The Art of Doing

Podcast: “The Art of Doing” on BlogcastFM

Srinivas Rao, a prolific podcaster (and passionate surfer), who has interviewed everyone from Guy Kawasaki to Seth Godin, shares our interest in process, writing and the underpinnings of success. Rao interviewed us about our book “The Art of Doing” on BlogcastFM.

art of doing podcastSrinivas Rao, a prolific podcaster (and passionate surfer), has interviewed everyone from Guy Kawasaki (who we also interviewed for our book) to Seth Godin. Srini’s BlogcastFM podcast is downloaded half a million times monthly. And since Srini shares our interest in process, writing and the underpinnings of success, we had a lively discussion with him not just about what we’ve learned interviewing the 36 high achievers for our book, but also art-of-doing-boxabout our book’s origin story, how we put the book together, our marketing influences, how we feel about fiction and even how our 7-year old daughter relates to our book, blog and the business of “The Art of Doing.” (She talks it up at dinner parties but has initiated an “Art of Doing Free Zone” during family time and created an “Art of Doing Idea Box” should an Art of Doing idea occur to someone while we’re in that zone. Maybe everyone needs an idea box?)

You can listen to our conversation on BlogcastFM: here.

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Two Scribbled Lines Are Worth a Thousand Words.

We were humbled to see this sketch by Demetri Martin (from his book This is a Book) that summed up in two scribbled lines the very point that we’ve been trying to make.

Demetri Martin Art of DoingSometimes we can feel a bit like a broken record—going on about how we came to discover that the extraordinary people we interviewed for our book didn’t just take a steady glide path to their great successes. Instead, their vocational journeys were scattered with obstacles and setbacks that required them to struggle and scuffle just like the rest of us.

And then we were humbled to see the sketch by Demetri Martin (from his book This is a Book) that summed up in two scribbled lines this very point that we’ve been trying to make.

Demetri is an author, comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer and humorist. He’s won an Emmy and a Writers Guild of America Award.

Demetri, if you are out there, reading this, we’d like to interview you about the squiggly line of your own success.

  • Buy “The Art of Doing.” Follow us on Twitter. Join our “Art of Doing” Facebook Community. 

How to Shape a Story with Celebrity Spin Doctor
Mike Sitrick

Everyone understands the importance of shaping a story but few are as shrewdly proficient at manipulating the media as L.A. crisis manager Mike Sitrick, who the Los Angeles Times called “The Wizard of Spin.”

Mike Sitrick Art of Doing How Superachievers do What They Do and How They Do It So WellEveryone understands the importance of shaping a story but few are as shrewdly proficient at manipulating the media as L.A. crisis manager Mike Sitrick, who the Los Angeles Times called “The Wizard of Spin.”  A celebrity, arrested for soliciting a prostitute or going on a drunken rampage, confronted with a frenzied pack of reporters, is likely to call Sitrick whose firm has defended and rebuilt the reputations of scores of entertainers, athletes and other high-profile clients caught in the media glare. (His clients have included Paris Hilton, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Vick and Chris Brown to name a few, as well as embattled companies and high profile executives, many of whom Sitrick can only discuss off the record if at all.) Sitrick, whose uncanny ability to assess and understand the intricacies of how the media behaves and what makes an individual journalist tick, has a lot to teach anyone about how to deal with the media. His advice in a nutshell: “If you don’t tell your story, someone else will tell it for you.”

Continue reading “How to Shape a Story with Celebrity Spin Doctor
Mike Sitrick”

Inside the Mind of David Chang:
A Restaurateur’s Word Cloud

What does it take to make a great restaurant? From this Word Cloud, based on our interview with David Chang, chef/owner of Momofuku restaurant group, for our book, “The Art of Doing,” we can see what matters most to this award-winning Korean-American restaurateur.

David Chang Word Cloud

Frequency is the currency of a word cloud. The more a word is repeated, the larger it appears in the cloud. Click here to see the interactive version.

