People with dirty jobs are happier In this movie Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs does two things, first he talks about a day he worked on a farm and amongst other things docks lambs. I saw this show and couldn't believe he did what he did. I thought it was inhumane and as it turns out initially he did too, but in an entertaining fashion he talks through his learning and explains. The second thing he does is he makes the point that in his opinion people with Dirty Jobs are happier. He puts forward a strong case that following the advice "Follow Your Passion" might be bad advice. For some it To View More >>

Why oh why do people find providing good customer service so hard? I guess probably for the same reason so many people struggle with relationships, that is that they co-exist, rather than truly throw themselves into the situation in the effort to find a real connection. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that the customer is always right, they often aren't but in that moment they do deserve to feel significant and cared for... Often that just takes a little empathy and a smile. Why is it that when people talk about great business they can rattle of a list of companies specializing in various To View More >>

Yesterday I wrote about how not to travel. To be sure, living stupidly out of balance as I've been is damaging to your health, depressing and unsustainable, but working 9 to 5 doesn't seem to work either. Being careful, never putting in extra effort when required, will almost always cause an enterprise to flounder and it's not the making of good "War Stories". In my office is a bookshelf full of business books and autobiographies, and at home I have shelves full of the same. You never read, "Well we started the business, it all went well and I made it home early every night." Instead the stories To View More >>

Ok, I have just made myself feel sick on Twitter by un-following most of the 3000 people I was following because I simply found myself in a situation where I was overwhelmed by the tweet traffic generated by that number of people. As much as I carefully considered my reasoning for doing this, pushing that delete key on Twitter Karma, has certainly left my hands shaking. If you find that I am not following you now I am very sorry. If however we've been talking directly I'll re-follow you over the weekend once the the delete process has finished. I just couldn't keep up with the wild stream of updates, To View More >>

Why is it that people spend so much time asking how, and so little time asking why? Did we as kids run out of some predetermined number of "Whys" we had been granted? I know my kids ask me constantly, why dad?, but why? ... Why after why, after why? Nothing unusual, I am sure you did it to your parents, I know I did it to mine ... The question is why did we stop? I am often asked for advice about starting a business, and in the early days would jump in and try to help. I'd give support, and maybe some direction, until I noticed how few people actually did something. I still helped, but only if To View More >>