Brooke Wise’s 3 Top Sources of Inspiration

Yesterday we brought you Brooke Wise, the Founder of Wise Matchmaking. Brooke explained the difficulties in keeping personal matters out of professional ones, and vice versa. (If you missed Brooke, go back and listen here.)

The best leaders know they can’t do it alone. They need someone or something to turn to, and Brooke Wise chooses three people who don’t quite think like the rest of us. Brooke says she often gets a curious response when she tells people her business: These figures understand the beauty of doing what’s uncommon.

1) Welch Management Institute

Jack Welch needs no introduction. Keeping his legacy alive is the Welch Management Institute, which preaches some core ideas about winning and maintaining excellence in everything you do. It’s something I constantly try to bring to my company and clients.

2) Steve Jobs

In his 2005 Stanford University commencement speech, Steve Jobs encouraged graduates to pursue their dreams and consider the upside to failure. As CEO, Jobs was both domineering and tender. He stood his ground – when he knew he had a winner, he didn’t let anyone tell him he was wrong.

I think everyone can take something from the way he led at Apple, even if not every relationship he had ended well and not every product succeeded.

3) David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon College  commencement speech is both touching and dark. It reminds us to get out of our own heads, realizing people are just that: people. Whether we deal with clients or with strangers, we need to remember a little compassion can go a long way. The world is busy, but never too busy for empathy.