Nicholas Bate

What Goes Wrong, 5

The branding exercise spent 89% of the time and 94% of the money on the new logo.

The issue of who are we? And what do we do? Was generally considered to be too hard.

But everybody loves playing with shapes and colours and content free statements about bringing value to our customers.

That’s what went wrong.

But! How Can I Be Sure??

1. If I planned, I'd be more sure;
2. If I read, I'd be more sure;
3. If I asked I'd be more sure;
4. If I stopped worrying about what the neighbours might think if I give up the BMW, I'd be more sure;
5. If I practised I'd be more sure;
6. If I did a trial run, I'd be more sure;
7. If I saved towards it, I'd be more sure;
8. If I gave up TV and used the time to research the market, I'd be more sure;
9. If I did it for freedom and to be who I am really am. And less for the money, I'd be more sure;
10. If I worked on it early before work, I'd be more sure;
11. If I used that brainstorming time in Starbucks more wisely, I'd be more sure;
12. If I stopped thinking about worst case scenarios and solved each one of them, I'd be more sure;
13. If I focused on it more, I'd be more sure;
14. If I had a plan B, I'd be more sure;
15. If I stopped talking about it and did something, I'd be more sure;
16. If I realised I don't want comfort I want challenge, I'd be more sure;
17. If I simply woke up and no longer accepted 'OK', I'd be more sure;
18. If I realised now is the perfect time, I'd be more sure;
19. And If I add up all the 'more sures', I'd be absolutely sure.

Love, Life & Legacy.

On Writing, 99

The daily word count is a useful-if crude-guide to the writer’s productivity.

Just be aware that sometimes a little bit of slash-and-burn of a chapter or two will be the real breakthrough you need. 

It’ll be a tough day or two but eventually the road forward with your Daily Tips for Family Pet Photography or Pierre Lambert, Detective will become wonderfully clear. 

Bram, A Spy Novel

The Most Powerful Productivity Tips, 89

Only allow something on your ‘to do’ list when it has been prepared: it needs to be time-friendly (broken into 30 minute chunks); brain-friendly (explicit not implicit: walk 500m not ‘get fit’) and addressing a compass point (career/health/finance/relationship/fun/contribution).

Always more in Instant MBA (the handbook) and Meet Molly (the hero’s quest).

Sunday 35

1. 25 Mini Standards.
2. The Writing Primer.
3. Bram, A Spy Story: a story of coming of age, of Queen and country and the origins of Covid-19. “Once you start reading this book, it’s difficult to put down. Initially, you are immersed in the delights of Oxford academia, only to then be exposed to the starkness and brutality of Moscow during the Cold War. Bram, a brilliant Oxford chemist, turns spy whose mission is to save the world from a highly dangerous and ubiquitous threat. This book is characterised by most of the attributes of a good spy story with action, heroic exploits by a larger-than-life protagonist and a strong plot. Well worth a read.”
   
4. How to Start your Very Own Business.
5. Instant Productivity.
6. Seven choices.
7. 22 Essentials.
8. How to Create your Home Office.
9. plus The Start Up Myths
10. Stay STRONG
11. Crazy Bold Experiments
12. Just say NO to PPT
13. The Marketing Primer.
14. Being the Best version of you, the book, back in stock.
15. Redundancy
16. Hunter-Gatherer 21C
17. Tackling Stress.
18. Manage that career
19. Be Bold 101
20. You still haven’t read Being The Best?! 
21. Things They Don’t Teach at Business School
22. the secrets of success
23. Life Tips 101
24. Zen & Art of Cubicle Freedom
25. Carnage At Kodak
26. The Very Best Drugs You Need
27. Billions of Light Years Away In Another Galaxy
28. 22 Routes To Your Non Fiction Book
29. Lists For The Life You Love
30. How To Lessen E-Mail Pain
31. Professionalism 101
32. 21 Ways to Improve your Zoom Conference Call.
33. Productivity Primer
34. 101, redux
35. The Basic Basics

Saturday. Possibilities. Seven.

1. Language is our code. It is the programme we run so often, it is us.  If it says we can (you can start your own business), we can. If it says we can't (you can't draw), we can't. But you can edit it. Listen to the software running and edit it.
2. Junk food tastes good because the body is wired for survival. But if you want to do more than survive-create, for example- then the mix needs to be more than corn syrup, hydrogenated fats and giant bags of crisps/chips.
3. Writing is unlikely to make you untold wealth. But it will help you be the best version of you. And that may well make you wealthy. 
4. Every mood is there for a reason. Would you put a sticker over your car fuel guage to stop you being distracted by a low fuel warning? Notice, allow and manage the mood.
5. Being the same is certainly safe, easy and may work. Being different is challenging, risky and can lose you friends. But you may well notice that you feel better for it.
6. The proof of alternate universes is in any good novel.
7. The answer you need is just one more call or one more good night's sleep or one more visit to the coffee shop or one more walk around the block or one more chilli con carne away. There is no way the universe will let on which one, though. Our universe has given us enough advantages without making 'success' trivial.

On Writing, 98

Writers are observers, listeners and note-takers.

A line of over-heard conversation, his movement across the hotel lobby a mistake in a Spanish menu can all inspire a paragraph, a chapter, a novel.

Go write. 

More Than Ever, 7

1. Walk daily.
2. Cook fresh and local and in season.
3. Write to articulate.
4. Support the tribe.
5. Read hugely.
6. Sort the play-lists.
7. Be there for sun-rise and sun-set.

Start Writing your Novel, 7

1. Start at the scene that inspires you to write the book, the one you have such clarity over. Write it.
2. Write a list of the characters: name, one line description and key incidents which will involve them.
3. Write the final paragraph. Yes, it's hard but it's only one paragraph. You can do it.
4. Describe an important thing in the book. The house, the getaway car, the gun, the scarf, the rocky coast….
5. Write 100 words on why this novel needs to see the light of day. Do not mention money.
6. Write the opening paragraph. Don't do melodrama: get on with it.
7. Create your writing schedule. Stick it up on the wall. Hit today's goal.

De-stress, Expand the Mind and Scroll with Purpose…

You’d prefer a read in easy chunks? Maybe 45 minutes? Varied? Time travel? A whodunnit? A historical adventure?

You’re in luck. You need Love, Life & Legacy, a collection of three short stories.  All were great, my favourites were The Time Machine and The Résistance. I think the last one might make a great full novel. Yep, 5 * and recommended.*

Ahhhh…you seek something darker? A different time? Conspiracy? A hero set to save the world? The origins of Covid-19. That’ll be Bram, A Spy Story. 

Once you start reading this book, it’s difficult to put down. Initially, you are immersed in the delights of Oxford academia, only to then be exposed to the starkness and brutality of Moscow during the Cold War. Bram, a brilliant Oxford chemist, turns spy whose mission is to save the world from a highly dangerous and ubiquitous threat. This book is characterised by most of the attributes of a good spy story with action, heroic exploits by a larger-than-life protagonist and a strong plot. Well worth a read.*

Actually you’d prefer the full saga, the hero’s quest! Three arching novels which take you from the south of the UK to a magical Scottish island and then to Europe.  A tale of love, self-realisation and search for destiny. The Molly Trilogy which starts here. 

Absolutely loved this book, a great story and apt for today and an inspiration.
I was 'drawn in' straight away (it usually takes me a while to get into a novel). You'll want to go to St Kalla that's for sure, and - I won't spoil it but - find out what happens to Molly!!!!
Hope there's a sequel.*

All available via kindle, machine or app.

*Amazon.co.uk reviews.

Happy reading in 2024. De-stress, escape, expand the mind and scroll differently.