Brian is the Chief Philosopher of Philosophers Notes, a website and business I discovered about a year ago and think is absolutely terrific. Brian’s role as Chief Philosopher is to study and share the the world’s greatest wisdom. He has picked the hundred best, wisest, smartest books, he has articulated the thousand best ideas in those books and from those he has extracted the ten core principles behind the real works of wisdom that guide us and shape is in our 21st century.

What makes this sweeter still is that Brian is also a brilliant entrepreneur. He founded an organization called E-Teams that grew, was massively successful and sold it in 2000 to The Active Network then came back and founded another brilliant online company called Zaadz which is now known as Gaia.com and which is also terrific – it’s like a Facebook or LinkedIn for people who want to save the world and change the world.

This is a really juicy call, full of ideas and in it we talk about:

• How you know if you’re ‘following your bliss” (and what Carlos Castaneda has to say on the point)
• One of the deepest choices of life: do you step forward into growth or back into safety
• A brilliant mapping system to help you keep track of your path
• And what Brian learned from Jim Loehr about projecting his shadow
• The importance of ritual

And of course, a whole lot more.

You can find Brian at www.PhilosophersNotes.com and follow him on Twitter at @_Brian_Johnson. (And if you do so, you’ll see he’s just announced he’s getting married. Woo hoo!)

Listen to my interview with Brian Johnson

Dan Pink has deeply influenced the way we think about work and the way I think about Great Work. His first book, Free Agent Nation, spoke to the growing trend of people leaving organizations and finding their own way. His next book, A Whole New Mind pointed to core drivers on why the world of work is changing and can no longer rely on just efficiency and process. He then wrote and designed a manga comic, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko – a somewhat unrecognized gem on the six secrets for meaning and impact at work. And his latest book Drive,  is on motivation and is destined to be another classic. He’s also – bless him – someone else who struggled through law school…

In our conversation we address:

• The story of how ‘Johnny Bunko’ was born
• Why the fact is  that “there is no plan” is something that liberates rather than constrains
• Two things that have freed Dan to do his own Great Work

You can follow Dan on Twitter at @DanielPink and read his blog at www.DanPink.com. You can see him speaking at TED on the surprising science of motivation.

Listen to my interview with Dan Pink here

Do you have kids? If so, you’ve probably heard of Barbara Coloroso. Heck, I DON’T have kids and even I’ve heard of her! She is an authority (if not the authority) on parenting and teaching, school discipline, non-violent conflict resolution and re-conciliatory justice.  She’s written a number of best sellers:  Kids Are Worth It, which is about the art of parenting, The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander which uncovers a dynamic that happens all the way from the playground to the board room, and – flowing from that – Extraordinary Evil: A Short Walk to Genocide.

Because courage is so central to the concept of Great Work, I was delighted to talk to Barbara about some of these deep dynamics in our lives. In this interview we discuss:

• the differences between a “culture of caring” and a “culture of mean” – and how you can participate in and create either one of them
• how being a bystander is no excuse – there are no innocent bystanders
• how the best anecdote against the three most virulent agents ripping apart the fabric of our humanity – hating other human beings with utter contempt; hording me, mine, and more instead of ours, us, and enough; and harming with lying and cheating and stealing – is to create a climate in our homes, our schools, our communities, and our workplace where we can care deeply, share generously, and help willingly

Listen to my interview with Barbara Coloroso here

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.

Laura Berman Fortgang is truly one of the pioneers in the personal coaching field. She has a number of books to her name including Now What?: 90 Days to a New Life Direction and her most recent The Little Book of Meaning (and no doubt you can immediately see why Laura’s such a great fit with great work.)

Laura was one of the very first personal coaches to be featured on national television including an appearance on Oprah. And on top of running a company that provides coaching and training, she is also an ordained interfaith minister.

In our conversation we:

• hear about the moment that shifted her to expand her practice from coaching to training as a minister – and the importance of listening to the call of Great Work
• get into why “meaningful work” isn’t all about becoming Mother Theresa – but finding it in the life you currently live
• talk about how your schedule tells you more about your life than you’d care to admit

Listen to my interview with Laura Berman Fortgang here

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.
You can follow Laura on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@LBFcoach

Here’s a confession.  I want to be able to think like Merlin Mann.

He’s really smart on the topic of productivity, and in fact some part of his success comes from 43Folders.com which is a reference to David Allen’s Getting Things Done system.  But his work is not just about productivity.  It’s about creativity and purpose and striving to stay human and sane in a busy and distracting world and doing work that matters, doing Great Work. And he does all of this in funny, provocative, iconoclastic way.

In fact, writing this introduction and listening to the interview again has already provoked me to shift some of my own commitments in an effort to, as he puts it, “identify and destroy small return bullshit.  Shut off anything that’s noisier than it is useful.”  Great stuff indeed, and this is a wise and funny interview.

In our conversation we talk about:

• How the present is a “remedial course for the future” – and the pros and cons of those ‘creation myth’ stories of where people find clues for their Great Work
• The importance of an open heart and just where that might lead you
• The connection between productivity and creativity
• The two levels of prioritization (and how freeing it is to know that)
• And quite a bit more

You can follow Merlin on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.

Listen to my interview with Merlin Mann