Tag: Dream (Page 1 of 2)

When the world stopped spinning

December 6, 2021 / Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

When the world stopped spinning due to COVID-19, all our Irish dance competitions did too. The North American Championships, the Worlds and all the local feises. The teachers quickly pivoted to Zoom classes and kids around the globe were doing their jigs and reels on little squares of plywood in basements and kitchens and hallways for many months.

So, it was great to see things start to return to ‘normal’ recently as competitions opened up again, with all the safety protocols in place. Continue reading

Joe Gebbia

November 29, 2021 / Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

I am so impressed with the journey of Joe Gebbia. He is the co-founder of Airbnb but when I heard the story of how he got there, I couldn’t stop smiling.

I was listening to him chat with Tim Ferriss. Joe mentioned that he had convinced his buddy Brian, who he had been in contact with since leaving school at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), to move from LA to San Francisco so that they might start some kind of business together. A few days after Brian arrived at Joe’s apartment, after quitting his job, and packing his life into his Honda Civic, Joe got a letter from his landlord saying their rent would be 25% higher the following month. And neither of them had the money to cover it. Continue reading

When there is a door open

October 18, 2021 / Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

I heard therapist Esther Perel say in a podcast recently that living in the moment is only feasible when there is a door open to leave that moment if you wish. However, that door was closed countless times during the pandemic which left us sitting in uncertainty and sometimes despair. When would things return to what we remembered as normal? Would that ever happen? Continue reading

Your ten-year plan for a remarkable life

October 19, 2020 / Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

Debbie Millman, designer and author, was a guest on the Tim Ferriss podcast that I listened to this week. After multiple rejections in her career and overcoming a traumatic childhood, she wrote six books, co-founded the world’s first masters in branding program, started one of the world’s first podcasts entitled Design Matters, and was the editorial and creative director of Print Magazine for a time (a magazine which was in print from 1940 to 2017).

She mentioned that one of the things she has asked of her students over the years is to write, “Your Ten-Year Plan For A Remarkable Life.” This is something she learned as a student of Milton Glaser (who created the I Heart NY campaign which I remember vividly from my childhood.) Continue reading

Is there a life before death?

June 1, 2020 / Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

I’m reading the book Awareness by Anthony de Mello and in it he asks, “Is there a life before death?”

I read the question twice before it really sunk in. Are we busy living or are we busy dying? Continue reading

Shallow

February 25, 2019 / Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

When Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper sang the Oscar-nominated, original song Shallow at the Oscars last night, it was arguably the highlight of the evening. It went on to win the coveted award and in her acceptance speech, Lady Gaga (whose stage name was created after the Queen song Radio Ga Ga which is a funny twist of fate as the movie Bohemian Rhapsody was also up for multiple awards last night) said, “This is hard work. I’ve worked hard for a long time. It’s not about winning — what it’s about is not giving up. If you have a dream, fight for it. There’s a discipline for passion, and it’s not about how many times you get rejected or you fall down or get beaten up. It’s about how many times you stand up and are brave and keep going.” Continue reading

The Beatles landed

February 8, 2019 / Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

Fifty-five years ago, in February 1964, the Beatles landed in New York for their first American tour. There were 5,000 screaming fans at the airport to greet them. Beatlemania had begun. Continue reading

Sam Kass

January 28, 2019 / Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

I read about Sam Kass in Michelle Obama’s book Becoming. He was the head chef at the White House. But I didn’t know his back story. I heard it last week on Tim Ferriss’ podcast and it was so inspiring. He went to the University of Chicago on a baseball scholarship and did a history degree because he was always interested in how we got to where we ended up. He mentioned a tidbit about professional baseball that I found extremely interesting. He said the top professional baseball players have a 30 per cent success rate. So the best players in the league fail 70 per cent of the time. How inspiring is that? They hit more but they also swing more. A lesson for us all. Continue reading

Martin Luther King Jr.

January 21, 2019 / Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A day to celebrate a man who used words to protest and changed the world. His speeches are timeless. His message is fearless. Continue reading

You’re doing something wrong

September 21, 2018 / Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

I saw an anonymous meme the other day that said, “If people don’t occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you’re doing something wrong.”

We should all be doing something outside the box. Blazing a trail rather than walking a well-worn path.

If you spend too much time doing what the experts recommend or what society says then you can’t make a breakthrough. Continue reading