our feelings. Even a quick glance at them creates a healthy break, providing strength and support. The eyes are the windows to the soul. It’s not just what you see, but also what moves you. Let only beautiful images into your soul—things that make you joyful, proud, and happy. Every picture is worth more than a thousand words.
Kitchen
While I attended house parties in college, it quickly became clear to me that the best part of the party happens in the kitchen! And even today in our office, the kitchen is still an important hub—a kind of control center. But why? The kitchen is informal. The usual laws of the desk do not apply. Here, you’re just one hungry human being. Since you can have normal conversations and decompress, suddenly the expectations drop. Yet, these are all important prerequisites for relaxed thinking and getting fresh impressions.
Cooking, you create a break in your routine by give yourself a new environment and a new task. You’re here for dinner, and for a moment you allow your gaze to turn away from the unsolvable task of the day. But then, suddenly, the solution comes to you.
The potential of the kitchen is enormous, multiplied many times over if it is also filled with the right ingredients. I recommend fresh fruit and vegetables, lots of water (best to get a fridge with a water dispenser), fish (smoked salmon tastes great, is healthy, and is ready to eat), protein powder (for the body builders), whole grain bread, freshly squeezed juices, and nuts or trail mix. It’s best to eat together as a team as often as possible, to laugh, to have good conversations, and enjoy the partnership. The kitchen always provides a good opportunity to define and strengthen the culture of the company and the philosophy of the team.
Light
I don’t like hospital-style fluorescent tubes that try to imitate daylight, but instead look sterile and boring. Lots of real daylight, bright wall colors, and decorating with warm tones create a more pleasant atmosphere.
What can you do to keep you and your team in the office as long as possible? Put another way: What would you do to prepare your apartment for a nice date? Right! Clean up and create the proper, pleasant atmosphere. It has to be cozy and beautiful, pleasant and inspiring. In our office, we have floor-to-ceiling windows, a large roof terrace, warm light sources, and soft ceiling floodlights, as well as colored LED lights. Concerts, festivals, and clubs create their very own worlds just by using concepts in lighting. So, make it nice and you’ll enjoy being in the office. Soon you’ll associate positive emotions with your work!
Culture
What does your workplace stand for? What are the foundational values of your team? Your philosophy, mission, leadership, interaction, and ethics are the emotional furnishings of your workplace. What does your workplace culture feel like? Is it rather sterile and flat? Is it cozy and warm? Or is it just a little bit different?
A fulfilled person, a strong team, and a successful company all have a clear vision, share it a lot and openly, and do everything they need to fulfill their dreams. Members of a strong team trust each other blindly, share the shirts off their back, agree on fundamental principles, and share a common passion and faith—all this they do so harmoniously that an unstoppable energy arises. They resonate with each other. You can recognize their will to win, see it flashing in their eyes, and feel it in every handshake.
My tip for a better corporate culture—or just for you to create more meaning for yourself in the daily craziness of building your dreams—is to ask some good questions!
Ask good questions, get good answers, and change the spirit of your environment in minutes!
[no image in epub file]
Offense Instead of Defense
We are on the road a lot. I live and work in countless cities—both because of our events and my work as a speaker—but my home base for the moment is Cologne. Actually, not the city, but a small village fifteen minutes outside of town! It is surrounded by forests and lakes yet close enough to the city not to feel completely excluded. This location was chosen deliberately: the rent is much cheaper than in the city, I like to go for walks by the lake, and there is plenty of parking. But above all, I always play offense out here—in the city, you often only play defense. Everyone wants something from you, so they invite you to lunch, to coffee meetings, to drinks in the evening—your productivity often falls victim to the city. But my village location allows me to make the rules: I invite people to come to me if I want that, I have peace of mind, and I live according to my own schedule instead of the city’s schedule, with its the rush hour and the crowds. I’m proactive and not reactive—a productivity strategy that allows me to do a lot more and be much more relaxed.
Find a location that positions you on offense, not on defense—then you’ll score!
[no image in epub file]
8. The Creative Brain and Your Biceps
The brain, like a muscle, is trainable. I like fitness. I go to the gym, pay attention to my diet, own expensive workout equipment, follow good exercise routines, and take food supplements. I have really made fitness a part of my way of life. Why? It provides a good balance. I start the day off right with a good workout and a healthy breakfast, both which cause the “I feel really good” neurotransmitters—like endorphin, dopamine, and serotonin—to get released into the body. It also results in a good physique—a nice side effect.
The killer: you can do exactly the same thing with your brain! Proof? The ability to orient oneself is located in the prefrontal cortex, which covers the frontal lobe of the brain. London taxi drivers have to deal with a super complex road network. Scientists have found that parts of their prefrontal cortex are much larger than those of other people. The continuous engagement with their work has led to actual brain growth—just like physical exercise leads to muscle development! It’s like a ripped six-pack stomach, but in the head! The ability for the brain to change is called neuroplasticity. So, can we apply the lessons of the gym to developing our thinking, learning processes, and our continuing education? Can we consciously train our brains, especially the part responsible for creativity? Yes!
No Pain, No Gain!
Here’s a mental equivalent of the bench press: try to write down three to ten ideas. The first few come easily, of course, but just like in training, the growth, the stimulus, the muscle building comes later, in the last repetitions. So, go where it hurts, where you think you can’t push on, to the place where there seem to be no more ideas, no strength. Go beyond your boundaries, and you will grow!
By the way, all the other concepts from the gym can also be transferred to training the creative brain. Find a training partner who believes in you and can motivate you! Sports also teach you how to lose, emphasizing that a loss is simply feedback—it is not the end. The pain passes, the muscle heals—in the biceps, sure, but also in business and in life. Train regularly, note your progress, make a plan, eat well, don’t skip training, educate yourself, read literature, and take breaks to recuperate. Never stop, be patient! Results don’t happen overnight. When you try to integrate a whole new dimension into your life, you will only see the results in years, not days. Enjoy the journey, and don’t fixate on your eventual arrival! Expose yourself to ideas, generate new ideas, and talk about ideas. Read, write, listen, and look. Keep going until it hurts and you’ll eventually become really fit. No pain, no gain!
In the best teams, the members
