Articles

Shel Israel… The Challenger You Always Wanted At The Table

Shel Israel never just joined a conversation… he challenged it.

He wasn’t there to nod along.
He was there to tilt the frame, flip the assumption and make you think harder.
He wrote as an enthusiast.
He wrote as a journalist.
He wrote as a teacher.
He wrote as a thinker.

We didn’t speak often.

But we were often connected.
He was one of the earliest guests on my podcast.
And he came back on a handful of times over the years.
We even managed to debate and discuss during some in-person dinners at some tucked-away spots where the food was good but the conversation was better.
I remember those nights… leaning in over the table, debating the state of tech… the state of the world.

And then there were the countless notes.

Quick lines in my inbox.
A message sent through Facebook.
A push to look at something from a different angle.
A question that unraveled my writing.

He’d challenged me in the moment… and somehow still make me feel like I’d just been handed a gift.

I always pushed that Apple was only going to get stronger after major stumbles in the media.
He always said it was on the edge of collapse after these instances.
I’d always offer to bet him.
Neither of us ever “won” the bets we would keep placing.
That wasn’t the point.

The point was the push.

The joy of going toe-to-toe with someone who was as curious as he was certain.
Shel saw technology through a human lens.
In his books (Naked Conversations, Age of Context, Lethal Generosity, The Fourth Transformation, Twitterville, etc.) he mapped where the future was headed before most of us could see it.
But he didn’t just predict.
He explained it.

He made complexity feel like a conversation, not a lecture.

I’m going to miss him (and his voice).
Here’s to you, Shel…
For the dinners, the debates, the perspective and the reminder that we don’t grow by also agreeing… we grow by being challenged and questioned.

Enjoy the conversation… wherever you are now.

(the photo above was take in 2012 at one of those dinners. L-R: Scott Monty, Shel Holtz, me and Shel Israel… may your memory be a blessing).

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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.