Brian Lawrence

“leadership isn’t a role or a position. Instead it’s really a way of being with others that makes them want to follow you.”
― Ann Deaton, Being Coached: Group and Team Coaching From the Inside

“In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money, and that the masses give free rein to their cravings and passions – and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How, though, do we know that we’ll really get paradise in return? We’ve seen it on television.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“Finally, we can congratulate ourselves on the unprecedented accomplishments of modern Sapiens only if we completely ignore the fate of all other animals. Much of the vaunted material wealth that shields us from disease and famine was accumulated at the expense of laboratory monkeys, dairy cows and conveyor-belt chickens. Over the last two centuries tens of billions of them have been subjected to a regime of industrial exploitation whose cruelty has no precedent in the annals of planet Earth. If we accept a mere tenth of what animal-rights activists are claiming, then modern industrial agriculture might well be the greatest crime in history. When evaluating global happiness, it is wrong to count the happiness only of the upper classes, of Europeans or of men. Perhaps it is also wrong to consider only the happiness of humans.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“One of the things that a Mastermind promises to do is to allow every participant to make rapid progress, whether it relates to her/ his professional activity or to her/ his personal development. And we don’t believe that can be accomplished by avoiding the mention of the weak points that we perceive in others, or in their work, since we want to help everyone quickly. As partners in responsibility, the participants should, therefore, offer one another honest, sincere feedback that will help unleash some quantum leaps. A Mastermind group is a space where lightning fast experimentation and learning takes place. Participants’ feedback should also be lightning fast.”
― Jean-François Thiriet, Mastermind Groups: Accelerators of Success