Anyone who has followed me over the last few years will have noticed that each successive book gets shorter and more expensive. Kick-Start was 298 pages and £10.99 and the most recent Beating The Credit Crunch was 98 pages for £20.00.
Well, the next book will be even shorter. In fact, this may well be it! But I won’t be charging for it.
In 20 years time, by a logarithmic progression, the book would be condensed to just over a page. Rather than waiting all that time I thought that we should just cut to the chase.
Those of you who have followed the “Stop P***ing Around” and “Take Massive Action” book chapters, blogs, articles and presentations probably know exactly where all this is going...
All my work has a series of specific themes running through it. The themes inter-relate and support each other. They are as follows
Theme 1: Be clear about what you want
Theme 2: Be clear about: * Where are you now? * Where are you going? Where do you want to be? * How are you going to get there?
Theme 3: Focus on what you want and how you are going to achieve it
Theme 4: If in doubt, “Fake it till you make it!”
Theme 5: Stop p***ing about! Take massive bloody action.
"Peace at Last". The planes are silent and there is an unerring quiet. Spooky. What a relief.
In business we have the constant white noise of communication hitting us via our BlackBerries and IPhones 24/7. Is this so very clever? I don't think so. It scrambles your brain.
With so much information we become insensitive to what really matters or we miss it entirely. We need to find ways of filtering all this information yet making sure we focus on the big stuff. Do not become master of the trivia. Do not become a busy fool. No-one will thank you.
Try a BB-Free Friday - it will liberate your brain the same way you feel better when you lose your phone. The world can survive without you and you can get on and do some uninterrupted work.
Row Over Alpaca Farm Plans in today's Bath Chronicle describes what is happening not just in Bath but all over the UK. If planners are not prepared to uphold legislation (five refused planning applications in this case!) then we are giving a licence to all developers to do as they please on our green belt land.
Therefore we take people for granted. If people feel taken for granted they become less loyal. Is that what you want?
I don’t know why people don’t say “thank you” so much these days. Maybe it just isn’t cool to be seen to be thankful.
Maybe it shows vulnerability or frailty to acknowledge that you are grateful.
Or maybe the problem is that most words lose their value and their currency with over-use ("nice", "pro-active", "strategy" to name but a few).
Turning the situation around, I am constantly aware of how certain people seem almost incapable of saying "thank you". Why would that be? Maybe they aren’t grateful(?); but their inability to acknowledge my action actually hurts me.
So, when did you last say (and mean) the words “thank you”?
Your kids, partner, staff, customers, suppliers will all appreciate a sincere "thank you".
The cynical may say that I am just trying to put deposit in the emotional bank account (or some similar weasel words) but actually I think that it is just basic common courtesy to acknowledge when someone does something for you.
