"Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal." – E. O. Wilson

I am fascinated by the Amazon! No, not the company, the rainforest! It has intrigued and enticed adventurers for centuries due to its expansiveness, and it still holds many mysteries waiting to be revealed. Here are just a few reasons why it is truly amazing:

• The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% of the world's oxygen.
• 25% of all pharmaceuticals come from rainforest-based i…

"Nothing in life is more exciting and rewarding than the sudden flash of insight that leaves you a changed person." – Arthur Gordon Webster

Have you ever noticed how one thing can change everything?

Four thousand years ago, in ancient Mesopotamia, a group of people started to experiment by adding heat to sand, soda, and lime, and they created glass for the first time. Today that one thing has allowed us to invent microscopes that see down to the building blocks of life and telescopes allowing …

Do you have the influence you want in your career, life, and relationships?

The old school of influence comes from force. This is where people must be commanded, put in their place, and punished if necessary to get them to comply or get on board. But history has repeatedly shown that whether it’s your nation, your coworkers, or your kids, force takes a lot of energy and, in the end, almost always fails against our human nature to resist.

Influence, however, is power WITHOUT force.

What carrie…

"Massive Change is not about the world of design; it's about the design of the world." – Bruce Mau

The Gardens by the Bay is a nature park spanning 250 acres in Singapore. It was part of the nation's plan to transform its "Garden City" into a "City in a Garden" to raise the quality of life by enhancing greenery in the city. The design firms behind this epic project, WilkinsonEyre and Grant Associates, definitely lived up to the vision. The expansive park is full of remarkable architectural and …

"It's easier to disintegrate an atom than a prejudice." – Albert Einstein

The artwork of Salvador Dali is not everybody's cup of tea. He was heavily influenced by psychoanalysis pioneers like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. That being said, Dali's work has to be looked at from so many levels, and hidden themes can be discovered everywhere you look. Whether you are a fan or not, you most likely have seen one of his most famous paintings, The Persistence of Memory (on display at the MOMA in New York…

Inspiring Your Team To Connect With Your Mission with Tony Martignetti

To inspire your team to work harder and better, you need to give them a mission they align with. Make them know that they are creating meaningful work. No one wants to do something without any greater purpose behind that. As a leader, it’s your job to want to make sure that you understand your people. Start having honest conversations with them because that is key to inspiration. Join Ryan Englin as he talks to Tony Martigne…

"Life is like a prism. What you see depends on how you turn the glass." – Jonathan Kellerman

Do you know what happens when you shine light into a glass prism?

If you are familiar with Pink Floyd's famous album The Dark Side of The Moon, you know exactly what I am talking about. And if classic rock is not your thing, here's what happens. When you shine white light into a glass triangle, it refracts the light into a beautiful spectrum of colors. However, I recently discovered through my research…

How do you know when “good enough” is good enough? Many people don’t know when to stop working on a project. We spend inordinate amounts of time getting things just right instead of getting them good enough and then moving on. The challenge is understanding why you are doing it in the first place.

Each task or project you work on is just one short step on a much longer upward staircase. If you focus on perfectly designing every step, you will find yourself way behind where you could have been o…

Happy Productive: Living an Inspired Life with Tony Martignetti

As the child of an immigrant, Tony learned that the only way to achieve success is honest hard work, and the harder you work, the more you can achieve. The downside is that this approach often leads to burnout. To truly be successful, we must learn to delegate. Working smarter - not harder - is the key to lasting success.

SHOW NOTES

"We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us." – Winston Churchill

If you haven't noticed yet, I am an architecture nerd! I have more books on architecture than anyone should. My interests span from classical to neo-modernism. One of my favorite buildings of the old world is the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. It is an architectural beauty and an important monument of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. At one point, it served as a church, later a mosque, and now it is a museum. Built bet…