I read a fascinating description of stoicism in Nassim Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness. It took me some time to get it, but eventually I got it: _______________________________________________________ “Having control over randomness can be expressed in the manner in which one acts in the small and the large. Recall that epic heroes were judged by their…

There is no lack of interesting “what if it were easier” questions. For example: What if getting our startups financed was easier?What if good health/relationships were easier to maintain?What if our teams easily understood our thought process and the value we were adding?What if our favourite team just won the championship? 🙂 While occasionally interesting…

You have set up a 30 minute introduction meeting to get up to speed on that project. So, you have got 3 options on what to do in the first 10 minutes: 1. Jump straight into business [with some small talk added to taste]2. Do a quick introduction: “I work for xx team and I am…

Don’t get distracted by always having to be right. The only prize for winning that game is loneliness. There is a difference between what is true and what is useful. Another thing concerning right…. Doing things the right way is its own reward. Doing things the right way does not mean you are going to…

Take a look at this list of reasons startup founders give for failing. These are just some of them: The cost of customer acquisition,Ahead of its time,Wrong positioning,Not enough income,No problem solution fit,Wrong target market,Low customer adoption,Too early,Not enough demand,No real audience; andToo much ego. What all these reasons point to is that entrepreneurs did not…

Albert Einstein wrote: “A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.” Wish you a calm and modest weekend... and modest life 🙂

As the metaphor goes: The glass is half empty or half full?If it were that simple, you would only have to learn to consider one other type of person who does not see it like you.But the glass could be: Not full enough Almost full enough Ugly Too elegant Too clear Not clear enough Filled…

While giving a leadership lecture and explaining the different types of teams and how to led them, I got to the part where I was explaining the challenges of leading industrialised teams, one of the students in class shared the following story as an example: ___________________________________________________ There were three [3] municipal employees tasked with planting…

Seth shared a powerful post a couple of days ago. _______________________________________________________ If you want to have an argument, to raise tempers or to distract, the easiest thing to do is start bringing up things that are easy to argue about. Not the things that are important. Because the important things require nuance, patience and understanding. They require…

In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the Late Stephen Covey had a nice analogy for growth, he said we moved from dependence [the baby phase] to independence [the teenage phase] to interdependence [the adult phase]. As babies, we are dependent on others to take care of us. As we grow to…

An old man was selling Watermelons. His price-list reads: 1 for $3 and 3 for $10 A young man stopped by and bought 3 watermelons one by one paying $3 for each. As the young man was walking away, he turn around and said: "Hey Old man, do you realise I just bought three watermelons…

The professor brought balloons to a school. One was given to every student, who had to inflate it, write their name on it and throw it in the hallway. The professor then mixed all the balloons. The students were given 5 minutes to find their own balloon. Despite a hectic search, no one found their…