This past weekend I attended a workshop on “mindful leadership” conducted by author Bill George and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a rising star among Tibetan Buddist Masters. The audience, including this one, was fascinated by the interplay between Eastern and Western philosophies. 

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As a fan of Jim Carrey, one of my all-time favorite movies is The Truman Show. The hero, Truman, lives inside a Utopian bubble carefully constructed just for him by a savvy media company. Unbeknownst to Truman, hidden cameras broadcast his every move live on television 24/7 to an audience of millions. While outwardly, he appears happy-go-lucky, inwardly a subtle desperation begins to take hold, as he gradually realizes that the life he thought was his, is in fact a monstrous hoax perpetrated upon him.

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I lead a running group in Central Park and this week one of the participants asked me to recommend one of my favorite marathon guides. Although this is not a book about technique, training, or nutrition, I have always loved The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life by Amby Burfoot.

A lifelong runner and running advocate, Amby Burfoot has been executive editor of Runner's World magazine since 1985. He is also the author of The Principles of Running and Runner's World Complete Book of Running.  In 1968, he won the Boston Marathon, the first American to do so in 11 years.

The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life is a collection of essays which covers a range of topics including courage, goals, family, materialism and humility. It is a compact read which prompts further thoughts for the road. 

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I was recently surprised, after reading Self-Promotion for Introverts by Nancy Ancowitz, to learn that introverts comprise about half the population. And, according to an article in USA Today, 4 in 10 top executives are introverts. In fact, the article offers Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Charles Schwab and Steven Spielberg as examples. Add comedian Jerry Seinfeld to the list. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, he shares that he is an introvert: “I love people, but I can’t talk to them. Onstage, I can.”

As a coach, I find that a number of my clients lie closer on the spectrum to introversion than extroversion. How do I know? If I haven’t conducted a Myers-Briggs assessment on the client, I reference the below named attributes*. Which list describes you more than 50 percent of the time?

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In the hit 2009 movie “Up in the Air”, George Clooney stars as a corporate hatchet man, hired by companies to do the dirty work of laying off dozens of their employees. He refers to himself euphemistically as a “career transition counselor.” To each person laid off, he offers a generic pep talk that is surprisingly effective. “Anyone who ever built an empire, or changed the world,” he intones like a sympathetic parish priest, “has sat where you are now. And it’s because they sat there that they were able to do it.”

A tad trite, perhaps? Certainly. But is he right? Absolutely. And the evidence of this can be seen in a terrific new documentary entitled “Lemonade.” You could almost consider this a companion piece to “Up in the Air” as it tracks the lives of 16 advertising professionals all recently laid-off, downsized or otherwise let go by the firms they previously worked for. For anyone who has been recently discharged or is trying to figure out “what’s next”, this film is a revelation. And a celebration.

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