Steal

Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour films, music, books, paintings, poems, photographs, conversations, dreams, trees, architecture, street signs, clouds, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable. Originality […]

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A Walk on the Wild Side

Seth Godin posted an interesting graphic yesterday that caught my eye, a perfect example of data mining (sorry couldn’t resist that one) Original Source and Seth’s Post It’s not that surprising when you think about it, but let’s look at another example, Death Rate by Mode of Transport in the UK… (NB: Flying doesn’t appear, as […]

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Bailout Karma

It is a slow day in a little Irish town, the rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling […]

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A Balancing Act

Too many ideas, too little time! That may sound a little arrogant, but it’s actually a genuine problem, and I’m not the only one. Some may say it’s a good problem, but I’m not so sure. It’s frustrating as hell to have an idea or a solution, that you know you have to let go […]

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The 80% Rule

Working flat out? Have too much to do? What can you do about it? Put your prices up, because you’re under charging! You’ll probably lose some clients, but with the extra capacity you’ll be able to deliver higher quality solutions, thus better value for the clients you retain. A good balance is 80% capacity, but […]

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I Say Potato, You Say Potarto

How most entrepreneurs initially present their idea to a Venture Capitalist. Me Me Me! 2 mins Introduction: why they’re amazing 5 mins The Problem: why everyone else is wrong (why they’re amazing) 15 mins My Solution: passionately explaining their solution in depth (why they’re amazing) 5 mins Capital Expenditure: whiz through what they will spend […]

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A Very British Contract

I always believed and pushed for a flat hierarchy in my business structure… and yes I realise that a flat hierarchy is an oxymoron, but it’s a great way to express my approach to organising my business structure, as the entire thing is built upon respect & trust and not meaningless job titles! (a pet […]

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Organic Fusion Engineer

I dislike job titles (especially inflated ones), I never use one myself, your actions define what you do for a living, not your business card. If you excel at your work, you won’t require a job title, you probably won’t need business cards either, as everyone will already know what you do & who you […]

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You Lucky Bastard!

Next time you think someone’s lucky, remember there’s no such thing as luck, it doesn’t exist. Of course there are those that are born into wealth, survive death defying accidents, born with good health etc, but that isn’t luck, that’s good fortune. If an opportunity arises and you take advantage of it, some will see […]

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what’s the f’in diffference?

here’s a great quote, unfortunately I don’t know who said it… “I wish to do something Great & Wonderful, but I must first start by doing the small things like they are great & wonderful” As I’ve posted previously, don’t become indifferent to your customers or clients, you could lose them not only because  you […]

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Le Roi est Mort

In my Digital Brand Protection days, I had a presentation based around ROI, but it had a twist, as on the last slide I revealed I hadn’t been referring to “Return On Investment” as everybody thought, but “Risk Of Investment” that got their attention! Upon jumping back & going through the presentation again, the audience […]

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Resigned To The Fact

This post was originally written on the 1st April, but I couldn’t post it until today, and believe me, it’s no April’s Fool. Today is the 1st of April… the dreaded “R” word raised it’s ugly head today, no not recession, the other one, redundancy. I heard from two more friends, that they were made […]

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It’s Evolution Baby

Revolution vs Evolution? Revolutions stand out, they get noticed, people talk about them, (they’re remarkable so to speak), but not everyone wants to be part of a revolution, they’re dangerous, noisy, violent places, where people get hurt… the old guard want to keep things the way they were, they’re happy, they’re comfortable with what they […]

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You Looking For Trouble?

Concentrate on the problem, not the solution, when you fully understand the problem, the solution will come. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be thinking about the solution or perfecting it, but unless you really understand the problem you’re trying to solve, how can you perfect a solution? you could be working on the wrong stuff. […]

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All Those That Say Aye

We’ve all been there, sitting in a meeting wondering “Why am I here exactly?” If you’re asking yourself, what’s the point of all this, what’s the outcome? Then your meeting will be a complete failure (for you at least), so stop now! Don’t confuse the purpose of an agenda, it isn’t there as a check […]

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Look for questions, not answers

Asking the right questions, is more important than having all the answers. Knowing how to to get higher rankings in a Google search isn’t as important as asking, will it make any difference? It’s likely your time & effort would be better invested in creating effective ways to interact with your current customers, than spending […]

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Dirty Laundry

We’ve heard it so many times from clients & suppliers… “we’re customer focused… everything we do is with the customer in mind… we’re number one for our clients… you can trust us to deliver… we won’t let you down… yawn yawn etc” Then they proceed to say “But don’t take our word for it, listen […]

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Lightbulbs & Lasers

bing! the lightbulb illuminates when you have your idea, it’s a killer idea, it’s going to change everything, it’s really cool, you almost can’t believe that no one has ever thought of this before, so sit there & bask in it’s warm glow for a while and let others join you to share in this […]

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Be Effective

As a classic INTJ through and through I hate ineffeciency, it’s a pet hate and I strive to remove it from many aspects of my business, but I’ve just spent a couple of very informative days brain storming & discussing future strategies for the Cordovan Group with the board members along with Prof David Drennan. […]

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