How creative do you think you are?
Creativity comes from inside and I believe that having the ability to think out of the box and experiment with things is the engine of achievement. We live on the fruits of rationalism and curiosity is the fuel to keep us awake and aware. I think that when you are creative, you will be able to turn new and imaginative ideas into reality.
F.E.A.R. is an acronym for “False Evidence Appearing Real”.
There's no true threat of immediate physical danger, no threat of a loss of someone or something dear to us, actually nothing there at all. F.E.A.R. is an illusion. Something we fabricate in our own minds and pretend is real. Fear is something normal, your reaction to fear tells you who you are…
1. Don’t be overheard complaining...even to yourself
2. Don’t speak more than you listen
3. Don’t tie your identity to your possessions
4. Don’t compare yourself to others
5. Don’t suffer imagined troubles
6. Don't judge others
7. Don’t be all about business
“If you’re good at something never, do it for free.”
It’s a real shame as the focus is on the slapping incident at the Oscars and not on Will Smith’s excellent performance as “King Richard” or Questlove’s wonderful documentary, “Summer of Soul”.
“Everyone agrees with free speech until they hear something they don’t like.”
I won the birthday lottery and was privileged to being born in South London and to have Jamaican parents. I grew up thinking that it was normal to contribute in some way, whether it was by direct economic contribution, social presence or giving food and drink. It was expected of me to be part of something to make “something” better and this energy made it easy for other people to act on it. Character is not something that you buy; it is not a commodity that can be bartered for; it is not a quality suited for only the rich and famous; rather, character is built upon the foundational commitment of love, honesty, and compassion for others.
What happens when you give everyone a microphone?
There will be a lot of noise out there.
In the past when we had a gatekeeper who chose who had a microphone was both good and bad. It was bad because it silenced voices immediately and it was good because it kept microphones away from people who wanted to tear things down. When I think about what is on offer from the social media networks, it’s really important to decode this and understand that we are not their customers, we are their products. We do not pay to use any social media platforms and these companies (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are selling us and our data to someone else and have created a regime where they make us feel bad all day and the only way to feel less bad is to click something. That’s the cycle they have built and the problem with that cycle and the easily measured metrics of how many followers you have, pushes people to be purist, it pushes people to be angry and it pushes people to tear folks down.
The phrase, “If it bleeds, it leads” basically means that the media loves violence. In other words, if a story involves a brutal death or injury of some kind (or the likelihood of it), it is likely to get higher ratings.
What are the changes we seek to make, in order to become the type of person we want to be?
There are a series of choices we have to make, and I think these choices are easier if we have habits. Habits get us results; goals are results! Having a goal that you are going to for example, go to lose weight does not tell me anything. Whereas having the goal to go to the gym every other day for 6 months and you are going to get as fit as a fiddle is a way more specific goal and is totally in your control.
Do you consistently ask yourself the question, “What am I doing that someone else can do just as well?” Don't let others define what “success” is for you. Once you have defined your idea of success, commit yourself to doing all the great things you can do to achieve it.
Here’s a few factors of success:
1. Purpose
2. Vision
3. Goals
4. Choices
5. Reasons
6. Environment
7. Attitude
8. Time
9. Energy
10. Results
We live in a society where we spend so much time doing, we fail to take time to celebrate and acknowledge the things that we have done. As you may know, I have spent a great deal of my career in the lifestyle industry, and I think fashion can be a brilliant mirror of the moment.
Last night I attended the world premiere of “The Chocolate Wars” in Copenhagen. The film director, Miki Mistrati is an old friend of mine who currently lives in London and the film highlights the modern-day slave trade issues in the manufacturing of chocolate. The fact of the matter is we live in a society where profit and growth are the key performance indicators, and I have posed this question many times before: Can we have both sustainability (ethical sourcing of materials, paying a fair wage throughout the supply chain, etc.) and economic growth?
Price has always been one of the deciding factors for making purchasing decisions. Nowadays consumers are more willing to shop around the internet for “cheaper” prices across retailers and marketplaces rather than going directly to the brands website. I think in the world of algorithms, hashtags and followers, it’s important to understand the true importance of human behaviour.
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Packman c/o Nintendo
Some people see the thing that they want, and some people see the things that prevent them from getting what they want. Let’s play a game and the rules are that you can go after anything you want, but you cannot deny anyone else going after anything they want. You don’t have to play the game the way everyone else has done it, you can play it your own way, you can break the rules, you just can’t get in the way of someone else getting what they want.
“Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy”
Image c/o Liz Fosslien ©
I think that when you place a milestone in the path to action, it is more likely that people will complete that action. Truly skilled consultants and coaches start by asking themselves:
1) How can I shorten my clients’ path to their desired outcome?
2) How can I accelerate my clients’ speed to getting big results?
Contact me via e-mail for a discovery meeting.
As a coach, I can help your team to clarify these basic questions:
What do you see as your fundamental task and goals?
Who are your most important customers, users, and stakeholders?
What are their main needs?
And then I would continue on the development track with these questions:
In which areas do you see the need for you to develop your practice?
What areas of competence do you want to develop in yourself?
What types of tasks do you have the courage to embark on in the long term?
The products are extremely good, but Apple doesn’t make the best computers or telephones by any stretch of the imagination, but they sell because people associate an aspirational identity with their products and the desire goes through the roof. There’s no mention of screen resolution, memory or how many gigabytes and that’s because it doesn’t matter. It’s all about what’s inside the box, and you just have to have one as people buy into something that is deeply felt, and that is identity.
“Design is a funny word. Some people think that design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.”
I agree wholeheartedly with Steve Jobs and think it’s not so much the aesthetics as it is about the mechanics. Now when you apply that thinking to Apple, then you can really see how this makes sense.
Many years ago a lecturer explained the “feed the stallions, starve the ponies” life concept to me. He explained what this means: the more we feed and nurture our best attributes, the sooner and greater our chances of achieving our goals will be. I think one of the keys to success in life is to figure out what your strengths are, the formula I have used over the past 25 years is always the same: “Leverage on what is working and just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
In a way nature protects us by shielding us from knowledge of the difficulties and obstacles that lie ahead because if we really know all of the problems we would face, the setbacks, the sufferings, the temporary failure, and disappointments - many of us would hesitate about everything, even starting out. Quitting is a habit and if you quit the first time you run into difficulties, you’ll always quit when the going gets rough, and in effect, you’ll establish a pattern for failure rather than a pattern for success.
Decision fatigue is a psychological phenomenon surrounding a person’s ability or capacity to make decisions. In other words, the more decisions you have to make, the more fatigue you develop and the more difficult it can become. This fatigue applies to all decisions, not simply the large or more difficult ones as when there are too many options, we tend to feel overwhelmed, anxious, stressed or otherwise out of sorts.
The Great Resignation is an ongoing economic trend in which employees have voluntarily resigned from their jobs in droves since the beginning of 2021. Without passion for the work, you are doing and the work of the organisation, your success will be limited. There has been a rise in over-50s with just enough money saved up to rethink their lives in the wake of the pandemic.
The “inactivity rate” is defined as people neither in a job nor trying to find one, and apparently this figure currently stands at 21.3% in the UK. I think companies perceiving talent shortages in their local market must rethink their workforce models and their talent acquisition strategies. As a Londoner, I have always found pleasure in communicating to people from very diverse backgrounds. Perhaps it’s time for local businesses to start hiring people from diverse backgrounds.
I attended my good friend, Keith Thomas' wake (Nine Night) in London. This morning, I found our New Year’s resolution from 29th Dec. 2015.
My New Years resolution is to remain constant:
I will question.
I will speak my mind.
I will look for answers.
I will not be dictated too.
I will not tolerate injustice.
I will not tolerate ignorance.
I will continue to exchange views.
My mind shall remain transient - open to change. However I shall give up meat and restrict my alcohol intake. RIP buddy ❤️
The ability to be honest about your strengths and weaknesses is essential to leading an organisation. I think passion for the work and mission of one’s organisation is the fuel for a successful organisation as it impacts the other main principles in many direct and indirect ways. Diversity can be a competitive advantage because by having people from different perspectives looking at challenges and problems, you will get fresh solutions that are turning into business success. Everyone is biased, whether it’s an unconscious bias, cognitive bias, or misguided perceptions with regards to consumers.
In today’s world, technology makes geography and size almost irrelevant, therefore, this gives us this unique opportunity to assert strong strategic leadership. Content marketing is not about choosing a keyword and writing an article to rank for it, it’s about having a deep understanding of your target audience and the information they’re looking for and being a credible and trustworthy source for that information. How do you know that is true?
“Strategy is a commodity, execution is art.”
