On 9th August 2010, Ed Stafford arrived at the sea, having walked the length of the Amazon river. Over 860 days of walking, 20,000 mosquito bites, 5,000 leeches, poisonous spiders and snakes. No boss told him to do it. Nobody paid him for it. Why did he do it? How did he keep going for … Read more
I am up in the mountains an hour from Barcelona with the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation local chapter. the sun is shining. Yesterday we spent the day on a horse ranch called Hipica Can Vila working with the horses. Today, we have had a full day with Jordi Vila-Porta, author of the recently published book: “Success” (“¡Exito!”). … Read more
It takes longer than we thought It’s more difficult than we thought We have other things to do We don’t get the expected reward We declare victory too soon We have to do it forever From Marshall Goldsmith’s book Mojo.
At the risk of gross oversimplification, there were five Greek philosophies of happiness. Socrates – only the poor, those who have nothing to lose, can be happy. Aristotle – you have to be born rich to be happy (in reality healthy, wealthy, good family, good friends). Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics introduced the good life. Epicurus – remove all … Read more
Productivity put simple. This is a guest post by Dimitri Uralov, a Barcelona based entrepreneur and financial coach. When Conor offered me the chance to write a post on time management for this blog, we laughed as I commented that most people would probably find the truth about productivity too simple. “Most people would probably find … Read more
I had two conversations yesterday, first with Dimitri in Starbucks then later with my friend Al (his blog on improving web conversion) on the telephone where we spoke about how goals can actually damage effectiveness. Wanting too much = desperation = we push people away. Not wanting at all = we say no = people … Read more
I was in the coffee bar at IESE Business school some weeks ago. I overheard the conversation: “I’ll join the public speaking club in the 2nd year, it will be less crazy and I will have more time”. I was reminded yesterday by a great speech from Jaume about the overwhelming flows of data of the world in which I … Read more
On Friday I heard a story about values and the importance of not just accepting other’s value systems without ensuring they are right for me. I remember reading a book on psychotherapy and the “pathological critic” (Self-Esteem by McKay and Fanning) that described four criteria to evaluate my personal values that allow me to check … Read more
There are only three types of work: Bad work Good work Great work I think you probably know what sits in each of these categories. Bad work is pointless. It is a waste of time. It is the basis of Dilbert cartoons. Sadly, most organisations are superb at creating bad work: bureaucracy, meetings to plan … Read more
Warren Buffett gave a talk to a group of MBA students at the University of Florida in 2007. The video is at the bottom of this post (on the blog). He starts with an interesting question. He says [2:30] “Think for a moment that I granted you the right to buy 10% of the future … Read more