There’s a reason that many successful business starters didn’t have sparkling academic careers, and why a lot of people who shone at school failed at startups. If you’re an academic success at school, you become conditioned to prize being right and fear being wrong. And being right is definitely a good thing. But over time, […]
Founders and Owners
Your business can’t be about you
Entrepreneurship and business become noble when you’re doing it to improve the lot of those around you, not just yourself. I love this from Nassim Taleb. “Some people take risks and some people labor in the fields. You have the option of doing either one or the other. But my point is you should never […]
Authenticity can hurt your business
Authenticity is today’s buzzword. And like most buzzwords, although it can make sense in many contexts, it is now overused, inappropriately applied, and often plain wrong. Everyone tells leaders to “be authentic”. But what if you’re a prize arsehole? A sociopath? A bigot? A despot? Will you still take the advice of every coach out […]
Purpose AND Profit
There is still a face-off between Purpose and Profit in much of the business press these days. This is counterproductive. If we’re looking at businesses (not charities), then they need profit to achieve their purpose. Having a more than bucketload of purpose and less than a thimbleful of profit is a guaranteed way to ensure […]
You can’t scale your business on a 4 hour week
I read Tim Ferriss’s 4 hour work week probably a decade ago, and met him when he came to do a reading in London not long after. It was a great book, which had a real impact on my life, including my wife and I taking our 4 kids out of school to travel around […]