One of my crowning moments of glory in business was when I trusted the wrong person and ended up penniless with two kids and an extraordinarily angry wife. I say that’s one of my crowning moments as it played a huge part in shaping the rest of my career. I remember a range of feelings [...]
The Eleatics were an interesting bunch. They were a pre-Socratic school of philosophy founded by a guy called Parmenides in the early fifth century BC in the ancient town of Elea. They debated many things, some of which would blow your mind in terms of metaphysical concepts. One of the most mind-bending conclusions they arrived [...]
In my book 'Powered By Change' I reference a fascinating piece of research that was conducted by the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors. The Association calculated that, out of a cross-section of companies of all shapes and sizes, 52% of businesses go bankrupt primarily because of “internal triggers” — meaning those in-house issues that [...]
In all the busyness of my life, traveling all over the world, one of the most important things I do is to stop and sit quietly. There are many techniques of doing this but ultimately it’s about the control of your breathing. This is a yogic discipline with origins in ancient India, called Prāṇāyāma. In [...]
It’s all kicking off on my social media channels. One contact of mine has unfriended “dozens of people” and another has posted a vitriolic video full of venom. A school teacher friend of mine tells me of children hurling racist abuse in the playground at other children of any ethnicity, Irish to Italian. The shopping [...]
I’m fascinated by the way our brains actually operate, generating thoughts that generate our framework of what we call reality. I first became interested with the way we think when I studied Social Biology at college many years ago. This fascination never relented. Interestingly, it takes around half a second for something to happen and [...]
Bill Gates once said: “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” I’ve learned the hard way that this statement is true. Of the many ventures I’ve founded over the years, three of which worked pretty well and four that were outrageously unsuccessful, the main learning and insight has [...]
In 1996, World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov was undoubtedly the most famous chess player in the world. On February 10th of the same year, in Philadelphia, following many months of reminding the public of his supreme dominance, he sat down to face an opponent called ‘Deep Blue’. This wasn’t an ordinary opponent of course, this [...]
Have you ever wished there were more hours in the day to get things done? Have you ever wondered where you will find the time to read the books that people have suggested to you? How about the gym membership you bought at the start of the year that is yet to be used? If [...]
Over the last few decades in business I’ve seen many companies come and go. I’ve been on the frontline of hugely disruptive innovations and also the founder of several innovative startups, most of which were spectacularly, and sometimes painfully, unsuccessful. Throughout all this experience, when it comes to innovation, there is a common trait that [...]