David Chang the art of doing momofukuWhat does it take to make a great restaurant? From this word cloud, based on our interview with David Chang, chef/owner of Momofuku restaurant group, for our book “The Art of Doing,” we can see what matters most to this award-winning Korean-American restaurateur. Rather than the reality TV caricature of a pathological screaming chef, Chang’s focus on words such as ‘work,’ ‘love,’ ‘good,’ ‘care,’ ‘make,’ ‘hard,’ ‘great’ and ‘open’ reveal his obsessive devotion to food as well as those who prepare and eat it. His concern for co-workers, customers and all that occurs within his kitchens and what goes out of them borders on the religious. His words even hint at the feelings of a doting mother serving her family. Is it any wonder that the combination of Chang’s priestly devotion, his culinary brilliance and killer work ethic is impressing critics, attracting talented staff and feeding a growing number of happy customers in country after country?

Read our story on David Chang and “The Secret Ingredient for Success” in The New York Times here. Check out artist/illustrator Scott Menchin’s Art of Doing Artist Interpretation of David Chang here.

  • Buy the book here. Follow us on Twitter here. Join “The Art of Doing” Facebook community here.

 

Book Talk: The Art of Doing at SXSW, a Forbes Review

Reading at SXSW 2013
Camille Sweeney (yes, in cowboy boots!) reads from “The Art of Doing” at SXSW Interactive on Sat March 9 Austin Convention Center Ballroom G
Forbes’s Meghan Casserly reports from SXSW: “Super-Achievers Call ‘Community’ The Real Secret Of Success”
South By Southwest has become something of a Mecca for super-achievers, or more accurately, would-be super-achievers hoping to change the world one idea at a time. So it was unsurprising to find an Austin ballroom packed with more than 300 conference attendees on a humid Saturday morning to hear Camille Sweeney, a co-author of the new book “The Art Of Doing” share her findings on the common qualities of more than 36 of the world’s highest achieving humans.

Continue reading “Book Talk: The Art of Doing at SXSW, a Forbes Review”

The Art of Doing at SXSW
Austin Convention Center on Sat March 9 at 10AM

sxsw
Come hear co-authors Camille Sweeney & Josh Gosfield in talks at SXSW 2013

We know that it takes hard work, talent and the occasional dose of luck for someone to make it to the top of their chosen field…but is that all?

To find out we asked dozens of extraordinary people including celebrities, businessmen, artists and iconoclastic achievers, “How do you do what you do?”

The result is our book “The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It So Well” (Plume 2013). We talked to Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, actor Alec Baldwin, Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner, actress Laura Linney, rockers OK Go, startup king Bill Gross, wire walker Philippe Petit, business guru Guy Kawasaki and many more. We discovered that these superachievers, however diverse their goals, shared many fascinating qualities that contributed to their success.

At Camille’s book talk at SXSW she’ll discuss what you can learn from their strategies, principles and tips and how you can apply them to your own work and personal life. Join us after in the SXSW bookstore for a signing. And from 6:30 to 8 PM come to Happy Hour at Maggie Mae’s 323 E 6th St, Austin, TX.

Josh will speak, too, in a SXSW presentation on Creativity on Tues March 12 at 12:30. Follow Josh on Twitter: Here

  • Buy “The Art of Doing”: Here Sign up for The Art of Doing Weekly E-newsletter: Here Follow us on Twitter: Here Join The Art of Doing FaceBook Community: Here

When Failure Is Not An Option,
Typical Career Advice Does Not Apply
[Philippe Petit Part 2]

“Art happens when you work millions of hours not to make it look hard but to make it look effortless,” says famed World Trade Center high-wire walker Philippe Petit. Read on for more insight that applies to entrepreneurs as well as daredevils.

In 1974, Philippe Petit committed the “artistic crime of the century” when he wire-walked across the void between the two world trade center towers. Since then, Petit has gone on to perform many other spectacular wire walks, authored over half a dozen books and singlehandedly built a barn using eighteenth-century tools and design. But, for all of his meticulous preparation, Petit bristles at any attempt to systematize his methods. Asked to explain his artistic process, he says, “It can be boiled down to a few words–from chaos to total control to perfection.”

We found Petit’s philosophy of how he lives his entire life as if he’s on the high wire could be applied to anyone’s work or personal life. Continue reading “When Failure Is Not An Option,
Typical Career Advice Does Not Apply
[Philippe Petit Part 2]”