"Nearly sixty years have passed since, as a teen, I last attended a class at the Children's Art Centre. But the special feeling I enjoyed as a I passed through its brick archway, entered the grass courtyard, and viewed that beautiful front wall composed of five massive French doors is vivid in my memory. It was such a contrast to the South End streets of Boston of the 1950s."

— Nick Haddad, former Children's Art Centre student

This is the untold story of The Children's Art Centre of Boston's South End and Charlotte Dempsey who ran it for nearly forty years. In 1918, its doors opened, marking the first and only museum designed for children. Artwork was hung at child-height on the wall and allowed to be touched by small hands. Children were free to explore  sculptures and paintings on the walls and tables. Some were created by the local talent and others came from around the world on loan from international museum and collections. There had never been anything like the Children's Art Centre in America before then. 

In 1930, Charlotte Dempsey came in as the Director. She revolutionized the classrooms. She encouraged children to make with new materials and not merely copy with pencils the previous great works, ushering in an explosion of color and energy and innovation. Dempsey also integrated all classrooms within the Centre's iconic five French doors. All creeds and backgrounds were welcome, even those who could not pay. Children would finish school and come over to work and look at other creations. 

Prior, Dempsey was a student at the College of Massachusetts in Art and Design. She never married, instead devoting herself to her career, which in the '30s and '40s was unconventional. Typically, women only lasted two years at the Art Centre because they got married or pregnant. According to other children, Ms. Charlotte was very serious and not as seemingly child-focused as other staff. In reality, she juggling operations, managing staff, and finding funds. 

Dempsey toured the children's art to over thirty countries—even so far as Korea. She also brought in art from other countries. Her students had access to an impressively diverse array of culture—from Egyptian and Native American art to Japanese watercolors. This cultural exchange expanded children's vision of what was possible beyond Boston's poor South End. ​[JG]

Julia Glatfelter previously studied Art Education at Gordon College in Massachusetts and taught art to youth in settings on the North Shore and in Boston's South End. Julia's work has shown in the greater Boston area, southeastern Pennsylvania, and Baltimore. You can explore her visual arts and projects here. I also really enjoyed hearing her talked about The Little Glass Treasure House on Hub History, a Boston-based podcast. Oh, and she's also my sister—so proud! 
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40% of NHL players are born in January, February or March. Why? The Beatles performed 1,200 times before achieving global success. Where? Einstein's IQ was 30% lower than some colleagues' own, yet he won a Nobel Peace Prize. How? Commercial pilots who crash planes are often born in the same countries. Where? 

In Outliers: The Story of Success, bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell aims to challenge our common notions of intelligence, ambition, and personality traits as the end-all-be-all recipe for achievement. Rather than confirming existence of the purely "self-made man," his analysis of various high achievers and statistical outliers, suggests a strong influence of environmental factors. Some factors are controllable, like Bill Gates choosing to spend his summer vacations in his high school computer lab learning to code. Some factors were less controllable, like whether or not he had access to a computer lab. While, I do take issue with some Gladwell's commentary and conclusions regarding the examples, I think he's also making some very reaffirming, empowering observations about how to be more 'self-made' and how to overcome those 'uncontrollable' factors. 

For instance, one of Gladwell's observations that's become a cultural meme of sorts is the 10,000 Hour Rule, the idea that mastery of any craft across all disciplines requires a minimum of 10,000 hours. The Beatles' 1,200+ performances in Hamberg at after hour jazz clubs was their training ground. They improved their stage presence, crafted nearly three albums worth of songs, and networked with the music community. The Beatles had a virtual monopoly on these German clubs because the other rock n' roll bands of England were less motivated to make the trip off-island to go perform for a weekend. They chose to put themselves in the right environment weekend after weekend for nearly two years, working long nights. 

The marriage of will and habits with environment is what I saw in Gladwell's brilliant collage of case studies. If anything, I gleaned from these stories that the story of success is attainable for everyone. We may not achieve outlier-level success, but by better understanding our advantages and disadvantages for a given situation, we're more equipped to advance toward our goals, then assess, advance, reassess, and choose to push on or start a new story. ​[JG]

In Money: Master the Game, Tony Robbins condenses 50 interviews from top investors and 40 years of his own personal and financial wisdom into a 7-step program that anyone can follow. I really appreciated his insights on Index Funds vs. Mutual Funds and why he thinks the former is a safer investment. Other key take-aways for me include: 

1. Compound interest is powerful. Start investing when you're young. Every year counts. 
2. It's hard to keep large sums of money. You have to self-discipline as you go. 
3. Tax and fees efficiency is critical to growth. Look into the truth of 401(k) and Funds' fees. 
4. Seek the unicorns and learn from them. Model your life on who your heroes are. 
5. Don't try to beat the masters in their own game. Index Funds perform better than 96% of Mutual Funds in any 10-year period. 
6. Define the system before you receive the money to avoid temptation. Set aside your % every paycheck.
7. Asset allocation is a hugely important decision for investing. What risk are you comfortable taking and not losing sleep over? 
8. Have a dream bucket for fun now or helping others. 
9. Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.
10. Rebalance your portfolio every 6/12 months, remember 6 months can increase taxes
11. Provide value and think from your customer's point of view

