Categories: Articles

Embrace The Squiggle

I do not know who Jake Bronstein is.

I’m simply a huge fan of Jonathan Fields and the Good Life Project. So, whenever Jonathan releases a new episode (which you can now subscribe to as a podcast), I watch it. It is not uncommon for me to have to make a scramble for my Moleskine and pen as the episodes unfold. Jonathan is one of the most compelling interviewers out there. In fact, he’s not really an interviewer, but much more of a conversationalist.

Embrace the squiggle.

This past week has been a crazy one. Crazy in an amazingly great kind of way. After a long wait, I finally got to release my second book, CTRL ALT Delete, on Tuesday. Since then, it has been all about promoting the book without letting the balls drop at Twist Image. A lot of my waking hours are busy spent speaking to media outlets about what this book is really all about. In the second half of the book (called Reboot: You), I talk about the value of having a squiggly career. How the most interesting and successful people I know didn’t have a very linear trajectory. How it will not be uncommon for many of us to have 4-5 different careers in our lifetime (as opposed to 4-5 different jobs in our careers). Jack Bronstein is the epitome of a squiggly career. Too many people feel trapped and compelled to stay the course. Too many people think that a linear career is the prudent and true path.

Squiggly is interesting. Squiggly is better. If you don’t believe me, please watch this:

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.