Early last year I had three things on my mind. I was researching the possible use of Amazon AWS for a project we were working on; I was watching the events at the Auckland Startup Weekend wishing I was there; and finally I was preparing for a presentation I was due to give at the College of Business at Massey University. It was a holiday weekend, so much to Sonya's dismay, I wondered if I could run my own Start Weekend. The question I asked myself was "Could I launch an internet business in one weekend, in the process write all the code, learn AWS including EC2, Route53, To View More >>

I just had a wonderful evening with CEOs from some of New Zealand's best companies. The group was brought together by Better By Design to visit some of the USA's best Design-led and Innovative companies. It's going to be an amazing week, challenging I am sure, but an interesting thing happened tonight: if you like, a small distinction became clear to me. There I was talking to Diego Rodriguez a partner at Ideo, a brilliant design company, and Perry Klebahn a consulting associate professor at Stanford Design School, two great people who were truly gracious in the knowledge they shared. To be honest, To View More >>

As a Fire Fighter, I get to spend some time with people at the end of their lives, and it gives you a moment to reflect on your own. Does this person die with regrets? Will I or the people I love do the same? It therefore seems a great irony that, at the closing moment in someone else's life, your own involvement makes you feel so alive. As you work on a person with CPR your adrenaline rushes, you're instantly present and if you did have any worry it vanishes. It's not fun, but it is a very powerful moment where you focus on what is important. I read a wonderful book a few years ago called "The To View More >>

Over the last 6 months or so I've been to France, UK (twice), Australia (3 times), Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, USA (3 times), and if you are based in New Zealand like me that's a lot of flying. For a lot of people that sounds glamorous, and on occasion it can be, but seriously, the inside of a hotel room in Paris isn't much different from one in Las Vegas and if you don't get out of it you could be anywhere. I've just got back from a course in San Antonio (Texas) and by the time I left I felt like a caged rat. In 8 days I only got outside my hotel 4 times, and that was to cross the road To View More >>

I went to a Robert Kiyosaki - Rich Dad, Poor Dad seminar a few weeks ago, which got me thinking about the wealthy men in my life and what I have learnt from them. Six came to mind almost immediately as they had taught me some very deep and fundamental lessons. The seminar itself was fairly disappointing apart from hearing Emi Kiyosaki talk about how to avoid regret, but like all things it did prompt some self-reflection and fortunately reminded me of these lessons. These men are all different, but in some ways the same They are by no means the richest people I have known, and might seem on the To View More >>