If you have any other resources you would recommend to me regarding personal finance, I'm all ears. Very eager to continue my understanding of options out there that suite my more conservative risk-tolerance. [JG]

“You’re not as good as you think. You don’t have it all figured out. Stay focused. Do better.” 
​— Ryan Holiday, Ego Is the Enemy

I take philosophical issue with this book's title. And I find the headless statue on the cover unnerving. I don't think ego, the self, is definitionally bad. In fact, I don't even think it's simply neutral. I think ego is good, when properly understood. And I don't think it's an accident that the meme of an egoist is someone who only cares for themselves at the expense of others. It's a cultural bias many people hold. But I also respect why a meme like that is so pervasive. Which is why I knew I could and should look past the title and cover of Ego is the Enemy.

It was in my own interest and the interest of the people in my life to do so. It was important to me because Ryan Holiday has been such an inspiration throughout my twenties, which I'll be exiting later this year. Holiday's thoughtful extraction of principles from ancient philosophy, his incredible guerrilla marketing tactics at American Apparel and subsequent confession, his hobby farm in Austin packed with animals—all the wisdom he's shared with me and the example he's set for me from afar has been a guiding north star. 

And one of the worst things I think people can do is discredit others wholesale for partial points of disagreement. How often do we reject a person outright, because we don't like one of their songs or paintings or comments at work or because they hold (un)popular ideas that we don't? I've certainly caught myself reacting that way more than once in thought and action. I probably always will have to check that. I'm glad I did in this case. Ego is the Enemy is an excellent gut-check. The 30 brief, essentialized case studies from history contained inside are instructional to getting out of one's own way. Nourishing one's true self through attitudinal changes can be tough. It's always easier said than done, and even easier to merely read about it. But Holiday's bedside-table-sized meditation, much like it's spiritual older brother, The Obstacle is the Way, is sure to help handle with impulsivity, pandering to others' opinions, status-chasing, and arrogant self-talk. Here's to checking your ego so that it continues to grow bigger, better, and healthier. [JG]

Ryan Holiday is a bestselling author of books on marketing, entrepreneurship, ancient Stoic philosophy, American culture, and the human condition. His work has been translated into twenty languages and appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review, Fast Company, The New York Observer, and others. 

I'm also a huge fan of three other books by him: Trust Me, I'm Lying, The Obstacle is the Way, about which I had the privilege of interviewing him in 2016, and Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, & Advertising.

I first encountered Ryan by way of the Chase Jarvis Live show in 2012, and since have discovered an incredible amount of books from other authors and creatives, including bestselling author Robert Greene, CEO of Breather Julian Smith, human guinea pig Tim Ferriss, and others. ​

“Someone once asked Somerset Maughham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. 'I write only when inspiration strikes,' he replied. 'Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.'”
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— Steven Pressfield, The War of Art​
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The War of Art is one of the most impactful books I've ever read. And it doesn't read like most books. It's a battlecry and battle plan against that ever-present, invisible obstacle that creative types face daily. Pressfield gives it a name: Resistance. And a face.

"Resistance is self-sabotage...Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. Resistance is the enemy within."

"Resistance," Pressfield writes, "is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That's why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there'd be no Resistance.” 

So, how can we kill it? How can we win the war of art? How can we finish that which we wish to create? 

By doing the work. By choosing to get up early—to prioritize one's calling as the most urgent part of your day. By feeling Resistance and pushing back. Every day. By being a professional who gets up and puts on the work boots Monday through Friday. Plus some weekends. Rain or shine. Even when sick. Even when tired or frustrated or disheartened. By mastering oneself, by quitting the lethal habit of procrastination in its many forms—eating sweet food, drinking alcohol, sex and masturbation, social media, chronic talking or reading)—by waging war against Resistance every day, we strengthen our creative muscles and or output. Win enough daily battles and you will inevitably win the war of art. 

Pressfield's exploration of the creative process cuts through and captures the essence of artistic blocks with epic brevity and pace. The audiobook is 6 hours, 4 if you crank the playback speed to 1.25. It's the perfect hiking companion. I revisit The War of Art monthly. But don't just take my word for it. 

Tim Ferriss, John Mayer, Ryan Holiday, Marie Forlio, Aubrey Marcus, Joe Rogan, and many other top performers cite Pressfield's body of work regularly, The War of Art especially. [JG]
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Steven Pressfield is the author of Gates of Fire, Tides of War, Last of the Amazons, Virtues of War, The Afghan Campaign, Killing Rommel, The Profession, The Lion's Gate, The War of Art, Turning Pro, Do the Work, The Warrior Ethos, The Authentic Swing, An American Jew, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, The Knowledge, and The Artist's Journey. 

It took Pressfield 17 years of writing to earn the first paycheck from his writing. It took another ten to publish his first novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance. That same year it was adapted for the screen and stared Matt Damon, Will Smith, and Charlize Theron. Robert Redford directed it. His Wednesday's column on stevenpressfield.com is among one of the most popular writing blogs on the web to this day. 
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