Nicholas Bate

How to think like Richard Branson

1. Have fun. What's the point if you are not?
2. Establish David and Goliath scenarios which people love eg. with BA, with Cola. People love a good story especially where the 'little guy' takes on the big corporation.
3. Skim markets, sell and move on. Classic marketing startegy. The key is to be bold and get out.
4. Think sexy. Think red. Oh and did I mention: have fun. Something about a peak experience?
5. Be comfortable with you: wearing a jumper is fine. Be the best version of you. Not a poor copy of someone else.
6. Stay young. And hence be agile and creative.
7. Screw it, let's do it. Yep. JFDI!

7 Great Quotes to Live By

1. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
Steve Jobs
2. And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
Paul McCartney
3. Dream as if you will live for ever. Live as if you will die today.
James Dean
4. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
Stephen Covey
5. Be the Change you are Seeking
Ghandi
6. There is no failure, only feed-back
Richard Bandler
7. Whatever you do, do it with passion.
Carlos Castaneda.

Like a fight?

An intellectual one, that is? Try here. It'll certainly improve your understanding of Long Tail theory.

Start the day

with a latte and bonus productivity tip here.

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Check here.

How to Think like Steve Jobs

1. The past is history; you can design the future. Whatever happens (and here are the seven stages of Steve so far), you can’t change the past. Learn from it, move on and make the future even better.
2. Design, no aesthetics is the new differentiator. People are busy, people are hassled. They want ease, simplicity and-let’s say it-beauty from their products. Whether it’s a solid product (iPhone) or a service.
3. Communicate; don’t PowerPoint. The latter is not effective: the evidence is there. Catch up up on some of Steve’s presenstations on YouTube.
4. Excellence is a mantra; not a bullet on a slide. You have to be it before you can do it before you can have it.
5. Be passionate and believe; eventually the market will get it. Whether you are Steve Jobs or The Beatles or the new Volvo, the best lead their audience.
6. Innovation is a way of life. How old is the iPod; how many improvements to date? Quite.
7. Be grateful. Read this.

Personal Brand: Care of...

...He was telling me about his uncle, who, about four decades ago, got his high school sweetheart pregnant. So instead of going off to college, he found himself with a new wife, a child on the way, and an assembly-line job at General Motors. But even though this situation clipped his wings considerably, he still ended up having a nice life in the end, with a home, a big yard, two cars, a steady paycheck, weekends fishing or hunting deer, and vacations in Hawaii every year or so. "The days where a blue collar guy like my uncle could have a nice life without doing much," my friend said, "those days are gone. Gone forever."

Yep, a good post from Hugh which reminds us to stay vigilant with our personal brand.

Wondering where to start? Read this from Tom Peters.

Focus on productivity..

It's Monday and you have probably got a lot to do; here are 5 productivity tips:
1. Pragmatic Matt Cornell tackles e-mail over-load and advises to:
Get Fewer,
Get Faster, and
Get Control
2. The ZenHabits team encourage us to remove distractions
3. John Maeda reminds us to keep simplifying.
4. Tim Ferris gets really radical and leaves the grid for a couple of weeks.
5. Top productivity tip: just do one thing, just take one step to improve it. And do that today.

October Review

Thanks for the e-mails and comments: in October you particularly enjoyed.

The 7 by 7 series, now with their own category. Top Tips on essentials for you.
Marketing esssentials: here and here and here.
Rules for Radicals: (1) and (2).
And Seven Things To Do Before you are Born
And of course: personal relationships: here and here.

Top blogger, astute commentator and man with all-the-links-you-need

Michael Wade has some thoughtful posts. Firstly on that 'declining standards' debate and secondly on dangerous beliefs. Great stuff as always.