Jonathan Miller's Blog, page 45

David Goldberg: Flex Your Creativity in Hiring

“But if you never try, you’ll never know”—Fix You, Coldplay

Ten years ago, before I was a husband and father, I learned that giving flexible work hours to your best people is a great way to keep them. I was running Yahoo Music, and my senior business development leader, Karin, was doing a terrific job but needed some time at home after the birth of her first child. She asked me if she could work four days a week and get paid 80 percent of her full-time salary. Because she was a star performer,...

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Young People Think They Know It All

Young people –especially young men in their 20s, 30s and even 40s– like to think they know it all.

And it is embarrassing but critical as they get older to re-evaluate and correct long-held but wrong assumptions.


For example, in your 50s you start to realize that the blow dryer on the wall in men’s restrooms that you have been using to dry your hands for decades is actually for drying your pants.

Or maybe it is just practical creativity and innovation that comes with age.

And necessity

Erica and Matt Chua: Agra’s #1 Attraction

Every year millions of tourists flock to Agra to see the white marble, architectural marvel that is the Taj Mahal. Few leave disappointed. To enjoy the magic of the Taj give yourself a few days to truly take in this legacy of the Mughal empire. Seeing the domed mausoleum from several different vantage points will leave you awe-inspired and offer you the best opportunity for a prized photo.

The Taj was completed in 1653 after 22 years of construction and some 20,000 workers contributing their e...

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Forrest Gump

Guess what?

If you are simple and from the South one day you will grow up. Maybe you are 51, like me, when it happens. Maybe younger; maybe older.

But one day you come to realize that life really isn’t like a box chocolates.


It’s a painful realization at first. But you will just have to deal with it.

Even Forrest Gump, at age 51, would probably say life is really more like eating a piece of Peanut Brittle with sensitive teeth.

Don’t get me wrong. Life is still good. But we have to learn, even here...

Saul Kaplan: Regeneration, Unleash the Newt Within

I have been thinking about regeneration. While it is common knowledge, it still amazes me, that salamanders can regenerate body parts, including their tails, upper and lower jaws, eyes and hearts. Yet mammals including humans can’t. Salamanders are the highest order of animals capable of regeneration. Do mammals know something that salamanders don’t? Cosmetic surgery, implants, and promising regenerative medicine research aside we humans are stuck with the body parts we are dealt for now.

I wo...

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Finding Your People

My two cents.

For 20-somethings there are plenty of challenges –finishing education, entry level jobs, marriage, first home, starting family and so on. These are just some of the major life challenges often stared down in the 20s decade.

But the life challenge during this period that is perhaps most important of all is what I call “finding your people.”

By that I mean finding out where you fit and can be you–be your best self and thrive most naturally. Not the people our parents believe or think...

Julie Rath: Your Summer Hit List

Is your summer wardrobe in need of a refresh? At key points throughout the year, my Rath & Co. clients and I reassess their wardrobes for the upcoming season. We look at what works and what doesn’t, and what they didn’t have enough of last year. If you haven’t gone through this exercise for summer, before you go into full beach mode, carve out time to go through all of your summer clothes so that you can create a clear list of what’s missing.Below is my hit list of 10 summer must-haves to hel...

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Ignorance is NOT Bliss

Ignorance isn’t bliss. Or else almost everybody would be blissful –instead of straining to pretend we are knowledgeable.

Maybe that is an overstatement but the prevalence of my own ignorance astounds me sometimes.

Today I listened to a gentleman point out how many times a particular word shows up in a particular book. The idea was that the word –a concept really–was important because it is used so often by the author.

That got me to thinking. “OK then. What word is used more than any other in th...

Josh Bowen: Living to Die or Dying to Live: 5 Steps to Being You

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else, is the greatest accomplishment.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Recently I was reading an article I found on Facebook called“5 Regrets of Dying,” and the first regret was “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” This got me thinking about life in general and how I see people who live their lives for someone else and not for themselves.

I can be accused, justifiably so, fo...

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Miniature Cars

Twice in two days I have seen these new miniature cars.

They make me nervous but I wasn’t sure why.

But I think I just figured out why.

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Some days…like today…you will be feeling the perfect combination of older, calmer, more experienced and confident…and at the perfectly timed moment in a conversation you will open your mouth to dispense, finally, what everyone else will instantly realize is indisputably as wise as it is correct…and just as everyone is looking at you in anticipation…you will...