Nick Saban and his University of Alabama teams have won four national championships, and he once appeared on a Forbes magazine cover as “The Most Powerful Coach in Sports.” A couple of months ago, I attended an Alabama practice

When Christa Quarles became OpenTable’s CEO last year, she quickly realized her teams were trying to perfect ideas and projects before showing them to her. “They would waste a ton of time trying to get it perfect,” she told

In the film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” Butch and Sundance land their first honest job as payroll guards for a mining company. One classic — and funny — scene has them heading down the mountain to pick up

Americans Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick — two of the world’s fastest skaters 10 years ago —  were both scheduled for the 1500-meter speed skating event in the 2006 Winter Olympics. For weeks before the match, they bickered in

“I’m in no shape to exercise.” Overhearing this sentence in a coffee shop, I glanced over to see an obese fellow holding a gooey pastry and a drink topped with whipped cream. He and his buddy laughed, but there

Several years ago, I joined a small group visiting the set of Saturday Night Live after its Friday night rehearsal. During the visit, executive producer Lorne Michaels discussed SNL’s creative process — emphasizing that the show’s extraordinarily tight schedule

The surveillance cameras throughout the streets of Amsterdam looked really boring to Jill Magid, a conceptual artist. So for her next street-art project, Jill wanted to decorate those dull cameras with rhinestones. But when she presented her plan to

Inspiring Fortitude: Homeless Student Pedals Bike 6 Hours To College     It’s been a hot, dry summer in Georgia. But sweltering heat couldn’t stop Fred Barley, a homeless college student. Nor could more than 50 miles of scorching

Above is a thank-you note I received from Oban, the four-year-old grandson of our neighbor, after he and I fed cracked corn to the two ducks in our community’s pond. (It reads: “Dear Sam, Thank you for taking me

Creativity isn’t a talent granted to a privileged few — it’s innate in all humans. And the ebb and flow of personal creativity helps determine whether or lives — and our work — are bright or bleak, eye-opening or