Cornerstones features the writings of Jennifer StJohn and the Fusion Group editorial team. Enjoy these insightful and engaging essays for a different take on business, life and the pursuit of success and serenity.
What’s NOT Being Said
A young woman came to me for counsel.
She talked briefly and then sat silently in the chair.
I said nothing but watched the reactions she displayed.
Slowly she made eye contact with me.
“You understand, don’t you?”
I nodded.
She began to talk more.
The lesson here is… Listen for what’s NOT being said…
It’s in that silence that you will find the real
[…]
Genius & Taking Pains
“Genius is the infinite capacity for taking pains.”
— Thomas Carlyle, Essayist, satirist, historian 1795-1881
“I’ve been
Endless, Cheerful, Repeated Coaching
“Man, you gotta have your head in the game every second of every play. You doze for a second, and the other guys are all over you and that’s the down, the quarter, and the whole game. Too many games, and your career is done!”
—NFC Playoff Team Member
If a football team went a week without being intensely coached about the opposition, the plays and strategy for the game at hand, and the positions and roles of each opposition player on each squad, you wouldn’t be surprised
[…]
The Uses of Not
“Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub. It is the center hole that makes it useful. Shape clay into a pot. Where the pot’s not, is where it’s useful. Cut doors and windows for a room; the space inside makes “room” for you. Therefore, the profit in what is, lies in the use of what is not.”
From the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. Translation by Gia-Fu Feng, Taoist Priest (1919 – 1985) and Ursula K. LeGuinn, Novelist
[…]
What a Story!
“A diamond is forever!” — De Beers Corporation
I was sitting in an agency conference room in the late 70’s, enjoying lunch and the view of Central Park as my clients discussed their work for De Beers. In the course of the discussion, it became clear the “Diamond
