Articles

Space And Time

Don’t make it about you.

Make it about us.
If need be, make it about me.
Deflect the desire to talk about what you offer.
Deflect the desire to create a moral and intellectual high ground between yourself and those who are connected to you.
Offer ways to make it easier on me.

Offers way to make us all better and more comforted.

Remember what my brother (a criminologist) told me years ago about the difference between someone like him and the people that he tries to help: The only difference between you and me (or us and them) is space and time.
The businesses that thrive today (and into tomorrow) will be those with this at their true brand core.
If you think that today is the day to be pitching and selling, you may be thinking only about yourself (and your own needs).
If you’re worried about yourself more than the collective “us” step away and look for a different perspective.

The brands of the future will be the ones who were built with the soul of helping communities to improve today.

Now is not the the time to promote your privilege.
The only difference between you and me is space and time.
That’s luck.
That’s the generic lottery.

Be of service not of self-promotion.

It’s also fine to simply sit it out for a bit.
Silence can be a great strategy in such a noisy world.
Start thinking and creating today for what you may have to be in the future.

Space and time.

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.