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In 1990, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote one of the classic books on creativity, Flow. We opened our tallying of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time with Flow because the book is about optimal experiences, "those times when people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment," and many people either access that feeling or wish to access that feeling at work. In that book, Csikszentmihalyi provides his theory behind the flow state and argues that such an unconscious contentedness is not as unpreditable or fortuitous as most people think.
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Customers don't do business with a company. They do business with the people who work for the company.
Everyone seems to have a story about their favorite Ace Hardware store.
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I like to think. At least I like to think that I like to think. This idea I have about myself is exactly what drove me to pick up David McRaney’s new book, You Are Now Less Dumb.
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It is nearing the end of summer, at least in these parts, but there is still time to whittle down that long "to-read-on-vacation" list that you might have created in May, imaging long hot days laying in the sun, book in hand. If you are like me, summer is never quite the vast wasteland of time during which I can read to my heart's content that I always hope it will be. Instead, it is usually a time of rushing around the city from event to event, doing home and yard work, taking my child to a park/pool/playdate, and generally feeling like the summer is going by way too fast.
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I’ve recently caught myself using the phrase, “(s)he’s the real deal,” when talking to friends and colleagues about people who have distinct reputations for success or innovation. It’s somewhat aphorismic, but what does this phrase even mean? Off the bat, there’s one word that comes to mind: authenticity.
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