Psychology

How Elizabeth Holmes Created a Billion-Dollar Scam on Investors by Exploiting a Loophole in Human Psychology (video)

Elizabeth Holmes was charged last month with an “elaborate, years-long fraud” by the SEC. At its peak, her company Theranos (founded in 2003) was valued at $9 billion. Holmes was recognized as a genius innovator, the female Steve Jobs, an example for young women everywhere. She was celeb...

February 17, 2018
Persuasion , Psychology
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Lessons From Professional Party Crashers: Persuasion and Social Psychology (video)

I discovered a group of guys on YouTube called Yes Theory. Among many fun and hilarious antics they get into, they have a special preference for crashing exclusive Hollywood events. We can actually learn some key insights on psychology and persuasion from them. I’ve personally seen these work ...

November 15, 2017
Communication Skills , Mindset , Psychology
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When Acting Less Powerful is The Right Move

(Listen or read the post below) Some people think they have to act powerfully in every situation. Their goal is to “win” every battle. Always have the cleverer comeback. Always interrupt people more than they interrupt you. Have others laugh at your jokes, but don’t laugh at theirs...

November 14, 2017
Communication Skills , Leadership , Mindset , Networking , Psychology
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Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Face

(Listen or read the post below) “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face” –Mike Tyson This is one of my favorite quotes of the moment. Practice and experience are essential if you want to build a skill set. Whether that skill is leadership, communication, sales, or ...

September 1, 2017
Psychology
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Psychology of Power Dynamics: What We Can Learn From Riot Control

This video explores the recent riots in Charlottesville, why the situation got out of hand, and how riot control typically works. There some important things we can learn about power and psychology from riots and crowd control strategies: Dehumanization Riot Police intentionally dehumanize themselve...

August 7, 2017
Mindset , Psychology
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What This YouTube Video Tells Us About Success

1.7 MILLION That’s the number of dislikes on the video below. Think about that for a second. As of this writing, almost one million and seven hundred thousand people watched this video and hated it so much that they felt compelled to actually hit the “dislike” button. Imagine how y...

June 7, 2017
Communication Skills , Psychology , Public Speaking
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Avoid Insulting People Behind Their Back (video)

Back in April, I wrote about my experience at Tech Day. One of the speakers that got on stage to present his company made a critical error: he called Mark Cuban a punk. Basically, this particular guy, named Kash, had appeared months earlier on the TV show Shark Tank. (If you don’t know what S...

From Estate Tax to Death Tax: How to Change Public Opinion Overnight (video)

Frank Luntz, a Republican consultant, spearheaded the messaging change from “estate tax” to “death tax” in the 1990s. The term “death tax” had been used decades before, but it was used again at that time as Republicans sought support for its repeal. By shifting ...

May 27, 2017
Psychology
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Why the Successful are Often Eccentric (videos)

It takes a certain amount of boldness, radicalism and eccentricity to break out of the mold that you have been born into. The amount of physical and mental energy required to make a significant shift–and not backslide into the same situation–is immense. It’s the same with a car th...

What the Trump Implosion Tells Us About Leadership

Donald Trump’s first few months in office have been one massive problem after another. His inexperience and incompetence are on full display almost every day. Trump was great at getting elected, and since then it’s basically been all downhill: scandals, possible illegal activities, firin...