Getting inspired by Esther Perel

I abhor blurry photos, but I had to share. My view of Esther Perel at the Chicago Humanities Fest.

I draw inspiration from all around me, and one of my favorite ways to do so is by observing people whose work I admire.

I had the pleasure of attending a talk by noted therapist, author, and podcaster Esther Perel. She was engaging, funny, and at one point worried that we weren’t listening, because the whole room was so quiet. We were rapt by her speech! (And, can I just say, it was heaven being in an audience without side conversations, phones dinging, and people texting or looking at sports scores).

I took away a few nuggets I’ll incorporate into my own talks:

• “A question is a question, and it is short.” Said right before taking questions from the audience. So good. I’ll be using this from now on.

• Perel took questions all at once (about 10) to see if there was a theme that emerged among all the questions, and then she answered. There was a theme: Relationships, infidelity, and “affair-proofing” your relationship. (Spoiler alert on that last one: Good luck.)

• “Nobody runs a company the way they run a marriage.” Okay, I probably won’t ever say this, but it’s something worth thinking about.