Today’s guest is an “astrophysicist turned new media whiz” who has earned five Ivy League degrees and holds six patents. He helped build an X-ray observational satellite for NASA, and has co-founded and led several ventures.

A serious athlete, he has completed six marathons and competed at the World and National level of Ultimate Frisbee. He has swam across the Hudson River, and has done burpees every day for six years, 90,000 and counting.

Although his passions are dramatically diverse, his dedication to excellence in them all has established him as a thought leader in fields that include science, invention, entrepreneurship, art, leadership, coaching, and education.

My guest co-founded Submedia, which brought to market one of his inventions – a technology to display motion pictures for subway riders to enjoy between stations, thereby pioneering the field of commercial in-tunnel media. Submedia has grown worldwide to install dozens of displays in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

His book “Leadership Step by Step” is a powerful and practical guide to help readers cultivate key abilities, behaviors, and beliefs through experience. This isn’t your run of the mill leadership book.

Please join me in welcoming Josh Spodek.

In this episode we explore:

• how he defines leadership: “To influence at least one other person to achieve a common goal.”
• his poor people skills early in his career was a blind spot that led to him losing his company and a humbling “ah ha!” moment in business school
• not being born with leadership skills doesn’t mean you can’t acquire them – through experiential learning. “You can’t read to get integrity. No amount of lectures you can listen to to get persistence.”
• the challenge of communicating how different his leadership lessons are from traditional learning. Curious? Watch this video: NYU Students Speak About Joshua Spodek’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership Courses
• how work/life balance is a misnomer – Keith Richards doesn’t worry about work/life balance, he loves what he does all of the time.

Listen, subscribe and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com – episode 63