Let your life speak.
indigenous wisdom | consciousness | cultureJOSHUA SPODEK | DO THE THING
In this episode, Joshua and I dive deep on living deliberately and the extraordinary experiences that can come from self-discipline, practice and just having enough passion to take the first step. We have to be willing to embrace the mystery and unknown.
Josh talks about his relationship with food and how he’s adopted a plant-based diet with no processed foods or added sugars. And guess what? He enjoys the food more than ever before, and feels great at the same time. He’s also very deliberate about buying locally and limiting packaging, or at least recycling it.
Joshua’s book, Leadership Step by Step, talks about how we actually learn to become leaders. He believes anyone can be a great leader if they have the desire. But to do so, we must engage in some unorthodox learning methods. It’s about how we learn, not just what we’re learning. He talks about the importance of teaching social and emotional learning, rather than just focusing on basic intellectual growth or compliance.
This was an extremely interesting and exciting interview! I hope you’ll join us for the adventure.
Joshua Spodek
Joshua is an Adjunct Professor at NYU, a leadership coach and a workshop leader for Columbia Business School, he’s a columnist for Inc. Magazine, the founder of Spodek Academy, and author of Leadership Step by Step.
He’s earned such praise as
- “Best and Brightest” (in Esquire Magazine’s Genius Issue)
- “Astrophysicist turned new media whiz” (NBC)
- “Rocket Scientist” (Forbes Magazine and ABC News)
Joshua has led seminars in leadership, entrepreneurship, creativity, and sales at Harvard, Princeton, MIT, INSEAD (Singapore), the New York Academy of Science, and in private corporations. He holds five Ivy League degrees, including a PhD in Astrophysics and an MBA, and he studied under a Nobel Prize winner. He helped build an X-ray observational satellite for NASA. He’s co-founded and led as CEO or COO of several ventures. And he holds six patents.
And that’s the short bio! Suffice it to say, Josh has lived a pretty extraordinary life. It’s an honor to have him on the show.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Discipline isn’t necessarily what pushes you to experience an extraordinary life. It’s taking that first step that allows you a taste of it that then compels you to be disciplined enough to stay with it.
- There are two types of living; cookies and ice cream, and trying. You either sit there and keep going for momentary, fleeting satisfaction, or you decide to branch out and try another way of living, a new option, or even just a new food or cultural experience.
- “You have to say no to a lot of great things to live a great life.”
- Our beliefs in the scarcity of time prevent us from having an open mind, from embracing the mysteries of life.
- Allow space for the mystery of life.
- What I find so interesting about visiting another culture is what it tells you about yourself.
- Joshua talks about his experience in North Korea in terms of culture, epiphanies and lessons learned about human behavior.
- Leading with empathy and revereing relationships above all else.
- We have some good understanding of what kind of leaders we should be, but not a lot of instruction as to how to become that type of leader.
- Everything developed through practice and experience. It’s what Joshua refers to as “method learning”, like “method acting”.
- Lead with empathy. Connect with people. Life is about relationships.
- How do you create a longing in someone else? How do you “play with feeling”?
- Probably the single biggest influence in my life has been the Tao Te Ching. (Interestingly, both Jared and Josh site the same book as being their biggest influence.)
BEST MOMENT
Dedication and responsibility ultimately superseded my previous sense of entitlement. Those extraordinary experiences aren’t just going to drop out of the sky as if I’m entitled to them. I have to deliberately go out and create those moments. JOSHUA SPODEK
RESOURCES
Twitter @spodek
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