In honor of the new year, we've asked several FearLess contributors to share their thoughts on resolutions, New Year's or otherwise, and especially as they relate to helping others, living fearlessly and being your authentic self. They responded with wisdom, tenderness and compassion. Enjoy!

"Love Without Props"

I'd torn my rotator cuff and had the surgery to repair it and done the rehab. Compared to the knee surgeries I'd had, the rehab for my shoulder seemed, well, too easy. Small movements with what are basically big rubber bands. Some pain and no sweating involved. As a former college athlete, this just felt wrong.

Click to read more ...

Can mint-green baseball caps, dodgeballs stenciled with the number "1200," and a whist tournament dissuade kids from smoking? According to a renegade team of designers and community leaders, the answer is yes.

Check out the full Fast Company article on MenthLab, a recent design workshop to combat teen smoking with the organization behind the "Truth" campaign and FearLess collaborators The Butler Bros, COMMON and Common Lab.

John Bielenberg, COMMON co-founder, and Gino Bona, FearLess editor, will deliver keynote speeches at The Juice Conference 3.0 in Camden, Maine on November 5.

Click to read more ...

Two of COMMON's founding parters, Rob Schuham and John Bielenberg recently spoke at TEDx Mile High, TEDx Greenville and the PSFK Conference in NYC.

It's exciting to have COMMON invited to such high-profile events and our thanks go out to the event coordinators and the audience. The best thing about speaking is the feedback we get on COMMON and the connection to new groups of potential collaborators. Stay tuned for other events where Rob and John will be talking about the evolving thinking behind COMMON. And better yet, join the COMMON community and start collaborating!?

TEDxMileHigh photo credit: Chris Anthony

This is such a cool illustration by Kate Worum. But of course the subject matter is pretty cool too. Our COMMON co-founder John Bielenberg knows a thing or two about bamboo bikes, "thinking wrong" and what makes things legendary.

John recently presented COMMON at the PSFK Conference in New York. Check out his interview with PSFK before the talk.

Watch as Alex Bogusky, Rob Schuham and John Bielenberg present COMMON, and follow along with the deck below (Download PDF).

We’re confident that benefiting people, communities, society, the environment and future generations is the new advantage in business. We’re launching the COMMON brand in support of this transition from competitive advantage to collaborative advantage.

COMMON is one part community; one part business prototyper; and one part collaborative brand. A living network of creative people rapidly prototyping dozens or hundreds of progressive businesses designed to solve social problems. Connected to a brand that’s community designed, community owned, and community directed.

Click to read more ...

FearLess founders Alex Bogusky and Rob Schuham give a sneak peak of our next endeavor with collaborator John Bielenberg of design initiative Project M.

Update: Join the COMMON Community.

In this presentation, our new friend and collaborator John Bielenberg presents his work with Project M.

What John does best is help people find the courage and the sense of humor to consider whole new, "wrong" ways of bringing their stories, ideas, and innovations out into the world.

Click to read more ...

In 2009, inspired by the bike culture in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, a small group of young designers in my program called Project M conceived and launched a new bicycle collective called Nada Bike. Nada is a community of people who believe that sometimes simple is best and that "less is more." Less cars, less gas, less smog, less paint, less gears, less lycra, less fat. More independence, more health, more freedom, more sustainability, more DIY, more fun.

Click to read more ...