created a tradition that fits with the core objectives of any age – the rites of honouring consistency, creating values, ensuring innovation and finally, guaranteeing end-user’s satisfaction. Take a close look at his strategies and operations, and you’ll find that Santa and his team offer all these and more. Here are seven (tongue-in-cheek) reasons why millennial businesses should follow him. Read more of this post

Mutual Fund Legend Peter Lynch Gave A Rare Interview – Here’s What He Said About Investing

Mutual Fund Legend Peter Lynch Gave A Rare Interview – Here’s What He Said About Investing

STEVEN PERLBERG0DEC 7, 2013, 01.32 AM

At the helm of Fidelity’s Magellan Fund for 13 years, mutual fund legend Peter Lynch transformed $18 million in assets under management to more than $14 billion. Now Lynch is pretty much out of the game. He chose to manage his own money for his family and philanthropic causes as opposed to launching a hedge fund or something of the like. Read more of this post

The Case for a Midlife ‘Gap’ Year; Baby boomers are taking career breaks to reflect, re-energize and restart their engines

The Case for a Midlife ‘Gap’ Year

Baby boomers are taking career breaks to reflect, re-energize and restart their engines

ANNE TERGESEN

Dec. 8, 2013 4:32 p.m. ET

Baby boomers are calling for a timeout.

After decades of raising children and climbing the corporate ladder, they’re weary of the same old routine. But they’re so caught up in high-pressure jobs that they don’t have the time and energy to figure out what to do next. Enter the career break.

Read more of this post

Nelson Mandela and the evolution of great leaders; Despite his flaws, and perhaps because of them, we find there is much more to consider about the late Nelson Mandela’s development as a leader

Nelson Mandela and the evolution of great leaders

December 6, 2013: 4:04 PM ET

Despite his flaws, and perhaps because of them, we find there is much more to consider about the late Nelson Mandela’s development as a leader.

By Hitendra Wadhwa

FORTUNE — Nelson Mandela sacrificed the usual trappings of a good life – family, comfort, professional success – to spend 27 years as a prisoner of conscience in his fight against apartheid. He emerged to lead his nation as its president in 1994 and chose to forgive rather than seek revenge for past crimes, helping South Africans build a new social foundation. Read more of this post

Mandela Leaves Divided Legacy in Africa; Former South African President’s Ties With Despots Drew Critics

Mandela Leaves Divided Legacy in Africa

Former South African President’s Ties With Despots Drew Critics

HEIDI VOGT

Updated Dec. 6, 2013 8:11 p.m. ET

NAIROBI, Kenya—In death, Nelson Mandela symbolized Africa’s struggle for freedom and aspirations for democracy. In life, things were more complicated. Nelson Mandela was a member of the African National Congress party when he was elected South Africa’s president in 1994. After his death, the ANC faces a struggling economy, a splintered identity and life without its symbolic leader. (Photo: Getty)

Mr. Mandela’s release from prison in 1990 transformed South Africa and helped inspire a wave of democratic revolutions across the continent: More than 30 African countries shucked dictatorship for multiparty elections in the decade that followed. Read more of this post

The real master has no tools at all, only a limitless capacity to improvise with what is to hand

Master of many trades

Our age reveres the specialist but humans are natural polymaths, at our best when we turn our minds to many things

by Robert Twigger 2,400 words

Robert Twigger is a British poet, writer and explorer. He lives in Cairo, Egypt.

I travelled with Bedouin in the Western Desert of Egypt. When we got a puncture, they used tape and an old inner tube to suck air from three tyres to inflate a fourth. It was the cook who suggested the idea; maybe he was used to making food designed for a few go further. Far from expressing shame at having no pump, they told me that carrying too many tools is the sign of a weak man; it makes him lazy. The real master has no tools at all, only a limitless capacity to improvise with what is to hand. The more fields of knowledge you cover, the greater your resources for improvisation. Read more of this post

When feedback dampens creativity

When feedback dampens creativity

Over the past decade, companies have begun using online ordering capabilities to develop a powerful marketing tool — “mass-customisation” systems that let customers design their own products.

BY –

5 HOURS 16 MIN AGO

Over the past decade, companies have begun using online ordering capabilities to develop a powerful marketing tool — “mass-customisation” systems that let customers design their own products. Read more of this post

Creative Confidence: Unleashing The Creative Potential Within Us All

Updated: Saturday December 7, 2013 MYT 11:01:48 AM

Age-old question answered

BY NICK WALKER

The Kelley brothers, David (right) founder of IDEO and Tom

Creative Confidence: Unleashing The Creative Potential Within Us All

Authors: Tom Kelley and David Kelley

Publisher: Crown

TODAY, the demand for reviews of business-related non-fiction remains robust. And the market gets what the market wants from middle-aged me. At least, until I can commoditise my daydreams. But the younger me naturally sought out genres more appealing to the juvenile mind. And for a while – while I was a “tweenie” – my passion was for those wonderful illustrated Tin Tin books (which have stood the test of time; they still sell well today). Read more of this post

Who Says Math Has to Be Boring?

December 7, 2013

Who Says Math Has to Be Boring?

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

American students are bored by math, science and engineering. They buy smartphones and tablets by the millions but don’t pursue the skills necessary to build them. Engineers and physicists are often portrayed as clueless geeks on television, and despite the high pay and the importance of such jobs to the country’s future, the vast majority of high school graduates don’t want to go after them. Read more of this post

“The Art of Rube Goldberg” shows that the inventor known for his complex contraptions was an all-around cartoon man as well as an authentic American eccentric and wiseacre.

December 9, 2013

Beyond a Man’s Machines

By DANA JENNINGS

In the first half of the 20th century, Rube Goldberg was the Thomas Edison of the newspaper comics pages.

His inexhaustible reservoir of elaborate contraptions that mutated simple tasks (lighting a pipe, changing a diaper, killing mosquitoes) into madcap and complicated feats of ingenuity made him a rich and famous star, and an adjective in the American lexicon. As Goldberg, who lived from 1883 to 1970, said in 1930: “In black and white, I consider myself the most prolific inventor in America today. I figure I turn loose roughly 400 inventions a year.” Read more of this post

Science Says Art Will Make Your Kids Better Thinkers (and Nicer People); A new study supports our hunch that kids who are exposed to the arts gain benefits beyond just being “more creative.”

SCIENCE SAYS ART WILL MAKE YOUR KIDS BETTER THINKERS (AND NICER PEOPLE)

BY JENNIFER MILLER

A new study supports our hunch that kids who are exposed to the arts gain benefits beyond just being “more creative.”

Those who would consider themselves part of the creative class would probably agree that art is an important part of primary school education. Since school boards concerned about the bottom line don’t necessarily agree, a team of social scientists at the University of Arkansas is trying to scientifically prove the benefits of exposure to art. What they found, in a recent study published in the journals Education Next and Educational Researcher, is that students who are exposed to cultural institutions, like museums and performing arts centers, not only have higher levels of engagement with the arts but display greater tolerance, historical empathy, as well as better educational memory and critical thinking skills. Read more of this post