Nicholas Bate

The Man who Mistook his Laptop for his Life

For the story so far

It was funny, but it did seem like a good time to have this card. Serendipity; that was the word. That was the title of the film he and Susan had enjoyed so much. He was surprised at how intrigued at the time he had become by the topic: of things happening at the right time apparently coincidentally and giving messages. I mean, a lot of things had to happen to get that business card into his hands at at time when he was able to reflect on it. Should he contact this guy? Why not? Nothing to lose. Maybe a lot to gain. Even given the circumstances of their last meeting he liked the guy.

First he needed a phone. And here was Susan.

Allan. Her hug was strong, very strong. And she was crying. How are you? Merely exhausted. I've been lucky, I know. Susan I know this is silly, but before we talk: one thing. I HAVE learnt from this incident. I know I messed up. I have no excuse apart from I guess I was trying to do my best. But I lost it: the big picture that is. I love you, I love our son. I will get back on track. I promise.

Need some inspiration. Try Get a Life.

BLOG round-up

If you've been on one of my work-shops you'll know I'm a huge fan of the versatility of flip-charts. Keen to learn more: here are lots of tips. Matt has his usual in-depth ideas on time management. This is a particularly useful concept: time blocking. This says it another way.

A lot of people who would like to start a business think the task is too daunting. But following a passion is not as high risk as you may think. Conventional wisdom about entrepreneurs being big risk takers and living on the edge is not all that realistic. In fact, there are ways to minimize the financial risk and emotional drama of going after your dreams. And, most of the skills you need to be an entrepreneur, you can teach yourself. Get more from Penelope Trunk.

And Seth Godin in a good interview here.

TTD (Things To Do): if the volume of e-mail is getting you down

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1. Decide to reduce it.
2. Mentally set a target: 50% reduction within 1 month.
3. Stop encouraging it as in 'send me an e-mail'.
4. Don't join e-mail threads, don't 'thank' for mails.
5. 'Batch' comments/information into 1 e-mail rather than lots of small fragmented mails.

More tomorrow.

The Weekly Tutorial: The Money Rules

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RULE 1: Save, then spend. Not spend then save.

If you wait until you have sufficient 'spare' money to start your saving, you'll find it never happens, as the more we earn the more we spend. So just save. The habit is the key thing.

Once you have assets you have power. But if you are always in debt you are in a weak position when it comes to your dreams, your decisions and your day-to-day motivation.

Once you start saving, learn the power of compound-interest.

Once you start saving learn the cost of debt.

Then you will have enormous freedom.

More tomorrow at 0700.

"Too often

"we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

John F Kennedy

Thanks..

to the great team at Barclays last Thursday and Friday. Get to work on those action plans, folks! You know what you ned to do.

Whatever you do this week...

make sure you start and/or continue to invest in yourself....because.....

" a more complex economy demands more sophisticated talent with global acumen, multicultural fluency, technological literacy, entrepreneurial skills and the ability to manage 'increasingly layered, disaggregated organisations'."

Out of Our Minds, Ken Robinson.

Something to Think About

" if the customer says they are not interested, it means you are not interesting"

Jeffrey Gitomer

The Weekly Tutorial: Selling: from OK to Excellent

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Our final 'big' objection is loyalty. How do we keep them loyal? After all, all things being equal a long-term customer can become very profitable as selling costs are mimimised. The cost of finding new customers is of course very high.

The answer is simple: do a brilliant job. There are three components of difference when you are selling: your brand+your products/s+you. It is only the latter over which you have control. So raise your standards and do a brilliant job. Very few sales people do that: they do an OK job. If you do a brilliant job they WILL choose you. Again and again.

See you next Monday at 0700 for a new tutorial. Don't forget to check the archive.

Something to Think About

"you can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you"

Dale Carnegie