In my 8 years as a management consultant at Accenture, preparing a presentation was synonymous with preparing the Powerpoint slides. “Hey Neill! Proposal presentation this Friday…” – I immediately opened Powerpoint and started creating slides… A lot of powerpoint is not Great Powerpoint. Great Powerpoint can be a powerful addition to a great speech. As the saying … Read more
The 3 types of Dangerous People Micheal Maddock writes about 3 types of people to fire immediately. This applies beyond the world of entrepreneurs and work teams. It applies in all of life. Victims – they want the problems. Critics – they won’t and they don’t want you to either. Know-it-Alls – they refuse to … Read more
This is my theme for 2012. Create, Connect, Complete. Two bloggers inspired me to give up on setting goals or resolutions at this time of year and instead take time to reflect on the trends of the last 12 months and establish 3 overall guiding principles for the coming 12 months. The first is Steve … Read more
I am terrible at being bored. I fill my days with a constant stream of activities. Three days ago, I was with my daughter on a beautiful Costa Brava beach. We were on a journey to explore the ruins of an ancient 6BC Iberian town on the cliffs (located on the head of the peninsula … Read more
My definition of an entrepreneur: Someone who has more ideas than resources. “But I don’t have any ideas…” If you don’t have ideas, then you are not an entrepreneur. There are millions of things that frustrate me every day. Find something frustrating and think how to reduce the frustration. If you are not frustrated by … Read more
What is Charisma? In the words of Dr. Nick Morgan “Charisma is focussed emotion.” There are 2 ways to increase your capacity to deliver “Focussed Emotion” when you speak: Remove Distractions: remove all distractions 30 minutes before you speak Care: know how the message of your speech can change people’s quality of life Watch the … Read more
These laws were identified and developed by Carlo M. Cipolla who was Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley up his death in the year 2000. The full description and implication of these 5 basic laws can be read in his article The 5 Basic Laws of Human Stupidity The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. Law 1: Underestimation Always and … Read more
According to the report “Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce“, the top 6 competencies for success in the labor market today are: Networking – connecting to people and sharing your and their goals (Networking in 7 simple … Read more
Talent you have naturally. Skill you develop through hours and hours and hours of deliberate practice. No matter how talented you are it does not matter if you do not develop skill. It takes work. 80/20 rule: The top 20% skill in each domain takes 80% of the value. The mediocre 80% share the crumbs. … Read more
Sales is 18-3-1. 18 calls.3 meetings.1 sale. It is never any faster, quicker or shorter. There is no easy way. There is no 100% close. There are 7 billion people in the world. 1 billion have phones. 800 million are on facebook. Keep up the 18-3-1. Don’t try to make it into 18-3-2. Never works. … Read more