Nate’s Notes 117: Dan Heath | Bright Spots as a Superpower

Thanks for listening to this episode of Meikles and Dimes. I could have listened to Dan for days. What a great lesson he shared about bright spots.

We’re prone to focus on weakness and shortcomings. For example, almost 2/3 of emotion words are negative, and when we write in journals we tend to focus on what’s not working.

But as Dan so convincingly described, focusing on our own bright spots and the bright spots of others can be a superpower.

It’s a simple idea. Please take it seriously.

Dan Heath Bio:

 Dan Heath is the co-author, with his brother Chip, of four New York Times bestsellers:  Decisive, Switch, Made to Stick, and The Power of Moments. The books have sold over 3 million copies worldwide and been translated into 33 languages.

Dan is a Senior Fellow at Duke University’s CASE center, which supports social entrepreneurs. Previously, Dan worked as a researcher and case writer for Harvard Business School. In the late 1990s, Dan co-founded an innovative publishing company called Thinkwell, which produces online college textbooks that feature video lectures from some of the country’s top professors. And one proud geeky moment for Dan was his victory in the 2005 New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest, beating out 13,000 other entrants.

Dan has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from the University of Texas at Austin.