There are lots of examples where school has failed entrepreneurs, who were clearly gifted to do something else. Less so, the examples of people who are doing okay, that have all the trappings of modern life. A mortgage, a car lease, living pay-day to pay-day. And for people that were disruptive at school, never did anything and ended up in prison? Well that is obviously their fault, isn’t it? The main things that school did not teach me that I will try to teach my kids:
There are so many books that I have read in my adult life that I wish someone had given me at school. Actually, that is a lie, because I would not have read them at school because school distilled in me a hatred for reading. If the only point of reading is to take a test, to see if you can remember the same things as the person who wrote the questions, is it any wonder that we have a generation of people that only read fiction to fall asleep, or worse do not read at all. What’s the best thing you learned after school that you think should be included? Fed up of meeting hell? Our iPhone app can help. Find out more.
What would you do with an extra hour per day? More from the Blog What if you worked eight hours at a corporate job then spent three hours working on a side project? What if you did your side job in the middle of the day: worked two hours at your corporate job, three hours on a side project and then six hours back at your normal job? What if you juggled your energy between the two all day and got more done in both? What is you found out that you get better results, more consistently – and had more energy – only doing four hours of work a day in total between the two? Why does anyone care about this spit? And why are people really worried about the gig economy? Taxes. Not workers’ rights or productivity. If everyone has time to be their own corporate entity then the government will receive much less tax. Or worse, the population may realise they are much better than anyone ever thought and stop becoming full time worker-consumers. Fed up of meeting hell? Our iPhone app can help. Find out more.
What would you do with an extra hour per day? More from the Blog It still surprises me that mentees hear very general advice from “mentors” in a corporate setting. (Mentors in the loosest sense of the word. They are slightly higher on the org chart than you - see reverse the org chart). It benefits the organisation to give very general feedback. No one will ever know if you have achieved it or not by your next annual review. They keep their downsizing options open. You know you are talking to someone experienced when they can break it down for you. If there is not something you can do daily, then it is not actionable. Push your boss to turn their feedback into a daily habit and find out if they are good or lucky. Fed up of meeting hell? Our iPhone app can help. Find out more.
What would you do with an extra hour per day? More from the Blog The trouble with free advice is that you get what you pay for. This week we took the offer of some free legal advice. The representative had no rules of thumb, no answers to our questions and just went down a form. Guess what, form filling can be replaced by someone cheaper. When we moved house the Estate agent put house on Rightmove and that was it. Guess what, putting pictures of something on the internet is not a skill I want to pay a percentage of my house for. This can be done by someone cheaper. If you don’t care, then you can’t charge. This is the reality of business today. Fed up of meeting hell? Our iPhone app can help. Find out more.
What would you do with an extra hour per day? More from the Blog When the plane goes down and the oxygen masks release, there is a reason why they tell you to put yours on first. Get your priorities sorted. And put them in order of things that cannot look after themselves without your help. Work on yourself first. Work on your health, mental state, resilience. Then look after your wife or partner. Then your children. Don't reverse these as they cannot look after themselves. The same is true for any project or business or art. As Tim Ferriss says, what is the one thing that if done will make everything else easier or irrelevant? Fed up of meeting hell? Our iPhone app can help. Find out more.
What would you do with an extra hour per day? More from the Blog It turns out I am pretty happy at my day job. Who knew? I hate the engagement survey every year. It somehow works the opposite and makes me think of all the bad things about the company. How refreshing, then, to stumble across this survey to prompt you to think ahead of March 31st – “International quit your crappy job day.” Not only is it much faster than a usual corporate engagement survey, but it focusses on the real things that make a difference in employees lives, such as trust and friendships in the office. I think this mirrors how my day-job company has turned itself around over the past few years. Being grateful of where you are and past achievements, but also knowing that there is still so far to improve. This has been the thought process that has helped me the most in my personal development. And why I am pursuing my side project whilst still working full time. I enjoy both. You need to decide if work is really holding you back from what you want to do or if it is just an excuse. There are two ways to find out: quit or start anyway. Fed up of meeting hell? Our iPhone app can help. Find out more.
What would you do with an extra hour per day? More from the Blog When you are younger, you assume everyone grown up knows more than you. The world is the way your parents tell you it is and cannot be changed. At some point, you realise that your parents do not know everything. But I don't think it's until you have kids of your own that you realise how much they must have made up on the spot that you took for gospel at the time. The same happens when you first start your working life. Depending on where you work it may take more or less time to figure it out. But again, at some point the realisation clicks, that just because someone is above you on an organisation chart, that bears no resemblance of their better ability in any area than you. Gary Vaynerchuk says that self-esteem is the best thing his parents gave him. And I believe that the realisation made famous by Steve Jobs above is key. Give your kids, your employees, your followers that gift. Then see what we can build together. Fed up of meeting hell? Our iPhone app can help. Find out more.
What would you do with an extra hour per day? More from the Blog Why should I sponsor you? Such as climbing Kilimanjaro. You have to raise £5k to do the trip and it costs around £2k to actually do the trip. The ROI for the charity is obvious, but I do not get the incentive for the giver. I would be benefiting the charity more if I don’t sponsor you. If I give the money directly to the charity then you will have to pay to top up your fundraising account. If it is something you want to do, then why should I pay for your airfare and expenses? Similarly, why should companies pay you to develop your skills? If it is something you want to do, why wait for them to book you on a shitty internal course rather than reading a book? Don’t have time, then how do you make time to attend the mandatory internal leadsrship course? If a company really wanted to maximise it’s people for the lowest cost, then why does it not let them watch a TED talk every day? Why does it not allow 30mins reading time? Why does it do nothing to build better habits such as not checking email all day? Because it does not care. Even the ones that say they care don’t really care. As James Altucher would say, “choose yourself.” Fed up of meeting hell? Our iPhone app can help. Find out more.
What would you do with an extra hour per day? More from the Blog “Can't”. The options killer. Like “must”, “can’t” can either be the driving force to prove someone wrong or a contracting trap in inevitability. You can't do x. Why? Because y will happen. Well, what if you are okay with y happening. Is there actually anything stopping you from doing x is someone assuming that you don’t want y to happen? There is a big assumption of the other person that Y will definitely happen and that there are no other options. Do not take this as fact without investigating yourself. Can’t should be the red flag to trigger this action. Like Harvey Spector in Suits always says, even if you have a gun pointed to your head, you still have a million options. Don’t rule them out without thinking about them. Can’t cuts them off before they have a chance. Don’t give in to others assumptions. Fed up of meeting hell? Our iPhone app can help. Find out more.
What would you do with an extra hour per day? More from the Blog What is “must”? What is “have to”? If imposed on yourself, these thoughts can be the drive greatness. If imposed by someone else, they can can hold you back. You don't have to do anything, there are just consequences if you do and consequences if you do not. Remember there are always three sides, even to a coin. Find the edge and make your decision from there. Still don’t know, then do what Derek Sivers says. Think long term. The best option is the one that provides the most options. Fed up of meeting hell? Our iPhone app can help. Find out more.
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